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The terms of three board members of the South Tahoe Public Utility District are up this fall and STPUD is holding an election in consolidation with El Dorado County Elections on November 4 to fill them.

Chris Cefalu, James Jones and Eric Schafer all have their terms ending on December 1.

The filing period opens on Monday, July 14 at 9 a.m. and will close on August 8 at 5 p.m. . If an incumbent fails to file for their term by the last day of the filing period, the time will be extended for 5 days, ending Wednesday, August 13, 2014, at 5:00 p.m

The dream of a dedicated bike path along the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe moved one step closer to reality with a vote by the Tahoe Fund board of directors to launch a new campaign to raise $750,000 for the trail. The private money raised by the Tahoe Fund would help the Tahoe Transportation District secure $12.5 million in public funding for the new bike path from Incline Village south to Sand Harbor on the lake’s northeast corner.

After lengthy debate during Tuesday's South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting, a 3-2 vote changed the direction of the second phase of the plastic bag ban.

In January, 2014, a ban on single use bags was implemented for all grocery stores and food vendors in the city limits. That portion of the ban has not changed. What has changed is the second phase which was going to expand the ban to retail stores starting on October 15, 2014.

It may be a couple of weeks until all of the votes are counted for the June 3rd primary, and by the end of it all we may see a different outcome from the one seen Tuesday.

Sue Novasel and Kevin Brown were in the lead after Tuesday's election for the District 5 seat on the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors. Novasel came out on top with Brown coming in second and with the top two vote getters proceeding to the November runoff most assumed it would be those two names they'd see on the ballot.

Updated at 12:05 a.m. Wednesday morning: 100% of the precinct's results are in.

County Supervisor District 5
The top 2 will face off in November.

Kevin Brown – 788 votes, 19.06%
Kenny Curtzwiler – 731, 17.68%
Gerri Grego – 499, 12.07%
Sue Novasel – 1135, 27.46%
Teresa Piper – 235, 5.68%
Angela Swanson – 737, 17.83%

Measure P

Yes - 1271, 68.41%
No – 587, 31.59%

Measure L
Yes - 2552, 78.52%
No – 698, 21.48%

Primo’s Italian Bistro in South Lake Tahoe today announced that it has received a TripAdvisor® Certificate of Excellence award.

Establishments are given this award only if they consistently achieve outstanding reviews on TripAdvisor. Primo's joins the upper echelon of businesses worldwide that achieve this honor.

When selecting Certificate of Excellence winners, TripAdvisor uses a

There are several choices for South Lake Tahoe voters in Tuesday's primary election.

Local Issues and Offices
El Dorado County Supervisor: Kevin Brown, Kenny Curtzwiler, Gerri Grego, Sue Novasel, Teresa Piper, Angela Swanson

Assessor - Karl Weiland

Auditor/Controller - Michael Owens, Joe Horn

District Attorney - Judson Henry, Vern Pierson

Recorder Clerk/Registrar of Voters - Chris Amaral, Bill Schultz

Sheriff - John D'Agostini

Surveyor - Rich Briner

Treasurer/Tax Collector - Ron Briggs, C.L. Raffety

Measure L is the Library Special Tax on the ballot this year. Twenty years ago the South Lake Tahoe voters passed a library tax where those who owned parcels in the area would be charged $20/parcel per year for the next 20 years to fund the library.

Well, that time period is up so the tax is on the ballot once again. This is not a new tax, just a request for taxpayers to continue paying the same.

My name is Kenny Curtzwiler and I have lived, worked and enjoyed South Lake Tahoe as a resident since 1977 when I came here for a vacation and stayed on as so many have. Many of you know me as The Skibum. Many of you know me as the Bartender at Carlos Murphy’s for 19 years and many of you know me as a Contractor and owner of K & K Services, a Tree Service and Roofing company. Regardless of how you know me the point is you know me, you know my thoughts and position on everything that concerns our community. There is no hidden agenda with me.

Due to a ruling by the California Court of Appeals, the City of South Lake Tahoe can no longer enforce their sex offender ordinance which made it a misdemeanor for sex offenders to be within 300 feet of a school, park or recreation areas. During Tuesday's meeting, the City Council had to repeal the ordinance. To be official, the City Council will have a second reading and vote on the item in June.

"This is mind boggling," said City Councilwoman JoAnn Connor. "I am disgusted that the court has decided to ignore children in deference to sexual predators."

Sample ballots for the June 3 primary elections in California were mailed out April 25th, and absentee/mail in ballots are being mailed out Monday and Tuesday, May 5 and 6.

