Jeff Marsolais has lost the “deputy” in his title. He is now officially forest supervisor for Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit.

Jeff Marsolais

He takes over for Nancy Gibson who retired in January.

Marsolais has been named deputy forest supervisor in February 2011. Prior to that he was acting supervisor for LTBMU for 120 days starting in December 2010. He temporarily left his job as recreation and land staff officer in the Inyo forest to lead the Lake Tahoe office.

He has worked on seven forests since the mid-1990s. Before that Marsolais worked for the Bureau of Land Management.

In 2014, he served as special assistant to the regional forester, providing strategic guidance and direction on hiring efforts for the Pacific Southwest Region.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

Drawing on over a decade of research and first hand reporting with dozens of top action and adventure sports athletes like big wave legend Laird Hamilton, big mountain snowboarder Jeremy Jones, and skateboarding pioneer Danny Way, Steven Kotler explores the frontier science of “flow”, an optimal state of consciousness in which people perform best.

Flow improves learning, it enhances creativity, it can unlock happiness, and it is almost always responsible for peak performance.

Kotler, a New York Times bestselling author and former Squaw Valley resident, released “The Rise of Superman: Decoding The Science of Ultimate Human Performance” in 2014. His latest book “Bold: How To Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact The World”, was just released this month.

Kotler will be speaking at the Olympic Village Lodge at Squaw Valley on Feb. 20 at 6:30pm. Cocktail hour starts at 5:30pm.

Cost is adults $25, students $10, children 9 and younger as well as Squaw Valley Institute members are free. Tickets may be purchased online.

By Kathryn Reed

When Caltrans closed Highway 50 over Echo Summit in 2011 to replace the dilapidated rock wall that was put in just after World War II, the powers that be came unglued. There were countless meetings, a media blitz let people know the South Shore was still in business and that the best route was not through the North Shore, state lawmakers got involved, the Amgen bike race was affected and ultimately everything worked out.

Caltrans is again going to close the same span – but not until 2019. But this next time could be much longer than 10 days.

This time the state transportation agency will be replacing a bridge on top of Echo Summit that was built in 1939. The concrete is starting to crack and break off.

The Highway 50 bridge at Echo Summit is crumbling. Photos/Caltrans

“A lot of it is from the salt that is put down. It starts to corrode the surface and get inside the concrete,” Steve Nelson, spokesman for Caltrans, told Lake Tahoe News.

Caltrans is in the notice of preparation phase, which will last until early March. The environmental phase is expected to be finished in summer 2016, with design and right-of-way issues (U.S. Forest Service land may be needed depending on the width), with construction starting in 2019.

The current bridge is 24-feet wide.

Four alternatives are being considered:

1. Working 126 days in one season with 66 of those days a full closure of Highway 50 and the other days would be one-way traffic control.

2. Two seasons with 31 days of full closure, 55 days of one-way traffic control.

3. Two seasons with one-way traffic control.

4. Two seasons with one-way traffic control with workers doing 10-hour shifts instead of eight.

Nelson said the bridge work was not part of the wall project because the funding sources are different and that the bridge was not ready to go at the time the wall was rebuilt four years ago.

Concrete is failing so the Highway 50 bridge needs replacing.

The entire project will cost $9 million, with $5 million for construction of the half-mile long bridge.

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Notes:

• For more info, go online.

• A meeting about the notice of preparation is on Feb. 26 from 6-8pm at Lake Tahoe Airport. An overview will be given and then it will be more like an open house format.

• Comments will be accepted until two weeks after the Feb. 26 meeting.

The pedestrian killed Feb. 13 has been identified as Craig Davis.

Craig Davis

The 44-year-year South Lake Tahoe resident was in a crosswalk Friday about 6:30pm at Larch Avenue and Ski Run Boulevard in South Lake Tahoe when he was struck and killed by a vehicle. Alcohol was not a factor in the accident, according to police officers.

This is an area without much lighting and it’s not the first time a pedestrian has been hit there by a vehicle.

Davis was a meat cutter at Safeway. He enjoyed the outdoors and was an avid disc golf player.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Kyle Roerink, Las Vegas Sun

CARSON CITY — Many of the state’s elected officials have professional relationships that extend outside the Legislature, creating a web that reveals the close-knit nature of Nevada politics.

Lt. Gov. Mark Hutchison, for instance, represented Sen. Mark Lipparelli in front of the state’s ethics commission in 2013. Lipparelli, a tech executive and former gaming regulator, filled Hutchinson’s vacant state senate seat the following year.

Hutchison, who practices law by trade, said the business link between the two had no influence on Lipparelli’s appointment to Hutchison’s Senate seat.

But the business connection, disclosed in public documents, highlights the dual roles and relationships fostered in the private-public world of state politics. It also underscores Nevada’s revolving-door of officials who bounce from one government post to the next in an insular world that’s hard for a layperson to breach.

