What’s in Store for Transit North and South will be the topic of a discussion at Lake Tahoe Community College on Nov. 18.

This is part of Tahoe Talks Brown Bag Lunch Series. It is from noon to 1:30pm in the Aspen Room

This panel will talk about transit plans being prepared all around the Lake Tahoe Basin and the challenges and opportunities for improving transit, with a particular emphasis on transit to ski resort activities and transit between community centers and major destinations.

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board at its Oct. 28 meeting is expected to levy a $7,500 fine against the owners of the Tahoe Keys Marina for unauthorized grading and construction of a temporary parking area.

The marina was doing so to create more parking for a boat show.

The South Lake Tahoe marina began creating the lot in July 2014 without a permit or permission from the California Tahoe Conservancy, which owns the land.

The marina owns the paved area. The Conservancy owns the dirt area. A fence separates the two.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Kathryn Baron, Hechinger Report

MODESTO — When Emily Littleton was growing up, she was often awoken at night by the sound of her younger sister wheezing and struggling for breath from an asthma attack. Littleton would grab the nebulizer, hook it up for her sister and get her dad.

The experience remained deeply rooted in Littleton’s memory, resurfacing several years after she graduated from high school as a calling for a career. The first time she attended community college, Littleton said she vacillated from major to major finally earning a two-year degree in natural sciences. Then, while working at an assisted living facility, she heard about the respiratory therapy program at Modesto Junior College, and her past echoed, directing her choice of a career. In December, Littleton and her 23 classmates will graduate with their associate’s degrees.

But those degrees are already on the verge of becoming obsolete as respiratory therapy and other skilled fields increasingly require a higher level of education in order to meet rapidly expanding demands for greater technical know-how and knowledge. An associate’s degree just won’t cut it anymore.

“I’ve been watching with great concern the fact that many employers who previously required associate degree level training now require bachelor’s degree level training,” said Constance Carroll, chancellor of the San Diego Community College District.

Carroll helped launch a campaign to make it easier for students to earn bachelor’s degrees in these key areas. Last year, after two failed efforts, the state Legislature gave the go-ahead for some community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees on a limited basis.

Read the whole story

The Douglas County Public Library is having a book sale Nov. 14 from 9am-5pm and on Nov. 15 from 9am-2pm.

A special members-only preview for Friends of the Douglas County Public Library will take place Nov. 13 from 4-8pm. Join the Friends at the door to attend.

The sale will be at the Carson Valley United Methodist Church located at 1375 Centerville Lane in Gardnerville.

Thousands of used books and audio books will be for sale; DVDs and music CDs will also be available. Cash purchases only.

Friends of the Douglas County Public Library and anyone who joins the Friends during the sale will receive a 10 percent discount.

·      Lake Valley Fire Protection District this month swore in apprentice firefighter-paramedic Dylan Yuzbick.

·      Cork & More in South Lake Tahoe is staying open for now because potential buyers have come forward.

·      Lake Valley Fire Protection District honored attorney William Wright with a proclamation upon his retirement after serving the district for 25 yeas.

·       Local restaurateur Matt Grime and local business owner Erik Watada are creating Neighborhood Burgers on Lower Kingsbury in Stateline. It will open in December.

·      Here are the El Dorado-Tahoe and Sierra roadwork schedules from Caltrans for this week.

Cartoons and Hollywood animated movies may be catering to children, but they often come with an adult message. The same can be said for the book “Spooner the Bear”.

Jake Willers of Reno penned this children’s book that has a message for parents, or whatever adult, might be doing the reading.

It’s all about garbage bears. While Lake Tahoe is never mentioned, it is hard not to believe this region is what Willers had in mind when he was writing.

The book is written from a bear’s point-of-view. The story about how he goes about educating another bear on the need to stay away from human food.

This is Willers’ first book. H recently produced a film for Washoe County Health District titled “Urban Bears: Keeping Nevada’s Bears Wild”.

The illustrations by Lainie are colorful and fun, and tell the same story the words convey.

This is one of those books that is educational, but is bound not to strike young kids that way. They are more likely to see a fun, colorful bear who is all about doing what’s right – including educating other bears.

— Kathryn Reed

Other than the Tahoe Valley Y, the intersection of Highway 50 and Ski Run Boulevard reflects perhaps more changes more often since the 1950s than any other South Shore intersection. Photos taken in the area demonstrate the transformation best.

This photo likely was taken about 1956, as Heavenly Valley opened in 1955, and shows the two-lane Highway 50 toward the Nevada state line. The photographer likely took this image from where today would be in the middle of a Ski Run Boulevard turn lane next to today’s Red Hut. Photo/South Lake Tahoe archives

The photo above shows that there were no stoplights in the early 1950s. The Lawrence’s Department Store sign (left-center) fronted the same building which was remodeled and now houses Chevy’s restaurant.

Development came rapidly in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

This photo must be later 1960s, as the Echo Motel sign boasts “Master Charge” which was introduced in late 1966. (Master Charge changed its brand to MasterCard in 1979). Photo/South Lake Tahoe archives

The photo above was taken from an elevation equal to the second-story window behind the Echo sign, at about where a driveway now enters today’s Chevron station on that site. That distant green pickup carrying the aluminum boat atop the camper shell is approaching Highway 50 at the same fire hydrant corner as shown in the 1956 photo.

