Skibum: The nuts and bolts of 'The Hole'

Follow the money trail on the “Hole” fiasco and you will find a mess. When the hole first stopped all of the reasons that were given by Randy Lane were false, wrong and an outright lie to the people of South Lake Tahoe. The real reason work was stopped was due to the two liens filed by two Nevada companies that did work and never got paid. In California when there is a lien on a job all work stops until the contractors are paid, no money no work.

This should have been our first indication that we were about to get nut and bolted. There is a lot of confusion as to exactly how many parcels, apn’s and lot’s are part of the hole. If you follow the lien paperwork there are 29 different apn’s with probably three time as many owners that will have to be involved in any transaction that are going to be done with the hole.

Here is the time line I came up with after collecting the information which can be verified through the recorder clerk’s office. Worked stopped due to lack of payment for work performed in October of 2007. Jan 22, 2008 two liens were filed ($1,446,485.68 and $1,250,137.66) by SMC Contractor’s for nonpayment. Feb 7, 2008 Owens Financial Group bought the rights for 13 ERU’s for $10,000,000.00 as well as gave a $12,000,000.00 loan to Randy Lane. Feb 12, 2008 both liens were paid in full and released so work could have commenced right then yet Randy saw the writing on the wall and did not. May 12, 2009 SBS filed a Notice of Default for $2,495,000.58. June 15th, 2009 Owens file a NOD for $25,890,113.20. June 19, 2009 City National Bank filed a NOD for $7,355,827.56.

We could go on and on with the nod’s but I think you get the point. My only question in this whole fiasco is what happened to the loan that Randy got from Owens????? He received $22 Million dollars and paid the liens for $2,696,623.34 which left $19,303,376.66 left over. According to the City Council that I talked with at the time he told them he gave all the money back to everyone. The Mayor, Mr. Jerry Birdwell at the time, showed genuine shock and anger that Randy would lie “bold face” to the council. When I showed the paperwork to them on what I had found they promised to look into it and deal with it. They told me the same thing when I brought up the condition of the rebar well over two years ago at a council meeting when Kathay Lovell was Mayor. Unless the residents of South Lake Tahoe get one of the candidates to actually say what they will do about the hole you are screwed on it.

One of the upcoming candidates asked me to take a stand on who would make the best qualified councilperson to which I had to reply that it does not matter who I recommend as I live in the county but I am going to anyway. 1. Vote someone into the South Lake Tahoe city council that will work on getting someone from the county on the council.
2. Find a way to get Heavenly to pay taxes on the Gondola tickets and retail at the base lodge, that was really a stupid idea to “Historically not pay”.
3. Forget about abolishing the TRPA, it will never go away but what we can do is just ignore them. Years ago they threatened us with no new building permits if we didn’t do our Bmp’s. Well guess what, there is no building so why don’t we just ignore them and tell them to blow chunks. There are plenty other reasons but I don’t want overload anyone so there you have it. You can actually vote anyone into office including someone from the county to city council because all the Election code says is you must become a resident of the city within 15 days of getting elected.

Owens Capital would like to build retail in the front of the hole but leave the back to whatever. I say we should let them do it with the premise that they have to build a park in the back like the one on Bonanza. No one with any money, brains or common sense wants to build a Convention Center, never have. The convention center was a bust from the beginning. Get back to basics. “America’s All Year Playground”

The 22nd Annual Toy Run was a huge success. Lot’s of Thank You’s going out to: Patty Acri, Kathy Sharp, Allison(who should have been the one), Audra, Kathy and Patty Green, Brothers Bar, SLT Fire Department, Liberty Energy, SLT Police (they really stepped up this year), Deep Fried Mojo for their kick ass music and of course Santa!! Mary Luckel gets her own byline. She is the driving force behind this event and without her there is no Toy Run. Remember, most of us are just a paycheck away from using Christmas Cheer. Thank You Mary Luckel XOXOXOXO

There has got to be some irony in what the govt agencys are doing along Hiway 89 and 50 in Meyers. First they cut down all the trees along the roadway to thin out and reduce the fire hazard and now they are planting them right back. I have watched them hand water these things they plant along the roadway for the last several years and cannot figure out what, beside little trees, they are planting.

The only thing that keeps coming year after year is the multi colored flags they put in the ground to remind them of where they planted and water the dirt. I wonder if that is part of all the minimum wage jobs that the government is creating. You do realize that the only jobs being created are govt jobs as the private sector is laying off everyone who gets a decent paycheck then hiring them back creating a whole new class of welfare recipients.

Did the Tough Mudder event over at Northstar and the Trib did a nice article in their paper. The highlight was a tribute that they did for my son at the beginning. Average age of the athletes:29, I am 56. Average time to complete the course: 3 hours, My time was 3:40. Score one for the old guys. Check it out by going here.

Vote. Vote. Vote.

As Usual: skibumfamily@sbcglobal.net / Facebook/sltskbm
Later. Skibum .