budget

A former member of both the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors and California State Assembly has been named the interim director of the El Dorado County Community Development Agency.

At the BOS meeting Tuesday, Roger Niello was appointed to fill the spot vacated when Steve Pedretti left the position for Placer County.

Niello begins his job November 2.

Before he went into public service, Niello managed the Niello Auto Group for
25 years until 1999.

The utility relocation work on Highway 50 through South Lake Tahoe the past two years has made way for a major, three-year long Caltrans project that will get underway next Spring.

The project, which is currently out for bid, will be starting in 2017 and will have crews working along U.S. Highway 50 from the "Y" intersection with State Highway 89 to the Trout Creek Bridge once again.

A major restoration project of the Upper Truckee River channel and surrounding meadows is about to be completed, three years and $7 million later. Known as Reach 5, the U.S. Forest Service project is improving the river channel stability and aquatic habitat along 1.2 miles of the river adjacent to the Lake Tahoe Airport.

Another goal of the project is to restore surface and subsurface channel connectivity to 120 acres of floodplain, increasing deposition of fine sediments and nutrient uptake on the floodplains as well as raising the ground water levels in the meadow.

The South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting on Tuesday will feature the following topics:

Commercial Floor Space - Doctors Steve Leman and Clint Purvance have applied for Commercial Floor Space allocations (CFA) for three projects at the Y area. Together they are asking for 6,170 square feet of CFA from the City's allotment for a building at 941 Emerald Bay Road. Leman himself is asking for 4,621 square feet at 2215 South Avenue and another 4,025 at 1072 4TH Street. He also wants to purchase another 28,940 Square Feet of 1B Banked Land Coverage from the City.

I am lucky to have lived in South Lake Tahoe for 9 years and grateful to be raising my children in such a wonderful place. I received a Masters Degree in Land Use Planning from UNR and am currently a solution oriented AICP, Senior Planner at Midkiff & Associates. My commitment to community service led me to the Leadership Lake Tahoe program, board membership with the Tahoe Drug Free Coalition, the Chamber Government Affairs Committee and the fight against climate change.

For the past 18 months, South Lake Tahoe City Councilwoman JoAnn Conner and the City have been at odds since she filed two lawsuits against them on December 9, 2015.

During Tuesday's Council meeting, Mayor Wendy David made the following announcement about the potential end of the legal matters after both sides met with a mediator on June 14:

South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue recently promoted three men to the position of Battalion Chief, a move that Fire Chief Jeff Meston says will improve safety for both citizens and personnel.

Jim Drennan, Tim Spencer and Karl Koeppen are all now Battalion Chiefs for the City of South Lake Tahoe. Between them, they have over 61 years of firefighting experience.

You've spent your life savings on the dream, to buy a home in South Lake Tahoe. Better yet, you've found the perfect property where you can find a way to live in Tahoe and own a home that brings in some income.

There are current 56 different parcels in the City limits that are multi-family units that are also licensed vacation rentals and the City of South Lake Tahoe wants to prevent them from being rented, thus stopping the home owners from earning the needed income to keep their home.

California State Parks Foundation has created a way for people to enjoy their parks while volunteering for a day. This is happening across the state in response to budget cuts.

Park Champions is having their first workday at Ed Z'Berg Sugar Pine Point State Park on Thursday, June 9 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. to remove invasive plants in order to restore habitat for the birds and the bees. Tools, training and snacks provided. The Sierra State Parks Foundation will also offer volunteers a free guided tour.

While the official grand opening isn't until May 26, the doors have opened and office spaces are filling up at the new Tahoe Mountain Lab in South Lake Tahoe. What was once the Tahoe Daily Tribune offices on Lake Tahoe Blvd. is now home to 24 private offices, shared work spaces, tables and desks as well as the local paper's new office.

The South Tahoe Public Utility District (District) is currently in the process of preparing the 2016/2017 budget. We invite the community to participate in a Public Meeting and Presentation on the Proposed Budget and Capital Improvement Plan at the District Offices on May 12, 2016, at 6 pm.

In 2014, the District sent a five-year Proposition 218 notice to all customers; this permitted the District to increase water rates up to a maximum of 6.5% and sewer rates up to a maximum of 6.0%.

