summer

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - South Lake Tahoe has 17 percent of El Dorado County's population but around half of the confirmed COVID-19 cases. With a steady increase in confirmed cases over the last few weeks combined with the 4th of July influx of visitors, the County's Public Health Officer Dr. Nancy Williams is looking at the possibility of more restrictive measures for businesses and the public.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - There is a Lake Wind Advisory in place for the Lake Tahoe Basin from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday, July 6. There is also a Red Flag Warning from 2:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday.

The National Weather Service in Reno has issued the Red Flag Warning for gusty winds and low humidity. The Fire Weather Watch is no longer in effect. Winds will be from the Southwest 15-20 mph with gusts 30-35 mph. The humidity will be 12-20 percent for the duration.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The Angel of Tahoe, Lisa Maloff, officially got things rolling at the new Boys and Girls Club of Lake Tahoe’s (BGCLT) clubhouse on Tuesday afternoon during an official groundbreaking ceremony.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - For the fourth consecutive summer, the St. Theresa Bread & Broth 4 Kids Summer Program will provide weekly food bags for South Lake Tahoe youth every Wednesday until school resumes in August.

Since local schools closed in March due to the coronavirus, Bread & Broth 4 Kids (BB4K) has provided weekly food bags to students at bus stops and schools in coordination with the Lake Tahoe Unified School District as they distributed daily meals. Some weeks the BB4K bags went to over 410 children.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Fire season is upon us and many restrictions are now in effect where outdoor burning, campfires, and fire pits are concerned. 2020 started out with the driest February on record since the 1850s, and there is an increased fire danger posed by dead grass and hotter, drier conditions in the region.

It is important to understand that with all of the different fire areas around Lake Tahoe, there are different rules.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has resumed work on area highways. The following is their current project list at Lake Tahoe and in the Sierra.

LONG-TERM PROJECTS

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - For the past 27 years, Frank Kovac has been with the Lake Tahoe Unified School District (LTUSD).

When he landed in South Lake Tahoe Kovac already had spent time teaching at Fairfax High School, Emerson Junior High, James Rutter Middle School, and Paul Revere Middle School, but he found his niche beginning locally at South Tahoe Middle School.

After one year at STMS Kovac took the position as athletics and activities director at South Tahoe High School (STHS), a position he held for five years.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The Lake Tahoe Unified School District (LTUSD) has created a School Reopening Task Force (SRTF) to help create the guidance on reopening schools in South Lake Tahoe this fall.

SRTF launched a Return-To-School survey to collect information and gain a better understanding of how families are feeling about returning to school and what their expectations are as well as challenges. They will ask what worked well during the school closures, and identify areas for improvement

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Library in-person events have been canceled and instead have taken a different form during the pandemic, and their Wild Things, Inc. 2:00 p.m. performance on Friday, June 19 has moved to Facebook Live.

Outdoor performances have always been part of the summer South Lake Tahoe library event schedule and the Summer Reading Challenge, but due to current circumstances, all performances have been moved online.

LAKE TAHOE, Calif./Nev. - Scientists and researchers have been watching the clarity of Lake Tahoe for decades, rejoicing when one can see almost 100 feet down into the iconic body of water, sadness when clarity drops to record levels.

The clarity of the lake is an important indicator of the changing conditions of Lake Tahoe.

In 2019, Lake Tahoe's clarity decreased nearly eight feet from the previous year's dramatic 10-foot improvement. The average clarity in 2019 was 62.7 feet, the second-lowest on record. In 2017, the recorded clarity was 60 feet. In 1968, it was 102 feet.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has resumed work on area highways. The following is their current project list at Lake Tahoe and in the Sierra.

LONG-TERM PROJECTS

On Friday May 29, 2019, El Dorado Chief Administrative Officer Don Ashton
released his Fiscal Year 2020-21 Recommended Budget to the Board of Supervisors. The total recommended budget is approximately $647.7 million, which is $87.3 million less than the Fiscal Year 2019-20 budget, a copy of which can be accessed here.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The El Dorado County Certified Farmer's Market is starting late this year due to uncertainties created by COVID-19.

Starting June 2, and every Tuesday through October 13, the Farmer's Market will be held in South Lake Tahoe at the American Legion located at 2732 Lake Tahoe Boulevard from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

This will be the county-wide market in 2020.