Del’s Market and the Ski Run Lodge were replaced by the Ski Run Center showing where the Burger Bar fronted Highway 50, approximately where today Kentucky Fried Chicken stands. At right, the southeast corner of the intersection shows the “3 Swiss Motel and Cottages” and sign, behind which is seen Effie’s Dress Shop with its display window atop the mound on the corner.

This is the Ski Run Center as it stood in October 2007, shortly before being razed. Photo/Bill Kingman

As I recall, in the 1960s there was a section between the KFC and the adjacent Video Maniacs 2 which was an open-air covered patio for Burger Bar diners.

The Ski Run Center as it looks today. Photo/Bill Kingman

In 2015, Highway 50 is a five-lane thoroughfare, the Ski Run Center is totally rebuilt, a Chevron station occupies the Echo Motel site. Redevelopment also brought new landscaping, including the currently vacant southeast corner where Effie’s and the 3 Swiss Motel disappeared long ago.

This 2014 Then & Now article with its posted comments tells about the other corners of the intersection.

— Bill Kingman

Casey’s next to the Round Hill Safeway is becoming a locals’ hangout. Photo/LTN

By Kathryn Reed

Restaurant, sports bar, entertainment venue — Casey’s in the Round Hill Shopping Center is trying to have a little bit of something for everyone.

And now it can boast of having award-winning chili after chef Jorge Gonzalez won a cook-off last month in the Carson Valley. That same chili, which is a recipe Gonzalez created, is served at the South Shore restaurant.

Every Thursday at Casey’s a different nonprofit benefits from those bowls of chili, as a portion of the proceeds go to the charity.

For Tom Gallatin this is his first foray into the restaurant business. Prior to February, when he took over what was Coyote Grill, Gallatin had been an entrepreneur and an engineer in the tech industry. He has been in Tahoe since 2010 when he retired.

“I never owned a restaurant or small business before, but felt I knew what it was like to be a customer and understood things from the customers’ standpoint,” Gallatin told Lake Tahoe News.

Locals are hanging out at Casey’s regularly, but out-of-towners are also finding their way to the casual establishment.

First order of business for Gallatin was to improve the quality of food by changing suppliers and reducing prices. The menu was also altered a bit. He calls it “American comfort food with a Mexican section.”

The restaurant was remodeled at the get-go, now the bar is about to be overhauled. Starting Nov. 2 the eatery will be closed for a few days while a red granite bar top is installed with cherry wood on the front.

The layout changes are designed to improve service.

The beer system – with 10 taps – will all be new. Beer will be stored in the back with lines overhead in the ceiling, with a special cooling system. An inverted T structure will hang down over the top of the bar. The brass plumbing system will have lights around it so it will be the first thing people see.

Adjacent to where the food and drinks are served is what is called the living room. Down the road it will be revamped, too. This is where McAvoy Layne impersonates Mark Twain on the first Saturday of each month ($20 includes first drink), where on Sundays it becomes an open mic venue, and people can plan their special events.

With eight televisions, multiple sporting events are likely to be on.

The restaurant gets its name from the family dog Casey who died last year at age 23.

—–

Notes:

·       Address: 212 Elks Point Road, Round Hill.

·       Phone: 775-586-1822

·       Hours: 8am-9pm

·       More info is available online.

By Aisha Harris, Slate

Most good things must come with a price, as longtime fighters in the crusade for an all-day McDonald’s breakfast menu can attest. The fast-food chain has bent to the will of their vocal customer base, nixing the 10:30am service cut-off for such beloved items as the egg McMuffin, sausage burrito, and hotcakes.

But as Buzzfeed reports, not all items on the menu will be available at every location,depending upon the region—and the item people are most upset about not having all-day, every day, is the hash brown.

“Depending on the setup of their kitchens, about 10 percent of restaurants will not be offering the golden, crispy delight, meaning customers may end up pairing their Egg McMuffin with fries. Fries!”

The author, Venessa Wong, writes this as if it’s a travesty, an unconscionably huge step backward immediately following a giant leap forward in the movement for equal breakfast for all. And as a lover of nearly all forms of spud, I get it. McDonald’s hash browns are fine. But there’s a more important war to be won, and that is over the McDonald’s French fry. Forget your all-day hash browns: Give us your all-day fries.

Read the whole story

There will be a financial workshop on Nov. 3 designed to help nonprofits, small business owners and entrepreneurs better understand their financials and prepare for the next year.

It is being presented by the Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Bank and Mann, Urrutia, Nelson, CPAs.

It is designed to help individuals understand the importance of tax planning and year-round communication with their accountant and bank, as well as the importance of incorporating a business. Workshop attendees will also be taught how proper business financials help grow a business and how it may lead to potential tax benefits.

The workshop is from 3:30-5:30pm at the chamber offices at 169 Highway 50, Stateline. It is free for chamber members, $15 for others. RSVPs are encouraged by calling 775.588.1728, ext. 300.