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To the South Lake Tahoe Community,

I have had the great pleasure and awesome responsibility of serving as a member of your city council for the past eight years. During this time we have faced some challenges, but we have also had much success as a council and a community, although some of those successes doing always get the attention they deserve.

Local public safety employees hosted the eighth and final South Lake Tahoe City Council candidates' forum on October 25 at Lake Tahoe Community College.

It was a full house at the event which was hosted by the South Lake Tahoe Police Officers, the California Nurses and the South Lake Tahoe Firefighters associations and gave everyone a chance to hear from the nine candidates about their views before the November 6 election. Each association gave them two questions a piece, plus a couple asked by audience members during the two-hour long forum.

Progress for Tahoe, a grassroots group of concerned local citizens who gathered together to address the most pressing issues in Tahoe, have endorsed the following for South Lake Tahoe City Council, Measure T, El Dorado County Supervisors and U.S. Representative California District 4:

South Lake Tahoe City Council – Wendy David, Devin Middlebrook and Tamara Wallace

LAKE TAHOE, Calif./Nev. - Have some winter fun and help kick off the ski season with a trilogy of movie premiers dubbed "Lord of the Boards." The Lake Tahoe premier of the feature movie, Blank Collective's film Before Blank, is headed to both north and south ends of the lake courtesy of Local Freshies® with a portion of proceeds going to the Sierra Avalanche Center (SAC).

LAKE TAHOE, Calif./Nev. - The Tahoe Prosperity Center once again is hosting the Tahoe Economic Summit, an event that delves into issues many locals are concerned with including housing, the economy, innovation, entrepreneurship and an educated workforce.

This year the summit "Transforming Tahoe," will be held on October 19 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.,

Heidi Hill Drum, the TPC executive director, says their goals each year are to bring in expert speakers on important issues and then have engaging conversations around how we can positively impact our region through breakout sessions.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - El Dorado County and the South Shore are a big part of the Hollywood scene with movies, television shows and commercials filmed often in the area. It takes a lot of partners to make location shoots successful and to recognize those that go above and beyond to make filming successful the California On Location Awards (COLA) are given out.

The COLA nominations were announced this week by the Film Liaisons in California Statewide (FLICS) and one will find nominees from the county and South Lake Tahoe.

The Tahoe Women’s Community Fund (TWCF) will be celebrating two local women during their annual Membership Celebration Dinner on Tuesday, October 30, 2018, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at Tahoe Beach Retreat. Tickets are on sale now for $35 each and can be purchased online at tahoewomenscommunityfund.org.

Everyone is welcome to attend, and it is the perfect opportunity to get to know the organization if you are not already a member.

In classic Tahoe style, when there is a problem we study it. In the past five years, the housing issue has been studied on several fronts. In that time, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, Placer County and the North Tahoe-Truckee area have all conducted Housing Studies and the City of South Lake Tahoe updated its Housing Element. What has been the result of all these studies? This column highlights the key recommendations from those studies and where we are now in terms of implementation.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - On Thursday, the South Tahoe Public Utility District (STPUD) Board of Directors discussed changing their administrative code to allow for the transfer of sewer and water units from one parcel to another in order to encourage the building of affordable housing projects.

Since 2012, the transfer of the sewer units have not been allowed by STPUD, but with the current lack of affordable housing on the South Shore the board will look to approve a change of the code at their September 20, 2018 meeting.

There ought to be a compromise letting city homeowners rent out their houses to vacationers, but the topic is controversial. The city once felt residents should know what was permissible in their neighborhoods and maintained an online database listing. This has been removed. Maybe residents shouldn't know about rentals allowing 22 guests?

Location

Last month this column focused on the faces of Tahoe’s housing crisis. This month we look at a few promising solutions from other tourist communities.

One example is the Town of Vail’s “Vail InDEED” program. Like Tahoe, the Town of Vail is constrained by a lack of available land and high construction costs. Development of new housing is slow and costly. The Vail InDEED program was created to deed restrict existing properties to create a market for locals only.

South Tahoe Now will be publishing a series over the next few weeks, The Keepers of Tahoe History. We will be highlighting groups, locations and events around Lake Tahoe that are preserving the historic past of the area.

The follow letter was given to South Tahoe Now and mailed to the South Lake Tahoe Mayor, City Councilmembers and staff:

Dear Mayor David and Council Members:

I am writing to you as a follow-up to my letter of May 12, 2018 (see at end of story) regarding Policy Priorities and Issues for City Government.

