Habitat for Humanity’s A Brush with Kindness program in South Lake Tahoe is open to qualified low-income homeowners. 

Volunteer teams work to improve the condition of homes by providing minor exterior repairs, painting, and completing yard clean-up at minimum or no cost to homeowners who are unable to complete the work on their own.

The nonprofit is accepting applications for the 2018 summer project season. Applications are available online. The application deadline is April 15.

Truckee will be implementing expanded Dial-a-Ride services beginning March 18.

The new Sunday service is fully funded by an FTA Section 5310 Enhanced Mobility of Seniors and Individuals with Disabilities Program grant on a three-year pilot. This service is available to area seniors, persons with disabilities, and the general public. 

Similar to Saturday Dial-a-Ride, the Sunday service will operate from 9am to 5pm with reservations required by 5pm on Friday. The Sunday Dial-a-Ride will provide service into all neighborhoods and commercial areas within Truckee and can be used for any reason (work, shopping, church, dining, visit friends/family, recreation, etc.).

The one-way fare for adults is $6 and $2 for a senior, person with a disability, or child under the age of 12, or a multi-ride punch pass can be purchased for $20.

For schedules and additional information, go online.

By Jack Foersterling, Powder
 
 According to SnowSports Industries America (SIA), human-powered snowsports, which includes backcountry skiing and touring, is becoming one of the fastest growing sectors of the winter sports industry. Studies from SIA have shown that nearly 7 million skiers and snowboarders explored the backcountry in 2016-17, a 15 percent increase from the previous season, and sales of backcountry ski equipment see a similar increase year over year.

But a lot of skiers aren’t just using their gear in the backcountry–as access to better and lighter touring equipment has become available, many resorts across the U.S. are also seeing a significant uptick in visitors opting to skip the lift line and skin up the hill themselves.

Read the whole story

·      Placer County continues to hold the top spot among California counties for quality of life, according to results from the ninth annual County Health Rankings.

·      The Aviation Roundup at the Minden-Tahoe Airport returns Oct. 13-14 with showcase performances by the U.S. Navy Blue Angels.

·      The creators of the AlertTahoe mountaintop fire camera network, the Nevada Seismological Lab, received the CENIC 2018 Innovations in Networking Award for Experimental Applications. The award is in recognition of their work to bring advanced information technology and telecommunications to help firefighting managers in their efforts to prevent and contain California and Nevada wildfires.

·      South Lake Tahoe Fire Department is sponsoring a community blood drive at Fire Station 3 located at 2101 Lake Tahoe Blvd. on March 26 from 9am to 1pm. Bring a photo ID and eat and drink before donating. For more information, contact Capt. Kim George at 530.307.9596.

·      April 1 is the deadline to apply for the Kevin Murnane Scholarship. For more info, go online.

Soroptimist International of South Lake Tahoe handed out $25,003 this week, with the emphasis on helping local youth.

The recipients are:

• NAMI, El Dorado County, South Lake Tahoe – Brain Health Leadership
• St. Theresa Bread & Broth – 4-Kids Health Snack
• Tahoe Arts Project – Performing Arts in School
• Sierra House Elementary School PTA – Agroforestry Project
• Tahoe Youth & Family Services – Drug Store Project
• Tahoe Rim Trail Association – Inspiring Local Youth in the Outdoors
• Family Resource Center – Youth Equity Project, Leadership Opportunities
• UCD Tahoe Environmental Research Center – South Tahoe Science Expo
• Lake Tahoe Environmental Science Magnet School – Growing Green Program
• Bringing Arts to School – Meet the Masters
• South Tahoe Middle School – Computer Coding for Girls
• Friends of El Dorado County Library, South Lake Tahoe Chapter – Outdoor Learning Garden
• Bijou Community School – Get in the Act! Science Theater
• SOS Outreach – Progressive Outdoor Program for Underserved Youth
• St. Joseph Community Land Trust – Motel to Housing Program.

There will be a project update meeting for the Tahoe City firehouse properties near Commons Beach in North Lake Tahoe on April 4 from 6-8pm at the former Fire Station 51.

