homes

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Yellowjackets - they seem to appear whenever you sit down for your picnic lunch or other outside dining enjoyment in Lake Tahoe, especially in the months of July and August.

While the uninvited guests have some redeeming qualities they are predatory, sting pets and humans and are capable of stinging multiple times. Their aggressive behavior ruins many the outside activity. Yellowjackets are actually wasps but shouldn't be confused with other wasps, such as hornets and paper wasps. They are often mistakenly called "bees" (as in "meat bees").

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The South Lake Tahoe Police Department (SLTPD) is investigating over ten cases of graffiti that occurred in the Tahoe Sierra (Sierra Tract) neighborhood early Friday morning.

The suspect(s) used spray paint on cars, homes, bear boxes and trailers.

Anyone with information is asked to call 530-542-6100 or secret witness at 530-541-6800.

El Dorado County, Calif. - Currently, homeowners in fire-prone areas of California and El Dorado County are starting to see skyrocketing insurance premiums, canceled policies canceled and notices of non-renewal within weeks of a policy's expiration.

Due to the alarming rates at which this is happening, the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors reached out to the California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara to explain the dire situation in the county.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - What would happen if fire-fighting agencies could stop a wildfire before it gains momentum and wipes out homes, communities and/or forests? That is being answered with well over 100 fire cameras now in place across the west, all because of foresight of Dr. Graham Kent, the Director of the Nevada Seismological Laboratory at the University of Nevada Reno (UNR).

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The City of South Lake Tahoe has several undeveloped lots and has taken steps to sell them with the proceeds going into a fund that has been earmarked for workforce housing projects.

During their meeting Tuesday, City Council directed City Manager Frank Rush and staff to take steps to market and sell City-owned parcels at 3483 Ralph Drive and 2180 Washington Avenue. Neither spot would work for affordable multi-unit housing and are better suited for single-family residential homes.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - "This is a nightmare," says life-long South Lake Tahoe resident Monica Eisenstecken.

Her summer has been filled with preparing to fight the South Lake Tahoe Planning Commission's decision in June to allow Verizon to place a 112’ monopine cell tower next door to the home her dad built (it could go as high as 123' with a ten percent change allowed).

During a wildfire, small hot embers can be carried miles ahead of a wildfire. When these embers land on something easily combustible on or near your home, it is in jeopardy of burning, even if it is not in the path of the flame front. Your home can survive when the embers arrive.

The Tahoe Network of Fire Adapted Communities is sharing a list of places homes are vulnerable to embers and how to prepare your homes along with an "Ember Awareness Checklist". The numbers match those in the photo:

1. Wood Roof

Tonight we had eight cars in the VHR across the street. The house is rated for four cars with a maximum of ten people. We reported it this time. We usually do not report violations because it makes us anxious… no one wants to be the “BAD” guy. The call was simple enough and the response was surprisingly quick. Roughly 20 minutes after our call the officer arrived to view the cars parked in the driveway, in the street, in the front yard and along the side of the house.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Emergency personnel were called out to a home on Springwood Drive in South Lake Tahoe early Monday morning after a vehicle crashed into it, severing the gas meter.

Upon arrival just before 3:00 a.m. July 15, South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue (SLTFR) found a car still running and on its side after it hit the unoccupied home. The driver was nowhere to be found.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - One apartment is a total loss and two others suffered major damage after a Thursday afternoon fire on Terry Lane in South Lake Tahoe.

At 12:07 p.m., South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue responded to a fully engulfed fire in the 3600 block of Terry Lane. Upon arrival, firefighters found a six-unit apartment building with one of the upstairs units on fire.

The occupants of all six units escaped the fire with no injuries after being evacuated by the South Lake Tahoe Police Department (SLTPD).

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - At around 3:00 a.m. Thursday, June 27 a South Lake Tahoe woman woke up to a loud noise and found debris on her face. She didn't think much of it and went back to sleep. Upon awakening in the morning she found what she thought was a bullet hole in her bedroom window.

She called the South Lake Tahoe Police Department (SLTPD) who arrived at the home on Fresno Avenue in the Al Tahoe neighborhood. They found three bullet holes in the house and a fourth that entered a neighboring home on Tallac Avenue.

Police also found four handgun shell casings at the scene.

Welcome to summer! The solstice officially arrived Friday at 8:54 a.m., welcoming in the longest day of the year. As the snowpack melts away, and the lake fills above rim, we enter the warm and dry months that we relish after winter. As Lake Tahoe’s landscape begins to dry out, wildfire danger will grow.

