(KENNEDY) KOPERNIK SHORES WAS INCORPORATED IN 1975

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

The recent announcement by Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño that billionaire Tesla car and SpaceX rocket builder Elon Musk had voiced a desire to incorporate a community to be named Stargate on the foundations of the former Kopernik Shores or Boca Chica Village has been met with surprise and approval by local residents.

But old timers in the area – including Municipal Judge Bobby Lerma and his neighbors – remember quite differently. They remember that the area was once incorporated back in June 30, 975, an act that resulted in a lawsuit brought against the village that resulted in Judge Darrel Hester abolishing the incorporation in 1977.

But the story of the distant subdivision dates further back.

Kopernik Shores is on State Highway 4 a mile inland from the Laguna Madre and about 22 miles east of Brownsville.

The Dallas Times Herald published a comprehensive article in 1978 about the development when the legal contest was being hotly debated. The county judge at the time was none other than Ray Ramon, who waived the 200-resident requirement and allowed an election later called a "sham" which was overturned by the court. The petition to incorporate – District Attorney investigators found – had signed the document which was written in English – when they did not know how to read and write the language.

Will Musk be compelled to have at least 200 permanent residents to incorporate Stargate? Or will Treviño grant hims a "waiver?" lie Ramos did do long ago? 

The newspaper reported then that it was developed in 1967 by John Caputa, a radio personality and self-styled land developer from Chicago, Illinois, who became involved in the real estate business in 1963 with Harold Caldwell who owned a 3,250-acre tract of land on the Gulf Coast. 

Caputa aimed his sales pitch at working-class Polish immigrants seeking a better standard of living. He was able to reach a wide range of people through his radio work. He showed movies of retirees on the beach and later took prospective buyers on train tours of the development. He named the community Kennedy Shores for John F. Kennedy. 

The Texas State Historical Association states that unstaked lots sold for $1,200 and houses for $12,500. Most of the sales were in cash, often the life savings of the buyers. Caputa built thirty homes, a restaurant, and a hotel. A sand filter water treatment plant was also constructed. 

Sewer (septic tanks) and electricity service were also provided. Hurricane Beulah flooded the area in 1967, washed away some of the land, and destroyed the restaurant, as well as the utility system. Only electrical service was restored. Caputa died in a car accident as a result of a heart attack in 1979.

Beulah wasn't the only storm to wreck the development. In 1980 Hurricane Allen also wreaked havoc on the subdivision. George Gavito, who was a deputy with the Cameron County Sheriff's Department at the time, said he and Lerma went to check on the welfare of the residents and found that some had survived by climbing into the attics

"We had a military vehicle that could operate in high water," he recalled. "The entire subdivision looked like a big lake. It got hit hard. If Musk builds out there, the next time a hurricane comes it might wipe it out. The water line in some of the houses was all the way up to the ceiling."  

Soon after it was reported that Caldwell's corporate empire started facing financial problems. In 1968 Caputa acquired 1,000 acres of land and tried to break away from his partners. He partitioned the land into 5,000 lots priced at $5,000 each, invested money in a church and shopping center, and had electricity installed. But his oversight of not acquiring water rights to the properties still haunts the village.

Residents of Kennedy Shores carried their water from Brownsville. Since then, the original residents signed a deal with Cameron County Pct. 1 to carry water from the Brownsville Public Utility Board for domestic use. That agreement is still in operation. County workers used to refer the settlement as "Los Polacos." The problem of Caputa failing to acquire water rights meant they could not dig their own wells and had to rely on outside water for domestic needs. 

SpaceX has also inked a deal with the BPUB for water to use in its operations.

But it wasn't until 1975 that Stanley Piotrowicz, an eighty-year-old resident, proposed that the community be incorporated. He became mayor after the questionable elections. He then appointed an alderwoman. The two soon split into two vociferous factions. The faction against Piotrowicz petitoned the court to abolish the incorporation. 

Then the man he had appointed town marshal ran off with the alderwoman and left not to return for more than a year. Piotrowicz then renamed the place Kopernik Shores in honor of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. When Hester abolished the incorporation in 1977, the population was estimated at 26. In truth, the development has no name.

After his death it was discovered that many of the Kopernik Shore residents did not hold clear title to their land. Up to the present, none of the homes Musk is trying to buy have potable water since there is no water treatment plant in the area.