· Sharket.com has compiled a ranking of the top five Marriott Vacation Club timeshare resorts; South Lake Tahoe is on the list.

·  EDsmart recently released rankings of California community colleges, with Lake Tahoe Community College being in the top five.

·  Carson Valley Inn Food Truck Festival is May 23 from noon-8pm. It will be in and adjacent to TJ’s Corral, the outdoor events center at the inn.

·  The League of American Bicyclists ranked California eighth and Nevada 31 for bike-friendly states. For more info, go online.

·  Truckee Tahoe Airport District received the District Transparency Certificate of Excellence from the California Special Districts Association in recognition of its efforts to promote transparency and good governance.

By Kyle Roerink, Las Vegas Sun

In response to a bevy of controversial energy issues emerging in the state, a coalition of gaming, tech and energy companies will align to promote more consumer choice in what’s shaping up to be a long battle against the state’s dominant power company, NV Energy.

The Nevada Coalition to Protect Ratepayers includes Switch, Wynn Resorts, Las Vegas Sands, SolarCity and Sunrun. The group’s formation follows weeks of debate about a disputed rooftop solar policy that reduces power bills for ratepayers and a 2001 law that allows large companies to generate and purchase power without the utility.

The crux of the coalition’s concerns reside in the Legislature and highlights myriad frustrations that energy-reform advocates have had this session. The companies, which include some of the state’s largest employers and emerging industries, have been pushing for policy changes they say will benefit homeowners and employers. But their efforts have come with little success, as well as opposition from NV Energy.

Read the whole story

Like Memorial Day and Labor Day being the official start and end of summer, National Safe Boating Week is the official start of the recreational boating safety season.

The U.S. Coast Guard uses this event to stress the importance of safety on the water. One of the many divisions of the U.S. Coast Guard that is responsible for boating safety is the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary. The Auxiliary, the all volunteer arm of the Coast Guard, provides a variety of services to our community. Safety and security patrols on the lake during the summer, boating safety and operational classes during June, July, and August, and vessel safety checks during the year are just three services carried out to help our water sportsmen and women be safe doing whatever they enjoy.

For more information on the Auxiliary and these services and how to become a member, feel free to call Vic Beelik at 775.588.1385 or me at 530.541.4654.

In the mean time, when you are out on the water, wear your life jacket or have immediate access to one and enjoy our beautiful Lake.

— Mort Meiers

NV Energy wants to build a 60-kilovolt line that would go from Foothill Road in the Carson Valley to Tramway Drive at the top of Kingsbury Grade.

The U.S. Forest Service has released a notice of public scoping for an environmental assessment.

The line will be a combination of single-pole and double-pole H frame structures that will be strategically placed within approximately the middle third of the alignment to allow the transmission line to span numerous road crossings and canyons along the alignment.

It will go from 30 single poles to seven H frame.

SPPCo is the environmental consultant for the project.

For more info or to provide comments, email Juliana Prosperi at juliana.prosperi@amecfw.com.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Outside

The California state legislature is currently reviewing a bill that would open trails, paths, and bike lanes to e-bikes, according to Bicycling.com. Bike lanes and paths are generally reserved exclusively for nonmotorized use, but the rising popularity of electric bikes in the United States has led local and state governments to consider allowing bikes with electric motors on bike paths.

Opening paths to e-bikes would help encourage more people to use bikes for transportation, but some local officials worry about the safety issues of allowing e-bikes on nonmotorized paths, particularly throttle-driven models that can propel a bike without a rider pedaling.

Read the whole story

The next incarnation of the former Alta Mira building site will be the topic of a May 26 meeting.

California Tahoe Conservancy is hosting the open house to gather public input regarding reuse of the site. The primary purpose of the project is to enhance public lakefront access within the El Dorado Beach corridor.

The meeting will be at the South Lake Tahoe Library (1000 Rufus Allen Blvd.) from 4-6pm.

For more information, contact Scott Cecchi at scott.cecchi@tahoe.ca.gov or 530.543.6015.

By Emanuella Grinberg, CNN

Cyclist Alan Crocker regrets flipping off the driver of the blue pickup that buzzed past him on a recent Saturday morning in Rome, Ga.

He’s not proud of it, and he’ll never do it again — especially now that he knows how unpredictable the response might be.

Crocker was wearing a helmet camera that recorded the driver getting out of his vehicle and knocking him over on his bike. He showed the footage to the Floyd County police officer who responded to his 911 call. According to a police report, the footage convinced the officer that the driver was “the aggressor,” refuting his claim that Crocker provoked him by kicking his car.

It’s National Bike to Work Week, but bike-friendly roads are still hard to come by in many states, according to rankings released Monday by the League of American Bicyclists. The uneasy relationship between drivers and cyclists can also keep would-be riders off the road.

It’s rare for drivers to respond to bicyclists with intentional acts of aggression. But with more bicycles and cars sharing the road, some cyclists are arming themselves with helmet or mounted cameras for the worst-case scenarios.