Placer County staff will share four request for information responses received for a long-term lease and reuse development concept for the Tahoe City firehouse properties.

The county-owned Tahoe City firehouse properties include three buildings: the former North Tahoe Fire Station 51, Tahoe Community Center building and the former visitor center building.

Staff will also share an overview of the process for moving the project forward, including a summary of selected RFI submissions and an outline of next steps. RFI respondents will be present to answer questions as time allows.

The Board of Supervisors will receive an update on the project at their April meeting in North Lake Tahoe.

Hundreds of South Tahoe High Students rally for safe schools on March 14. Photo/Julie Threewit

By Kathryn Reed

Teachers are now human shields, ready to take a bullet for a student. And students – little kids, not just teenagers – no longer feel safe at school, a place that not so long ago was a sanctuary of sorts.

During the recent Tahoe Valley Elementary School lockdown teacher Jody Dayberry peeked into the hallway. She saw the fear in the first-graders’ eyes, and the tears rolling down. One 6-year-old asked if someone had a gun and told her teacher she didn’t want to die.

This is what it’s like today to be a student – and a teacher – in the United States. A certain innocence has been lost.

Dayberry relayed this exchange to the school board members at their meeting this week. Fortunately, that event was a false alarm, but for the kids it was still a scary time.

“We as educators can’t stay silent,” Dayberry said. “We can’t idly sit by and hope the odds are on our side. We must make plans. We must have procedures.”

She lobbied for training in how to talk to students and getting help with identifying at-risk students.

Talk about safety measures is cheap until someone dies.

Talk is what Lake Tahoe Unified School District is good at. There was even more talk on March 13, with board members wanting to talk even more before they pull the proverbial trigger to actually do something.

Safety in this South Shore district has been talked about for at least a decade. School shootings seem to spur the discussion. So it was in summer 2013. At that time the board said yes to cameras and other measures.

The cameras, well, they still aren’t all in. The wiring isn’t even in place for many. The district has more than 80 cameras and wants to triple that number.

Safety was an issue in 2010 as well. A gate at Viking Way was talked about, but never came to fruition. Cameras were also part of the discussion then.

What the board decided to do on Tuesday was allow staff to come up with plans, and to have community meetings to gather input from the public, students and staff. In other words, more talk and no action.

The latest impetus to do more was prompted by last month’s deadly school shooting in Florida.

Shelby Lyon, South Tahoe High School’s rep on the board, articulated her peers’ opinions, saying they don’t want a fence – that now is the time to build bridges, not fences. She presented the district with a petition signed by students regarding their stance against a fence.

STHS teacher Eric Beavers said, “Fences are not going to bring our community together. I think we put up fences and gates because we don’t know what else to do.”

District staff admitted fencing in STHS would be a difficult endeavor. This is the most difficult school to secure because of all the buildings, therefore points of entry.

Staff is contemplating reinforcing windows so they wouldn’t be easy to shoot through, having entrances more secure so it would be near impossible to get to where students are assembled, and installing cameras in hallways so an intruder would be tracked more easily. These measures could be for all schools. There was also talk of installing panic buttons in classrooms and/or front offices that would link to law enforcement. Having more modes of communication was broached.

“We are also recommending a school resource officer at the middle school. We need it for cannabis, and safety and security,” Superintendent Jim Tarwater said.

He said that person can carry the gun, but does not want teachers to be armed.

Tarwater also wants a social worker for K-3.

Creating a threat assessment management team is another idea. Members would include law enforcement, probation, mental health and others. After all, even when someone is expelled from school, they are still in the community and can be a threat.

Publisher’s note: The following was read at the March 13 Lake Tahoe Unified School District board meeting and is published with permission.

By Shelby Lyon

In light of the shooting last month in Florida, and recent discussions occurring around school concerning new safety policies, students would like to voice their concerns. Specifically, discussion about putting a fence around the school has been a topic of controversy.

In most school shootings, the threat comes from someone inside, not outside, and if the threat were to come from outside, many students feel that a fence would not keep them safe, but could easily be broken, climbed, or shot through, making our campus just as vulnerable as before. In addition, a fence would prevent students from being able to escape a shooter on campus. We would, as students, be more trapped than we already are.

