October Skibum

Did the Tough Mudder again at Northstar and I got to say, Tahoe North
oops North Shore sure has their act together when it comes to events
and how to put them on. They work with promoters who don't threaten

Although I must admit they do not, for the most part, have to deal
with the TRPA and councils that don't have the best interest of their
own community at heart. Now I am not saying that our council is
totally dysfunctional, only a little. Most everything that is getting
done here on South Shore is Caltrans projects and the beatification of
Hiway 50 and we always seem to forget the rest of the town. Plastic
bag ban? Parking meters? How about cracking down on the slumlords and
forcing them to clean up their rat holes.

Whatever happened to the new Auto shop that was going up in town. I
was at the council meeting when it was touted that we are trying to
streamline the building process but I only see it getting worse. Most
contractors I know are still complaining about the same things that
have always slowed us down.

Balanced budget? Try reading how they did it and that we are only
,once again, delaying the inevitable when dealing with pensions and
benefits. 5 year contract for the CM? That is basically unheard of
anywhere that I know of and I applaud Nancy on the job she has done
but I do not see her keeping up the 70 hour weeks that she has been
putting in to correct the mistakes of the past for the next five
years. It wasn't until I realized that there is an election in 2014
and I can see some who are going to run for council ride along on the
accomplishments she has done. Last month I made mention about hiring
key employees in crucial areas of the city government coming here and
at the end of their career, I felt it was just a bucket list check off
to retire in Tahoe. I give the new Fire Chief 18 months before we have
to hire another $10,000.00 consultant to look for a new chief. I also
welcome you to our town oops, South Lake Tahoe as I am a Meyers
resident.

I need someone to ask the council exactly what percentage of the
$55.00 ticket the city actually sees? I am a Meyers resident and will
not get an answer. It has been made very plain to me that I am not a
resident of the city and my comments, questions and inquiries mean
squat. I am also still looking for all those local contractors being
put to work now that the hole is revitalized.

May seem shallow but I really enjoy watching the 10 O'clock news and
seeing how screwed up this world is getting, makes my life seem ok.

Just had shoulder surgery and did not want to say anything for fear of
what might happen when I was under the knife if certain folks knew. I
did my surgery at Barton with Dr. Banner and I still don't see what
the fuss is about Barton. All three of my kids were born there, I had
a finger removed and several other incidents in my line of work and I
think they are the best.

One of the fundamental problems with doing events here in Tahoe and
trying to establish a consistency or signature event is that if the
powers to be didn't think of it or you don't belong to one of the
chambers you can forget about support. We don't have a real wintertime
signature event in South Lake anymore and after what happened at the
Gunbarrel 25 last year I would not be surprised if last year's GB 25
won't be the last. We need, other than Snow Globe, a family oriented
local event that puts us on the map. Snow Globe was a successful event
and I welcomed the influx of people and trickle of money that came
into South Shore but also on the other hand we need to clean up the
town first before we start promoting it first.

Trish the Dish. Really good to see her join the crew here at The
Mountain News. Long time locals should remember her from El Pavo.

All our best towards solving the situation concerning Taylor's mom and
the lack of any forward movement.

Sign Of The Month: The Fire Fest banner that was hanging up in between
the casinos said Saturday September 29. Also up until Sat the 28 the
large Caltrans flashing banner telling us about Fire Fest and pointing
the way to turn was facing the wrong way on Hiway 50 and had us
turning into the old Sunset Stables. Is it that no one cares or
checking was not part of the job description on whomever put those up.
I would have to go with job description as I tried to call it in early
and no one seemed to know what I was talking about, imagine that, the Bum misunderstood.

As Usual: sltskbm@gmail.com

Later. Skibum.