Read the whole story

To the community,

The Barton Memorial Hospital Auxiliary and Sacramento Blood Source would like to thank the local businesses who generously provided donations at the Auxiliary Blood Drive on May 1 at the South Lake Tahoe Recreation Center.

The Barton Auxiliary collected more than $700 in gifts for our gracious blood donors. We received gift certificates for a tasty meal from the restaurants Agave Azul, Ernie’s Coffeeshop, My Thai, and Lake Tahoe Golf Course. Tahoe Bowl stepped in for an active bowling thank you. Lastly, the Barton Hospital Gift Shop and the Attic Thrift Store supplied vouchers for their stores.

We appreciate the thoughtfulness in giving back to those who kindly donate their blood and platelets for our community needs. Our next Blood Drive is July 31.

Sincerely,

Cathy Vogelgesang, Barton Auxiliary member

Despite an increase in injuries and deaths from boating in 2014 compared to 2013, last year had the second-lowest number of boating fatalities on record, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

The U.S. Coast Guard on May 13 released its 2014 recreational boating statistics.

From 2013 to 2014, boating deaths increased from 560 to 610, an 8.9 percent increase, injuries increased from 2,620 to 2,678, a 2.2 percent increase and the total number of accidents increased from 4,062 to 4,064, a 0.05 percent increase. Even with these increases as compared to the record low year of 2013, 2012 to 2014 collectively set record lows for accidents, deaths and injuries.

The fatality rate of 5.2 deaths per 100,000 registered recreational vessels reflected a 10.6 percent increase from the previous year’s rate of 4.7 deaths per 100,000 registered recreational vessels. Property damage totaled approximately $39 million.

The publication states alcohol use was the leading contributing factor in fatal boating accidents; it was the main culprit in 21 percent of the deaths. Operator inattention, improper lookout, operator inexperience, excessive speed and alcohol use ranked as the top five primary contributing factors in accidents.

Where the cause of death was known, 78 percent of fatal boating accident victims drowned; of those drowning victims, 84 percent were not wearing a life jacket. Where boating instruction was known, 77 percent of deaths occurred on vessels where the operator had not received boating safety instructions.

The most common types of vessels involved in reported accidents were open motorboats, personal watercraft and cabin motorboats. The vessel types with the highest number of fatalities were open motorboats, canoes and kayaks.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Kathryn Reed

Climate change is going to bring bigger floods, warmer waters, less snow and more rain to the Lake Tahoe Basin, according to scientists.

And then what?

The Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board is asking that and other questions.

“We have tools. But the big question is what tools don’t we have to deal with climate change?” Patty Kouyoumdjian, executive officer of Lahontan, posed to her board at a May 14 workshop.

She said in 2005 when California began to seriously look at what could be done to combat climate change officials thought there was plenty of time to find solutions. That’s not the case. The problem is here. The Round Fire near Mammoth in February destroyed 40 houses. It was the snow line that stopped it. A reality of climate change is that wildfires won’t be seasonal, but instead will be year-round.

More floods means structures will be threatened or damaged, and wetlands will be overrun with water. Water quality ultimately will be impacted. That is why Lahontan is involved. The California agency deals strictly with water issues.

As Lake Tahoe and other bodies of water continue to warm, assuming predictions come true, there will be more harmful algal blooms, an increase in invasive species and a stressed aquatic system.

With less snow comes a drying of wells, unhealthy forests and less recharge.

The state has tasked the regional water boards with needing to come up with ways to deal with climate change. Lahontan had two public workshops in the last year, the board workshop on Thursday and staff will now devise a draft report that is expected to be completed this summer, with the final done by the end of the year.

Out of the 100 comments submitted at the public workshops came 400 ideas. The four main themes were protecting resources and providing resiliency; improving water supply and water quality; communicating, collaborating, and streamlining processes; and other considerations and opportunities.

The board (Kimberly Cox was absent) is most interested in looking into having the whole jurisdiction comply with stream environmental zones – better known as floodplains and wetlands outside the basin – in the same manner Lake Tahoe and Truckee are mandated to.

Protecting the groundwater supply – aka the aquifer – also is a top concern.

“We don’t want to lose aquifer capacity. We need to protect the groundwater recharge,” board member Amy Horne said.

With flooding usually being short term, that was less of a concern for her.

“Maybe stormwater needs to be looked at as an asset instead of a pollutant,” board member Eric Sandel said. “We need the water. Just because it may have something in it we don’t like we can deal with that later.”

The board recognized that whatever solutions are put on the table that there could be political, financial and jurisdictional constraints. It was stressed that working with other agencies as well as the public is going to be imperative to accomplishing many of the goals. A large part of this has to do with Lahontan not having the ability to dictate land use policy.

Board member Peter Pumphrey stressed the need to be “nimble” so whatever is ultimately decided as the focus can be altered as science evolves and other changes take place.

Borrowing from the total maximum daily load requirements when it comes to adaptive management was suggested.