Our respite from the seasonal dangers of wildfire here in the basin is coming to an end. With temperatures climbing, relative humidity lowering, and afternoon winds blowing across the lake, the basin will become susceptible to wildfire.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The community is coming together to help the wife and children of Hugo Parra-Solis, the 37-year-old Carson City resident who was killed by an impaired driver near Stateline on Thursday.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - El Dorado County Sheriff's Office responds to calls throughout the county. The following are calls that only pertain to the South and West Shore, including Meyers, South Lake Tahoe, Meeks Bay, Tahoma, and the Echo Summit area. There may be some missing calls due to sheriff's logs not being completed at the time of the story.

Some of those recently added to last week's log:

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The Highway 50 Wagon Train will once again traverse the Sierra this week, just as the pioneers of the 1800s once did. People seeking riches headed west after gold was discovered near Placerville in 1849, but their routes were varied as very few had traveled that direction before them.

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Nev. - Patrol deputies with the Douglas County Sheriff's Office (DCSO) can now take their assigned patrol vehicles home with them, something other cities across the county have tried and had overwhelming success with.

DCSO Sheriff Dan Coverly has been looking at ways to maximize the effectiveness of his Patrol Division while also adding benefits to the public and savings to his budget.

The USDA Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit will begin the sale of personal use fuelwood permits at the Forest Supervisor’s Office in South Lake Tahoe on Monday, June 3, 2019. Permits cost $20 per cord, with a two-cord minimum purchase and a limit of 10 cords per household.

Permits have specific conditions and complete information is provided when the permit is issued. Maps to designated cutting areas are provided and must be in the permit holder’s possession along with the valid permit when cutting.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Starting May 25, 2019, there will be no more youth staying in the Placerville Juvenile Detention Facility. After a decision by the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors in February, South Lake Tahoe's Juvenile Treatment Center (JTC) will be the only youth facility in the county to serve those in the justice system 18-years-old and younger, for now.

There are several reasons for the changes including an aging facility, increasing costs and the fact that fewer youth are working their way through the juvenile justice system.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Those of us living in Lake Tahoe know all too well the dangers of wildfire, but we also know the positive outcome a collaborative effort to be better prepared can do.

Residents across the West have been given their "wake up call" over the past few years as record-breaking fires have burned through communities, leaving devastation and death in their wake.

STATELINE, Nev. - The Douglas County Commissioners will be considering the adoption of a new fire code which would require the installation of automatic fire sprinklers on new construction of homes less than 5,000 square feet. Their approval would acknowledge that benefits outweigh the cost to homeowners.

The meeting in Minden, which starts at 1:00 p.m., is normally fed live through the internet but as of 10:00 a.m. there were some technical difficulties and it may not be shown online.

National Animal Care and Control Appreciation Week is April 7 through 13, 2019, a time to recognize the many contributions of Animal Services officers, shelter and office staff, and volunteers in El Dorado County.

“Working and volunteering in the animal services field requires a strong passion for helping animals and serving others,” said Henry Brzezinski, Chief of El Dorado County Animal Services. “The work can sometimes be difficult, but we love what we do. We are very grateful for our dedicated staff and volunteers!”

A Washoe County detective says alleged murderer Wilber Ernesto Martinez-Guzman told police he robbed and killed his elderly victims during a 10-day rampage in January because he needed money to buy methamphetamine to support his drug addiction, according to the Associated Press.

Wilber Ernesto Martinez-Guzman was arrested on Jan. 19 in connection with the four murders of Gardnerville woman Connie Koontz, 56, Gardnerville woman Sophia Renken, 74, and South Reno Couple Jerry and Sherry David, 81 and 80.

On March 14th, the City of South Lake Tahoe held a public meeting to discuss the already approved plan to re-route Hwy 50 through a bunch of small businesses and a whole neighborhood, around the backside of Harrah’s where half of the existing Loop Road now sits. This plan was concocted by the Tahoe Transportation District (TTD) and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) with little input from the community and the near absence of participation by our former City Leaders.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - A vacant one-half acre lot on Emerald Bay Road at the "Y" in South Lake Tahoe will soon become an “affordable by design” housing project and could be the site of tiny houses. At Thursday's California Tahoe Conservancy meeting they announced their intent to sell one of its developable properties to Dinsmore Sierra who will finance and build the project which is across the street from Alpina Cafe.