council

Former South Lake Tahoe City Attorney Tom Watson has resigned from his position with the City of Tracy, California and taken a new one as the City Attorney of Santa Maria, a community south of San Luis Obispo.

Watson will start with them on June 17 after his contract was unanimously approved by the Santa Maria City Council on May 7.

"I have confidence in his abilities to manage and lead the City Attorney’s Office for years to come,” said Mayor Alice Patino in a news release. “I look forward to him effectively managing the legal needs of our city.”

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The current staffing level of the South Lake Tahoe Police Department (SLTPD) is 30 authorized, sworn officers, and even with this low number they are rarely at full staffing. During the summer of 2018, the department handled an average of 99 calls per day and had 196 incidents where no officer was available to respond immediately, and about 15 times a day they told callers to 911 the officer would be delayed.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - During Tuesday's City Council meeting, one vacation home rental (VHR) owner lost their permit to operate in South Lake Tahoe after the Tahoe Neighborhoods Group appealed a decision by the Planning Commission.

On March 14, the commission decided to overturn City staff's revocation of VHR permit ##005258 located at 797 San Jose Avenue, Unit B. Staff had revoked the permit in January when the owner of the home, Susan Porter of San Ramon, didn't meet the deadline for renewing her permit or paying the required transient occupancy tax (TOT).

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Since its arrival, the 2013 model Ferrara ladder truck the City of South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue (SLTFR) purchased has been been a "lemon," and now they have reached a settlement with the manufacturer, Ferrara Fire Apparatus of Holden, Louisiana.

In 2014, City of South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue (SLTFR) took possession of a 2013 model Ferrara ladder truck at the tune of almost $1,050,000. It was purchased to replace the aging ladder truck SLTFR had from 1982 and was paid for with funds from California sales tax money devoted to public safety.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - During their May 7 meeting, the South Lake Tahoe City Council will conduct a public hearing to solicit citizen input about the 2019-2020 Budget.

Everyone is encouraged to attend. The meeting starts at 9:00 a.m.in City Hall at the Airport and is the midway through the agenda. Prior to the budget talk there will be four presentations, the approval of the consent agenda and three other hearings.

There will be a presentation after which the public will be encouraged to present

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - City Manager Frank Rush writes a community monthly newsletter and shares it on South Tahoe Now. The following is the May 1, 2019 edition:

Sign Up for the Brand New City Newsletter

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - With about $8 million in unassigned General Fund reserves, the South Lake Tahoe City Council voted last week to spend about $2.5 million for the replacement of four pieces of critical snow removal equipment and the purchase of one new piece of equipment.

The Department of Public Works has thirty-one pieces of heavy equipment assigned to snow removal operations for use on roads, the airport, facilities, parks, and
trails. Some of that equipment can do double duty and work during non-winter months including loaders, pick-up trucks, and tractors.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Lime is returning to South Lake Tahoe this summer, but with some changes both visibly and financially during a new one-year trial period for 2019.

After much discussion on Tuesday night, the City Council unanimously approved a new contract with Lime that will bring up to 550 scooters to town this season, but, as reported before, the bikes are not returning.

The Council wanted to make sure not all 550 will appear on opening day at the beginning of May and will work with Lime to start slow.

The good news is it can be learned!

Building resilience — the ability to adapt well to adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats and/or significant sources of stress — can help us and our children manage stress, uncertainty, and feelings of anxiety. However, being resilient does not mean that we won't experience difficulty or distress. Emotional pain and sadness are common when we have suffered major trauma or personal loss, or even when we hear of someone else's trauma.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The deadline for people interested in running adult-use cannabis businesses in South Lake Tahoe to turn in their paperwork has passed and 21 applications were received.

The City Council approved a total of two retail, two microbusiness, two cultivators and four manufacturer permits for South Lake Tahoe. That formula changes if the approved microbusinesses don't want to do retail or cultivation.

At the April 5 deadline, the 21 applications received included 18 were for retail, two for microbusinesses and one for cultivation.

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month and offers our community a time to increase awareness of the issues related to child maltreatment, identify strategies to strengthen families and understand how everyone in our community can be an everyday hero for children.

Strong, nurturing communities support families and play a role in preventing child abuse and neglect and promoting child and family well-being. Support can come in the form of helping to watch the kids for a couple of hours,

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - An agreement has been reached between the City of South Lake Tahoe and Tahoe Wellness Cooperative (TWC) after over two years of court proceedings between the two.