Water

Name: Future-Ready South Shore Forum & Luncheon
Date: April 26, 2016
Time: 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM PDT

It has been about 18 months since the Cal Tahoe JPA voted to spend $192,000 on badly needed EKG monitors for the nine ambulances that serve the South Lake Tahoe and Meyers area. As of March 31, not a dime has been spent due to a division between the two fire departments that are part of the JPA.

"I don't want public safety to get in the way of politics," said SLT City Councilman Tom Davis at Thursday's emergency JPA meeting. Davis is one of two Council representatives on the JPA board. The other is Mayor Wendy David.

Dr. James Tarwater, Superintendent of Lake Tahoe Unified Schools, will provide an overview of student data at the next LTUSD School Board meeting on Tuesday, February 9.

With an estimated three million visitors to the Lake Tahoe Basin annually, there is a lot of vacation planning occurring, and the Lake Tahoe Visitor's Authority has made it easier for those traveling to the South Shore.

Six months ago they launched "Explore Your Trip," a itinerary planning tool on their website that helps travelers plan their trip based on what they like to do, what their budget, what they like to each and many other categories.

As we welcome in 2016, the City of South Lake Tahoe would like to reflect on the accomplishments of 2015. The following is a summary of accomplishments during 2015.

Strategic Priority: Fiscal Sustainability
The most important issue facing cities and local agencies is continued steadfast attention to the budget, both short term and long term fiscal impacts.
· FY 15/16 budget adopted on time and without use of alternative revenues (3rd consecutive year).
· Adopted 5-year Financial Forecast and 5-Year Capital Investment Plan.

In a move that will save the city money as well as increase staffing, South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue added 12 new Emergency Medical Services (EMS) specialists to their staff on December 14.

South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue is now the only fire department in the Tahoe basin to have three firefighters on each engine at all times and two EMS specialists in the ambulance.

A 52-year-old Reno man died Wednesday night in a single vehicle accident on the Carson Valley side of Kingsbury Grade, a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper said.

The victim was driving a Budget truck westbound when, for an undetermined reason, the vehicle went off the side of the road, hitting a wall. The crash is being investigated as a possible medical issue, said Trooper Dan Lopez.

Traffic was reduced to a single lane in both directions as part of the crash investigation.

The lack of fields for soccer, baseball, football, softball and other sports has long been a point of contention in South Lake Tahoe.

Recognizing the value of recreation in South Lake Tahoe, along with the need for trails, fields and parks, Measure S passed by voters in 2000. It brought in $6,500,000 to be used to maintain new bike trails, acquire, construct, and equip athletic fields, upgrade of Paradise Park facilities and construction of an ice rink. The measure promised three new fields in South Lake Tahoe, they got one.

City Manager Nancy Kerry and Mark Carlson, the City's Administrative Services Director presented the 2015-16 Fiscal year budget to the South Lake Tahoe City Council during a workshop Tuesday.

"There is a lot we can be proud of," Kerry said.

The budget process has been ongoing since May, involving staff in making the decision on where to cut back, and where to spend.

The Tahoe Transportation District recently appointed Russ Nygaard as transportation capital program manager to oversee the planning, design and execution of the agency's capital projects.

With 26 years engineering experience in transportation and bridge projects, Nygaard will perform project management duties and assist with funding procurement and budget maintenance while ensuring all federal requirements are met and executed on schedule.

The Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with the City of South Lake Tahoe, is offering a Create Your Business Plan workshop on Wednesday, July 22. By the end of the workshop participants will have a completed draft of a business plan.

Last year, the El Dorado County Grand Jury found that the workplace environment of the South Lake Tahoe Probation Department was "toxic." That report also said, "Officers were being micromanaged, a clique system of disparate groups had formed
wherein out of favor clique members were unfairly disciplined at times. Those things lead to poor morale and perhaps reduced productiveness at the South Lake Tahoe Probation Office."

The 2014-15 Grand Jury followed up with the department to see if things had changed.

The next meeting of the Tahoe Paradise Resort Improvement District (TPRID) will be on Thursday, June 11 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Tahoe Paradise Park.

Planning of the park's 50th anniversary party this summer is on the agenda as is the TPRID general plan and the budget. In closed session will be discussion of the employment of a park manager.

The next regular meeting will be on June 25th from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The park is located at 1011 San Bernardino Avenue.