By Kathryn Reed

South Tahoe Refuse hopes to have its green waste program revamped by this spring when people start to clean their yards after winter.

“It will be expanded to get a higher diversion percentage,” John Marchini with the South Lake Tahoe garbage company told Lake Tahoe News.

The company is still working out what exactly the program will look like.

STR services the South Shore of El Dorado and Douglas counties. In California, there is unlimited pick up, while Nevada residents pay for the number of cans used.

In the past green waste and regular garbage had been picked up on the same day but not always by the same truck. This has led to some confusion by drivers and customers.

All garbage companies in California are required to recycle 50 percent of the waste they collect – known as the diversion rate. The goal per the state is 75 percent in 2020. STR is currently at about 64 percent.

Getting more pine needles out of the landfill not only is better for the environment it helps with the diversion rate. Those bags of debris add up weight-wise much faster than recyclables like plastic.

STR is also looking to beef up its diversion of construction material and food waste to reach the higher state goal in the next four years.

The Ritz-Carlton Lakeside is expected to be built this summer.

By Kathryn Reed

A private beach for Lake Tahoe Ritz-Carlton guests is close to becoming a reality.

The resort has secured the property in Tahoe Vista on which it plans to build a clubhouse of sorts this summer that would be available only for guests of the Truckee hotel.

“It is something we have been talking about for some time,” Giles Priestland, Ritz spokesman, told Lake Tahoe News. “It would be a wonderful way to have a direct connection to the lake for our guests.”

Kennedy Wilson, an international real estate investment and service firm, and its partners own the Lake Tahoe Ritz. It is KW-Northstar Ventures which has secured the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency permit and approvals from the Placer County.

KW owns what had been the Shore House bed and breakfast. That building will be demolished and a new 2,965-square-foot, two-story structure put in its place.

Paul Thompson with Placer County’s planning department said the design site approval has been issued. Now the applicant must apply for a building permit and have the improvement plans for the site approved. The latter pertains to the parking lot, landscaping and retaining wall.

A rendering of the beach house from Highway 28.

According to TRPA, the project will help with water quality and will have improved scenic aspects. The new structure will be situated so the lake is visible when driving by on Highway 28. That is not the case with the current building.

The structure will have a changing area for guests, as well as a kitchen. It is being called a beach pavilion, with the name Ritz-Carlton Lakeside.

Only registered guests of the Ritz will be allowed to use it; not any of their friends staying elsewhere. When the bed and breakfast was in operation, the beach area was also limited to those guests.

The Ritz estimates between 20 and 30 percent of its guests go to the lake. That percentage is expected to increase to 40 with the beach house. It’s projected about 22 people on average will be there on any given summer day, with 31 people at peak periods.

While there will be parking on-site, the Ritz intends to provide a shuttle for guests and the handful of employees who will work there.

The nine tourist accommodation units and one residential unit will remain associated with the property. Any transfer of those would require TRPA approval.

By Katie Arnold, Outside

The other morning my 5-year-old daughter begged me to let her buy lunch at school. I typically pack her and her 7-year-old sister an almond-butter sandwich, carrot sticks, and a sliced apple, but we’d gotten a late start to the day and my husband and I were chasing them around with hairbrushes and reminding them for the eighth time to put on their socks and shoes. I looked at the clock and did the math: I could hustle and make the five-year-old lunch, or we could bike to school. Easy choice: we rode bikes, and she got beef tostadas at school.

Our mornings would certainly be smoother without making lunch everyday.

It’s not a question of cost—at $2.50 a pop, the lunches at our public elementary school are affordable. It’s matter of nutrition.

Every time I look at the menu, I have to wonder: If food is fuel for our bodies and brains, and kids are in school to exercise both, why aren’t school lunches healthier?

Read the whole story

By Elizabeth Royte, National Geographic

Tristram Stuart has 24 hours to produce a restaurant meal for 50 people—to plan a menu, gather food, then welcome guests to a venue in a city not his own. Complicating what sounds like a reality-show contest is a singular rule: Nearly all the ingredients must be sourced from farms and vendors intending to throw them out.