According to the mailed ballots, South Lake Tahoe county voters have the following choices in June:

U.S. Representative for the 4th District - Tom McClintock or Art Moore
State Assembly for the 5th District - Frank Bigelow
Superior Court Judge for Office 1 - Vicki Ashworth, David Combellack or Joe Weinberger
Superior Court Judge for Office 5 - Joseph Hoffman or Dylan Sullivan

South Tahoe Now sent a questionnaire out to all of the candidates for El Dorado County Supervisor. We will be posting them in the order received.

1) What do you see as the Number 1 issue facing residents of District 5? Outside consultants, developers and various other alphabet agency’s telling us the same thing over and over again on what we need. The County and community has already done the work on what decisions need to be made with the final decisions being made by the residents of our area.

I have been part of the Community since 1989 and am now a permanent resident. The South Lake Tahoe Library does more than just books and banks of computers, our library is a place where people gather to explore, interact, and imagine. It is a place where people come to know themselves and their communities. People go to the Library looking for information and find each other there.

It's not every day that a St.Bernard puppy not even six months old is named a city's mascot, but that is what happened this week in South Lake Tahoe.

Thor belongs to SLTPD dispatch supervisor Susan Keast. She recently took Thor to one of the monthly all city employee meetings where he was almost unanimously voted on as the mascot according to Police Chief Brian Uhler. “There was one vote against Thor,” said Chief Uhler. “I don’t see how anyone could vote against that fuzz ball puppy.”

With a vote of 4 to 1, the South Lake Tahoe City Council voted Tuesday to give SnowGlobe a three year contract to have their signature concert event in the city. Promoters will also be receiving an additional $25,000 in cash funding to run the event.

SnowGlobe brings in an estimated $6 million return on the City's investment through advertising, hotel bookings, money spent on food and supplies as well on international awareness of the unique concert in South Lake Tahoe.

Community.

Rates for South Tahoe Public Utility customers need to be raised "in order to be prepared for fire, prevent sewer or recycled water spills into the lake and meet law requirements on new meter installation," according to South Tahoe Public Utility District G.M. Richard Solbrig. He provided explanation of the three challenges to the district in a presentation to Tahoe Douglas Rotarians on Friday, January 31.

South Lake Tahoe was voted the Best Ski Destination in a highly contested USA Today reader ski poll conducted over the past four weeks.

Citing the beautiful views and fantastic skiing, voters were able to choose their favorite ski destination daily. Sun Valley, Idaho came in second with North Lake Tahoe in third, which shows everyone how popular Lake Tahoe skiing is as a whole.

Creating street improvements in the Harrison Avenue area sits atop the list of the City of South Lake Tahoe's Capital Improvement Project priorities. Better stormwater treatment, a bike path, lighting, safer pedestrian walkways and ADA improvements are coming to Harrison Avenue in 2014 and the city will vote Tuesday to ratify agreements between TRPA, the state and the city to move the project forward. The project is funded through several federal and local transportation fund sources.

The third in a series of Economic Forums will take place on Tuesday, October 22, from 6 pm to 8 pm at the Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel. The entire community is invited to this free, informative evening presented by TahoeChamber and the Tahoe Prosperity Center.

Miss me? I have been working for the last year on The Children’s Memorial Tree and I would like to take this opportunity to say Thank You to the community of South Lake Tahoe for their support in rebuilding the memorial. I wanted to keep the Skibum as well as my alter ego out of the publicity due to the fact that there would be resistance to the idea from those that do not always agree with my views and I wanted no distractions. We had to play good cop / bad cop with the city in order to push the memorial through and guess which role I played.

In what appears to be a strong vote of confidence for the future of the electric car, Harrah’s unveiled on Friday the installation of two electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in the parking lot at its casino in downtown Reno.
The charging stations will be among 16 at the casino’s Reno/Tahoe properties, which include Harveys Lake Tahoe in South Shore. And they’re not just for guests.
Go here for the full story.

Dear Community Members, 

In recent months, Barton Memorial Hospital’s Skilled Nursing Facility has been challenged with keeping patients, staff and the facility in its entirety, safe from the effects of the California senate bill, AB97.

If passed, this bill would create devastating cuts to reimbursement for Medi-Cal services provided by distinct part skilled nursing facilities (DP/SNFs) throughout the state, including South Lake Tahoe’s only long- term-care-facility located at Barton Memorial.

The Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit of the U.S. Forest Service and the Tahoe Area Mountain Biking Association have been working together for a couple of years to improve mountain bike trails all while protecting the natural resources of our local forests. Lake Tahoe is a special place, loved and used by millions of visitors each year from around the world. The local forest service has been at the forefront of working collaboratively with user groups and the public to ensure that protecting the environment of this special place, still allows for uses that are compatible and fun.