During the closed session portion of Tuesday's City Council meeting, the four councilmembers allowed to participate voted unanimously to accept the signed agreement between the City and TWC. Councilmember Cody Bass had to recuse himself from voting since he is the owner and president of TWC.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. The City of South Lake Tahoe has launched its new
newsletter - "At Lake Level." The monthly newsletter is written by City Manager Frank Rush and prepared by Communications Manager Chris Fiore in an effort to keep the community well informed about City issues and initiatives.

New Leadership

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - During their mid-cycle review of South Tahoe High School (STHS) the visiting committee from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) provided the school with positive feedback on all they are accomplishing at the school.

"Students and families feel safe on the campus and have multiple opportunities for connectedness to the school," said the committee in their report. "The facility is kept clean and safe from accidents. An SRO (student resource officer), social worker and empathy training has made the campus a friendly place for students and staff."

On March 14th, the City of South Lake Tahoe held a public meeting to discuss the already approved plan to re-route Hwy 50 through a bunch of small businesses and a whole neighborhood, around the backside of Harrah’s where half of the existing Loop Road now sits. This plan was concocted by the Tahoe Transportation District (TTD) and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) with little input from the community and the near absence of participation by our former City Leaders.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Tuesday, March 19, 2019, is an evening meeting for the South Lake Tahoe City Council with a start time of 5:30 p.m. at their airport chambers.

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. - A public meeting to discuss vegetation management options in an effort to reduce fire danger in area communities will be held on Monday, March 18 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the upstairs meeting room at Lake Valley Fire Protection District Headquarters.

Fire is a big concern in Lake Tahoe and El Dorado County and protecting the community and its residents will take management of surrounding vegetation. The meeting will discuss threats and remedies.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - It's been over three decades in the making. The US50 South Shore Community Revitalization Project, also known as the Loop Road, is getting closer to becoming a final plan and its implementation.

The South Lake Tahoe City Council heard a presentation by Tahoe Transportation District (TTD), Lew Feldman and John Hasty of Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) on Tuesday, outlining what has been accomplished and what is left to be done.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Tetrachloroethylene (PCE) was found in drinking water wells in South Lake Tahoe near the "Y" in 1989, and it remains in the groundwater today, forming a containment plume from the intersection of Highway 50 and State Route 89 and heading toward Lake Tahoe through the Tahoe Keys.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - There could soon be up to 57 new paid parking spaces around the Heavenly Village to help address the need for parking in the Stateline area of South Lake Tahoe

On Wednesday, South Lake Tahoe Police Chief Brian Uhler presented his proposal to about a dozen people who attended a public meeting at the Marriott Grand Residence.

City-owned paid parking kiosks have been in storage since 2014 when Measure P put an end to the use of paid parking in various areas within the City limits, something approved by City Council in 2012.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - In an effort to bring more of the public to their meetings, the South Lake Tahoe City Council is holding their second meeting of each month in the evening.

Tuesday, February 19 will be the first night meeting for the new Council and the agenda appears to be fairly short. The meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. and the Council voted to not allow the night meetings to go past 10:00 p.m.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - There's no question, South Lake Tahoe needs more public parking areas in town, especially near Stateline and the Heavenly Village.

During last week's City Council meeting, Police Chief Brian Uhler made a presentation with his ideas for adding 57 new parking spots around the village utilizing the surplus kiosks the city has on hand.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Fire Chief Jeff Meston is retiring from South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue (SLTFR) on February 28, five years and five months after he came out of retirement to head up the department.

On Friday, February 1, Meston submitted his resignation to the City.

"When I was hired by CM (City Manager) Kerry I promised to spend between 3-5 years with the City Fire Department and bring them as far as I could to be a “world class” fire department," Meston said in his resignation letter.

He feels he's accomplished what he set out to do.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - As part of their annual tasks the South Lake Tahoe City Council today appointed locals to several boards. In some cases there were not enough applicants while in the case of the planning commission, more applied that the number of open seats.

Seven applications were received for the appointment of five members to the Planning Commission. Selected were incumbents Diana Madson, Kili Ongoy and Jenna Palacio along with new members Natalia Wieczorek and Mason Hibbard.