Read the whole story

Improvements to Incline Creek should be finalized this year. Photo/Provided

Money has been secured for IVGID to complete the final phase of the Third Creek and Incline Creeks Restoration Project.

The Incline Village General Improvement District board on Feb. 13 unanimously approved a $267,250 funding agreement between IVGID and Nevada via the Nevada Department of State Lands that provides the 25 percent local match to $801,750 in federal funding from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The entire project costs $1.069 million.

The final phase will include design and construction work to restore the stream environment zone and improve fish passage in Incline Creek at Highway 28. Construction should start by September.

From 2008-12, four phases of the restoration work were completed on Third and Incline Creeks to enhance fish passage and habitat, while addressing stream bank erosion, channel stability, and overall water quality. A total of 6,500 linear feet of stream environment zone has been restored; three undersized and failing culvert crossings have been replaced with open bottom CON-SPAN structures; and 11 barriers to fish passage have been addressed to date.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Ray Hagar, Reno Gazette-Journal

The Nevada Senate passed a bill that would pave the way for new school construction across the state Monday, while ending Nevada’s long-standing practice of paying prevailing wages on state-sponsored construction projects.

The bill, Senate Bill 119, would allow an extension of bond rollover funds from property taxes for school districts to keep pace with the need for new schools and major repairs on existing schools. Nevada’s two urban school districts — Clark and Washoe counties — are either in dire need of major renovation projects or new schools.

Although Democrats and Republicans both acknowledge the need for funding school construction, the passage of the bill was on strict party lines.

Read the whole story

Lake Tahoe’s shoreline keeps expanding. This is the entrance to the Truckee River from Lake Tahoe in Tahoe City. Photo/Provided

• Barton Health has launched an interactive website.

• Kawika Liu is now director for Barton Community Health Center.

• We Olive & Wine Bar grand opening is Feb. 21-22 in Reno from 11am-7pm each day.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Winter Wildlands Alliance Backcountry Film Festival in North Lake Tahoe. On Feb. 26 the Tahoe Art Haus and Cinema in Tahoe City will host and showcase nine unique films aimed to inspire winter adventurers to seek the snow less traveled.

The Backcountry Film Festival is renowned for its mix of professional and grassroots films, from well- known filmmakers to first-timers who take a video camera out on their weekend excursions.

The evening celebrates both types, as they search out untracked powder and terrain in their respective ranges across the globe.

The program includes:

• “Out on a Limb”: Winner and Best of Festival production from T-Bar Films which tells the story of Vasu, who’s love for skiing and the backcountry overcomes all obstacles.

• “Powder Pilgrimage”: Best of the Backcountry Award Winner from Joey Howell, which chronicles the ventures of two friends ski bumming to Valdez, Alaska.

• “Backcountry Baker”: Best Grassroots Film winner by Jeremy Lurgio, which follows a Labrador Retriever named Baker as he and his owner pursue their love of backcountry skiing.

• “From the Road”: Fischer Creative portrays the balance between liberation and limitation as a group of athletes come together to help a skiing comrade gain reconciliation on a giant Alaskan peak which ended his professional guiding career.

• “Afterglow”: A revolutionary and visually spectacular film from Sweetgrass Productions that brings a whole new light to night skiing.

• “95 to Infinity”: Doglotion Media follows brothers Andy and Mike Traslin as they keep the torch lit for 95 months of consecutive winter turns.

• “Higher”: Teton Gravity Research continuation of the adventures of Jeremy Jones.

• “Sundog”: Sturge Films captures the dog days of skiing in powder-filled Patagonia.

Tickets are available online for $10. All ticket proceeds will benefit the Tahoe Cross Country Ski Education Association. Films start at 7pm.

The festival is part of the larger Alpenglow Mountain Festival, a nine-day celebration of human-powered winter mountain sports, events, clinics, equipment demonstrations, presentations, film and more.

By Associated Press

Nevada lawmakers reviewed a bill Monday that would allow people to bring their dogs with them into taverns and saloons, but it got a less-than-cuddly response from health officials concerned about slobber and dog hair in cocktails.

The Senate Government Affairs Committee discussed SB105 on Monday, which is sponsored by Sen. James Settelmeyer.

The Minden Republican said the proposal originated from constituents in the small town of Virginia City. It would allow businesses to open their doors to pups if they choose. He noted a number of eateries across the country welcome dogs.

The lawmaker noted that service animals are already allowed in bars and business owners should be allowed to cater to a dog-loving niche.

But officials from several health departments opposed the bill, saying dog hair and bodily fluids might cross-contaminate food or drink. Unruly dogs could bite patrons, and employees would have to be trained on how to safely interact with the dogs, according to lobbyist Dan Musgrove, who represents the Southern Nevada Health District and spoke against the bill.

“I’m an animal lover from birth,” Musgrove said, “but in respect to this, I think we have to stand firm and say we just can’t allow them inside.”