Quality and Affordable Housing for Residents is Very Important

The celebrities in South Lake Tahoe this week for the 29th annual American Century Championship (ACC) are here for more than just the golf.

First, there are the friendships they've made over the years at the ACC. They look forward to returning every year to see those friends.

Secondly, there is Lake Tahoe. Those who live in towns around the lake or visit often know why. A beautiful lake, majestic mountains, tall trees and clean, fresh air.

The Tahoe Fund has launched a new website, Take Care Tahoe (www.takecaretahoe.org), to connect visitors and locals with all the events and volunteer opportunities that Tahoe has to offer in keeping Lake Tahoe and the surrounding lands pristine for generations to come.

A new website launched by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA), Tahoe Transportation District (TTD), and visitor organizations provides a hub of easy-to-access information about a wide range of travel options in the Tahoe Basin.

The goal of www.LinkingTahoe.com is to increase public awareness of travel options for people to get to, from, and around the Tahoe Basin and encourage more people to walk, bike, use transit, take water shuttles, and choose off-peak times to drive to better manage congestion on the region’s roads.

Many saw the large tree at Heavenly Village as they drove or walked by, not knowing that it was a hazard and deemed unsafe to be around pedestrians. On Monday, June 4, the tree was cut down by the contractor hired to bring it down, Kenny Curtzwiler and K & K Services, and another local business, Frank's Stump Grinding, took care of the remains and ground level and below.

The 90 foot tree is now firewood, but Dreu Murin of the Heavenly Village management team told South Tahoe Now what is going in its place.

UPDATE 5/22 8:35 a.m.: El Dorado County Supervisor Sue Novasel has arranged for a call between the County, City and Charter Cable people this Friday. "We need KCRA for South Tahoe (it’s a public safety issue in my opinion) She, along with others, remember when Charter tried to discontinue California services in 2008.

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News that KCRA will be soon be removed from the Charter Communications lineup for South Lake Tahoe is not being taken well by many locals.

Locals day at the Lake Tahoe Golf Course to benefit the Lake Tahoe Humane Society will be Tuesday, May 15 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. For just $20, hit the course and golf 18 holes.

$10 of each round will go to help the non-profit keep their doors open in South Lake Tahoe.

The newly elected board will be on hand to answer all questions about the future of the humane society.

Young thespians at South Tahoe Middle School (STMS) have been working since March on Giants in the Sky, a musical and magical story about the world of giants who live in the clouds.

Tahoe Arts Project is presenting the play which is performed by ACT One, a new program for STMS South Tahoe Middle School students that helps fill a void for their hunger for creative expression, given the absence of drama and other arts programming available to students at a critical developmental age.

We recently received talking points from a local public relation firm relating to how we could handle the adverse publicity which occurred due to the CBS morning show about the draconian VHR ordinance and subsequent $1000 fine enforcements. We, as property managers and owners, have been requesting support from the Chamber of Commerce, LTVA, and the Lodging Association in helping us fight the selfish attitudes of some locals regarding their entitlement to Lake Tahoe without visitors to their neighborhoods.

South Lake Tahoe was the first city in California to carry the dockless bicycle sharing system, LimeBike, and now the community may soon be seeing the next generation, Lime-S.

At Tuesday's City Council meeting, Sam Dreiman, Manager of Strategic Development for LimeBike, and Jesse Patterson, Deputy Director of the League to Save Lake Tahoe, made a presentation to Council on numbers from 2017 and plans for 2018.

In South Lake Tahoe, the name Lisa Maloff is synonymous with philanthropy. She has earned the name "Angel of Tahoe" through her large donations, including $10 million to Barton Memorial Hospital for their new Robert Maloff Center of Excellence (Wellness and Sports Performance Center) and $5.8 million to Lake Tahoe Community College for the Lisa Maloff University Center. To date, Mrs. Maloff has donated $35 million in the past four years.

MEYERS and SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The El Dorado County Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Don Ashton has been making the rounds to communities throughout the county, explaining the budget through an informative presentation and discussion.

Most of the communities Ashton has visited have had 15-20 citizens in attendance, all asking questions and giving input in the budget process as Ashton and the Supervisors figure out how to save $20M over the next four years to meet CalPers pension liabilities.