After racing back to New York City from a New Jersey farm where he gleaned 75 pounds of crookneck squash deemed by the farmers too crooked to sell, Stuart bolts from a car creeping through traffic and darts into a Greenwich Village bakery. Tall and blond, with a posh English accent, he launches into his ten-second spiel: “I run an organization that campaigns against food waste, and I’m pulling together a feast tomorrow made with food that won’t be sold or donated to charity. Do you have any bread that we could use?” The bakery doesn’t, but the clerk hands him two broken chocolate-chip cookies as consolation.

Across cultures, food waste goes against the moral grain. After all, nearly 800 million people worldwide suffer from hunger. But according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, we squander enough food—globally, 2.9 trillion pounds a year—to feed every one of them more than twice over. Where’s all that food—about a third of the planet’s production—going? In developing nations much is lost postharvest for lack of adequate storage facilities, good roads, and refrigeration. In comparison, developed nations waste more food farther down the supply chain, when retailers order, serve, or display too much and when consumers ignore leftovers in the back of the fridge or toss perishables before they’ve expired.

Read the whole story

By Marissa Lang, San Francisco Chronicle

Tired of struggling with hard-to-cut plastic casing, Barbara Walter bought a tool that proclaimed to do the job her scissors could not: sawing through plastic blister packs with ease.

The only problem? The device came packaged in brittle plastic casing.

Paul Tasner watched his wife struggle with the plastic in stunned silence before he burst into laughter.

“This is insane,” he thought. “Why are we packing everything in plastic?”

It’s a moment Tasner recalls often in describing his journey to create PulpWorks Inc., a for-profit company he started in 2011 with Elena Olivari, a former architect who specialized in sustainable architecture. PulpWorks seeks to replace the plastic used to package consumer products, like cosmetics and electronics, with eco-friendly packaging made from recycled paper and agricultural waste.

Read the whole story

By Richard N. Velotta, Las Vegas Review-Journal

The Governor’s Gaming Policy Committee is on course to recommend some form of regulation for daily fantasy sports wagering, but don’t count on the leading companies in the industry to line up for licensing.

Executives of Draft Kings and FanDuel, the two largest daily fantasy sports industry players, told the 12-member committee on Monday that regulation could kill the innovation the technology of daily fantasy sports brings to its millions of players.

The committee, comprised of gaming industry leaders, state legislators and former and present industry regulators, made it clear that the state wants fantasy sports to be a part of Nevada’s wagering offerings, but members also said they view it as gambling that must be regulated to protect consumers.

Gov. Brian Sandoval, who chaired the meeting, convened the committee to address daily fantasy sports, innovative gaming devices, skill-based games and other innovations in the rapidly evolving industry.

Read the whole story

Tahoe Symphony Orchestra and Chorus continues its Winter MusicFest with the 11th annual presentation of J.S. Bach’s masterpiece the “Passion according to St. Matthew”.

The first concert of the four concert series will take place March 18 at 7pm at Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Carson City (3597 N. Sunridge Drive).

The program will feature selections from “Part two of the Passion”, and will be performed in English. Soloists include Sherman Modeste as the Evangelist, Chris Langton as Jesus, John Rabben as Pontius Pilate, and Chris Nelson as Peter. Maria Arrigotti, Anna Helwing and Joy Strotz are the soprano soloists. Scott Deupree performs as the High Priest, with Susan Horst, MaryAnn Helman, Linda Mitchell and Michael Lloyd as the false witnesses. Katie Lauder will play harpsichord continuo, along with Nicholas Haines, cello. Maestro James Rawie will conduct all performances.

The “St. Matthew Passion” will be repeated on Palm Sunday, March 20 at 3pm at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in south Reno located at 100 Bishop Manogue Drive. (775.851.1874), and again on March 21 at 7pm at St. Theresa Catholic Church in South Lake Tahoe located at 1041 Lyons Ave. (530.544.3533). The final concert will be on Good Friday, March 25 at 7pm at St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church in Incline Village located at 341 Village Blvd. (775.831.1418).

