Tahoe Paradise Park turns to EDC for help

By Kathryn Reed

MEYERS – Help is possibly on its way for the Tahoe Paradise Resort Improvement District.

The board that runs this park on the South Shore agreed on a 4-1 vote Feb. 5 to enter a memorandum of understanding with El Dorado County for the government to assist with administrative responsibilities. Judy Clot voted no.

Now the Board of Supervisors must OK the deal.

“We are at a critical mass point where we need help,” Sue Novasel said. She is chair of the TPRID board and the county supervisor representing this area. Novasel said she believes this route is necessary to “ensure our park is viable and that we will be able to do more.”

This South Shore park, which turns 50 in July, in many ways functions like it is a newbie and other ways like a relic of a bygone era. No one knows where the bylaws are, documents are stored in 11 boxes – nothing is digital, the lone employee who lives on site hasn’t been held accountable for the hours he works and now resists having to do so, election of board members doesn’t exist and there is no plan to make this area self-sustaining.

The MOU is designed to help resolve some of these issues. Instead of the park district starting from scratch, it will rely on the county’s experience with some basic practices like making sure all types of contracts are sound and dealing with the employee when it comes to work assignments and an annual review.

A bigger issue is to have county officials do an assessment of the park’s resources. This will help the park figure out what can and should be the focus going forward.

The plan is for the county to act in an advisory role for the next year. Ultimately it is up to the TPRID board to do what it wants.

Some of the nearly 20 people who attended the meeting worried if TPRID is giving up too much control to the county, as well as if the county’s attorney would have a conflict of interest if she were to give advice to the board because it might not be her employer’s best interest.

It was reiterated that the TPRID board has the ultimate say and that if needs firm legal advice, that will mean hiring an outside attorney if need be.

TPRID has a nearly $130,000 grant that has largely been spent on siding and landscape issues. The goal was to install a more permanent rest room, but ultimately the proposal did not meet Tahoe Regional Planning Agency requirements.

A contingency of the grant is that projects must be completed by a certain date in order to be reimbursed for costs or the money goes away. Creative paperwork allowed for the tennis court improvements that were made a couple years ago to suffice for the current deadline.

But the one court that is still unplayable because of the cracks is destined to remain that way for quite a while because a spring runs underneath it that makes continued replacement fiscally irresponsible.

What might happen with that plot of land in the future has not been determined.

The district is working on a master plan, with the goal to bring it to the public at a workshop in the coming months. No date has been set.

This board has been dysfunctional in the past, but played nice Thursday night. Board member Lorraine Anderson resigned effective at the end of the meeting. It will be up to the board to replace her.

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Notes:

• Future board meetings – Feb. 19, March 26 and April 30. The next meeting is at 6pm at Lake Valley Fire Protection District off Highway 89.

• Events committee to meet Feb. 17 at 6pm at Lake Valley Fire.

• A presentation about the budget is expected at the next board meeting.