Other communities in El Dorado County that have a market are Cameron Park on Wednesdays, Placerville on Saturdays, and El Dorado Hills on Sunday.

Monday, June 1 | 5 - 8 pm
Locations: Various locations along the bike path.

Celebrate the Tahoe Bike Challenge with this fun, physically distanced community cleanup event to prepare our bike paths for the summer. We will ride our bikes and walk on the paths as we clean. Volunteers that ride their bike or walk to the cleanup will receive a Tahoe Bike Challenge prize!

Head to https://www.keeptahoeblue.org/news/events/bike-path-cleanup-2020 for more information and to register today.

Deadline to complete a waiver: Friday, May 29 at 3 pm

Location

STATELINE, Nev. – The 2020 Summer Concert Series at the Lake Tahoe Outdoor Arena at Harveys has been canceled in response to the public health emergency involving COVID-19. Many of the shows have been rescheduled or postponed, with targeted performance dates in the Summer of 2021. Exact dates to be announced at a later time.

Ambiguity, uncertainty, and contradictions abound in this pandemic. Add time to the list of contradictions swirling around us. Morning and night sometimes seem a week apart. The first month of shelter‐in‐place dripped by for many of us. The second month was gone before we knew it. And now summer is fast approaching. We welcome the season because in ordinary times it can elevate our well‐being, but these are not ordinary times. With most of the attention and intensity now on reopening, the question that hangs in the balance is, are we ready? Is it the right time?

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The calendar says the week before Memorial Day, but Mother Nature isn't too keen on letting summer get a start in Lake Tahoe.

A late-season storm will bring gusty winds, below-average temperatures, mountain snow, and periods of valley rain for the rest of today through Tuesday. Cloud cover hangs around into Wednesday keeping temperatures below seasonal averages with a few showers possible. Winds increase Thursday ahead of another system
which could bring a second round of cooler temperatures and scattered showers back to the region for Friday and Saturday.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - A planned full closure of US50 over Echo Summit for the Sidehill Viaduct Replacement Project has been postponed to after Labor Day, 2020.

Caltrans made the announcement on Thursday that construction has not progressed enough to where the bridgework requiring a full closure could not be completed by June 15.

A full closure of Highway 50 is not permitted between June 15 and Labor Day due to high traffic volumes expected during the peak summer season in South Lake Tahoe.

INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. - The Tahoe East shore Trail has become an interpretive trail after 23 new educational signs were installed thanks to funds from the NV Energy Foundation. The signs provide information on regional history, the environment, and local wildlife.

The popular trail runs between Incline Village and Sand Harbor State Park with parking on SR28 at Tunnel Creek in Incline.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Events on City property through at least July 14 have been postponed, including the 4th of July Parade.

As South Lake Tahoe starts to reopen with guidelines from California Governor Newsom for Phase 2, the directives toward events won't be addressed until future phases so the City took action during their meeting Tuesday.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - It still isn't too late to prevent pesky yellow jacket interruptions of July and August picnics and outside dinners in Lake Tahoe. Now is the time to prepare by placing traps for the queens as they start to emerge from their winter hibernation.

The queens are the only bee colony member to hibernate in the winter. She emerges in spring and begins to look for a suitable place to build a nest and begin her new colony. By the end of summer one colony can have 4,000 to 5,000 yellow jackets.

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Nev. - The Douglas County School District has hired a new superintendent to replace the retiring Teri White.

In a unanimous decision, the board voted 7-0 to hire Keith Lewis as the next superintendent. Lewis is the District's current Human Resources executive director. He will start to transition into the position immediately and officially take over when White leaves, sometime this summer.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Given the uncertainties surrounding COVID-19 and how open or not the state of California may be in the months to come, Lake Tahoe Community College (LTCC) has announced its Summer and Fall quarter class formats that will allow high-quality education to continue in the safest manner possible.

MEYERS, Calif. - An old campground at the base of Echo Summit in Meyers is undergoing a major transformation that will not only create new wetlands and restore habitat along the Upper Truckee River, it will also create public access.

Work gets underway this week at the old Tahoe Pines Campground on a $1.63M project that will include new accessible-to-all trails, bridge and parking lot, and other features along the river which is Lake Tahoe's largest tributary.