However, we do feel that because of the world we live in today where gun violence has become so common, that safety precautions are necessary. Furthermore, we believe that money could be spent on more productive precautions than a fence. For example, bulletproof doors/windows, more security guards, bringing another social worker on campus, or even fixing the bathrooms in the science hall so that doors can be locked during class time.

But more than this, students have overwhelmingly agreed that the best way to make our school campus safer is by creating an environment where no student or staff member ever feels that they are so alone and uncared about to the point in which they can become capable of bringing a weapon on campus and harming someone. The district and our community should be focusing our time, energy, and money into building bridges, not fences. And thus getting rid of the threat of an inside shooter altogether through a school community that is inclusive, accepting, and reaches out to students or staff at risk.

We should be training our teachers to stop bullying in their classrooms. We should be teaching our students how to be empathetic and about the importance of opening the door to relationships, healing, and help.

In closing, we feel that the decision to build a fence is not the best path to take. On behalf of the student body at South Tahoe, I’d like to ask for the vote to be postponed so that our concerns can be heard. We greatly appreciate all that you have done to take our safety so seriously and are thankful that you all are trying to move quickly to make our campus safer; but we feel like putting up fences is not the solution, and we feel that this decision might need more thought.

Thank you for taking our concerns seriously.

Shelby Lyon is the South Tahoe High School student body president and student representative on the Lake Tahoe Unified School District board.

The  Vans crew is heading up to Sierra-At-Tahoe on March 17 for the grand finale of the 2018 Vans Hi-Standard Series.

The last stop of this free, all-ages international snowboard event welcomes local talent to join the series’ MVPs from around the globe for a final showdown to compete for the overall 2018 Vans Hi-Standard Series MVP title.

It’s an open-jam format that features a big air session where participants are judged solely on their individual style with no inverts or spins over 720 allowed.

Free lift tickets, lunch vouchers and cash prizes will be handed out on the spot.

In addition to the snowboard jam, Vans amplifies the spectator experience with a pop-up House of Vans workshop for non-competitors and family members.

Registration begins at 8:30am.

For more info, go online.

To the community,

It is with great disappointment that Soroptimist International of South Lake Tahoe has been informed its partnership with Edgewood Tahoe, during the annual American Century Celebrity Golf Tournament, has come to an end.

Since the very beginning of the tournament, now 28 years ago, Soroptimist and Edgewood have enjoyed a mutual partnership that allowed our members to run, staff and serve the patrons of the celebrity golf tournament through the food concession tents. We have taken great pride in this role, volunteering over 2,500 hours per year and raising valuable funds that go back into our community.   

Under the previous Edgewood management, Soroptimist was a trusted and valued partner. We have served countless hot dogs and beverages over our tenure, worked thousands of volunteer shifts and enjoyed a relationship that entrusted us to manage an important facet of guest services.

It is a relationship in which we have taken a great amount of pride and we are grateful to have so many fond memories from over the years. It has also evolved into one of our biggest fundraisers of the year, supporting our community grant and scholarship programs. 

Soroptimist International of South Lake Tahoe’s mission is to serve women and children in our community. We regret that Edgewood, under its current management, will no longer be a partner in our work to support our mission.

We have so enjoyed serving you, our community and visitors, during the golf tournament over the years. We thank all of the community volunteers who have offered their time and talents to participate in this event with us, including our sister club Soroptimist International of Tahoe Sierra.  The camaraderie along with the love, work, sweat and tears poured into running the concessions will always be remembered by our members and will be a part of our club’s history. 

Over the past year Soroptimist International of South Lake Tahoe awarded 22 scholarships to high school and college students, provided 15 cash grants to community organizations working with women and youth and supported international efforts in partnership with Hope 4 Women International. We are also building a long-term project fund that will make an even bigger positive impact in our community. We look forward to continuing this important work.

With gratitude to our community, visitors and friends,

Pam Barrett, president Soroptimist International of South Lake Tahoe