Tickets are available at the door or online. General admission to all concerts is $25 adults, $20 seniors, $5 students aged 19 to 23 with valid ID. Preferred seating is $35 and $15 for youth/students. Youth under 19 years of age are admitted free, in non reserved seating, to most regular season concerts in 2016.

A Reno man died Sunday while skiing at Mount Rose ski resort.

Ski patrollers were unable to revive Luke Solum, 43, when they found him just after 2pm March 6 on the Galena run.

The cause of death is under investigation because it did not appear he ran into anything.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Richard Solbrig

The National Interagency Fire Center described the 2015 wildfire season as one of the most severe in decades, with more than 10 million acres burned.  The Valley (76,000 acres), Butte (70,000 acres), and Rough (150,000 acres) wildfires highlighted the impact of the severe drought upon our critical watersheds.

According to a study by the Carnegie Institution for Science, they found that up to 58 million large trees in California have been heavily impacted by the drought and another 888 million trees, or approximately 41,000 square miles of forest, are drought-stressed.

As evidenced by the Angora, Martis and Gondola fires, the Lake Tahoe Basin is no stranger to the threat of wildfire to the health of our environment and our communities. Recognizing this threat, Tahoe’s public water agencies, together with the U.S. Forest Service, embarked on an aggressive program to accelerate installation of critical water infrastructure to enhance our regional response to the threat of catastrophic wildfires. This bi-state effort is being accomplished through the Lake Tahoe Community Fire Protection Partnership.

Over eight limited construction seasons (May-October) the partnership has installed more than 16 miles of improved water line with 180 new fire hydrants every 500 lineal feet, 10 new water storage tanks with a 4.7-million-gallon storage capacity, five new booster pump stations to increase water flow, and strategically placed emergency generators to provide continued water supply during catastrophic events.

This regional collaboration is fortunate to have the support of the region’s congressional delegation, which recognizes the importance of a comprehensive approach to reduce the potential for catastrophic wildfire that includes enhancing the fire response capability of municipal water systems.

The Lake Tahoe Restoration Act, co-sponsored by Sens. Dean Heller, Dianne Feinstein, Harry Reid and Barbara Boxer, includes important provisions to reduce the threat of wildfire, improve water clarity, fight invasive species and support vital water infrastructure improvements, a comprehensive strategy to restore and protect the environment in the Lake Tahoe Basin. This measured approach calls for active management of our federal lands together with actions to protect the environment and our communities from wildfire. The water partnership joins Tahoe’s environmental and business leaders in ardently calling for the passage of Senate Bill 1724, Lake Tahoe Restoration Act.

In the House, Rep. Tom McClintock has introduced a scaled down version (H.R. 3382) of the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act, which focuses on fire risk and invasive species management. We agree that the provisions are of vital importance to the economic and environmental health of the region and look forward to both Senate and House approaches moving forward to conference.

As we enter the 2016 wildfire season, the local partnership will embark on an aggressive effort to install critical water infrastructure for fire response and work with firefighting community to protect the Tahoe basin.

Richard Solbrig is executive director of South Tahoe Public Utility District.

Grammy-winning harpist Anne Roos plays at Zephyr Cove Lodge now that the restaurant is having live music on occasion. Photo/LTN

·      TRYP will host a professional development workshop titled Nutrient Deficiencies: Eat Well to Live Well on March 16 from 6-7pm at Elevated Fitness, 4000 Lake Tahoe Blvd., Suite 8, South Lake Tahoe. The workshop is free for members, and $5 for non-members.

·      The Future of Rural Healthcare Conference hosted by Barton Health is June 8-10 at Harveys is Stateline. For more info, go online.

·      Dusty LaChapelle has been named Lake Valley Fire Protection District’s firefighter of the year.

·       Barton Urology services are now available in Incline Village — 925 Lake Tahoe Blvd, Suite 105. Bradley Anderson is the only full time urologist in the Lake Tahoe Basin.