South Lake Tahoe’s holiday fire truck will be going through neighborhoods starting Dec. 10.

Here is the schedule:

• Dec. 10 —  Tahoe Keys
• Dec. 11 — Glenwood area
• Dec. 12 — Tahoe Keys Boulevard/state streets
• Dec. 13 — Barton/Tahoe Island park
• Dec. 14 — South Y/Tata Lane area
• Dec. 15 — Al Tahoe Boulevard
• Dec. 16 — Springwood/Bijou Pines area
• Dec. 17 — Sierra Boulevard
• Dec. 18 — Ski Run area
• Dec. 19 — Heavenly Valley area
• Dec. 20 — State line/Pioneer Trail
• Dec. 21 — Gardner Mountain
• Dec. 22 — State line hotels
• Dec. 23 — Main areas
• Dec. 24 — Lake Tahoe Boulevard.

The Christmas engine will leave Station 3 at the Y each evening at 5pm and the firefighters will be passing out candy canes to everyone who comes out to see them.

Weidinger Public Relations of Stateline won three awards at the Public Relations Society of America, Sierra Nevada Chapter Silver Spikes Awards.

The firm’s public relations efforts for the 2017 American Century Championship captured the Silver Spike for Special Events and Observances. The Silver Spike is the highest honor and identifies outstanding achievement, far-reaching client results, and high standards for quality of work and ethics.

WPR also garnered awards of excellence for the Lodge at Edgewood Tahoe grand opening, and for the Gene Upshaw Memorial Golf Classic.

The firm specializes in travel, tourism, recreation, real estate, special and sporting events.

By Conor Dougherty, New York Times

BERKELEY — The house at 1310 Haskell Street does not look worthy of a bitter neighborhood war. The roof is rotting, the paint is chipping, and while the lot is long and spacious, the backyard has little beyond overgrown weeds and a garage sprouting moss.

The owner was known for hoarding junk and feeding cats, and when she died three years ago the neighbors assumed that whoever bought the house would be doing a lot of work. But when the buyer turned out to be a developer, and when that developer floated a proposal to raze the building and replace it with a trio of small homes, the neighborhood erupted in protest.

Most of the complaints were what you might hear about any development. People thought the homes would be too tall and fretted that more residents would mean fewer parking spots.

Whatever the specifics, what is happening in Berkeley may be coming soon to a neighborhood near you. Around the country, many fast-growing metropolitan areas are facing a brutal shortage of affordable places to live, leading to gentrification, homelessness, even disease. As cities struggle to keep up with demand, they have remade their skylines with condominium and apartment towers — but single-family neighborhoods, where low-density living is treated as sacrosanct, have rarely been part of the equation.

Read the whole story

Sierra-at-Tahoe will open for the 2017-18 winter season on Dec. 2.

The resort will offer limited terrain, accessed by two lifts and two surface lifts. Early season conditions are present throughout the mountain and guests are asked to obey all signs and closures.

Sierra-at-Tahoe will spin Grandview Express and Easy Rider Express, giving guests access to eleven trails and two terrain parks. Limited lessons will be available.

Sierra Pub, Mama’s Kitchen and Java Junction will be open.   

Day tickets will be $71.

Natasha Sagucka

Natasha Ania Sagucka was born to snowboard. From the time she was 2 until her last days on this earth she found peace, love and light on the mountains. She thrived from the energy of slashing through the trees and sliding on the rails just perfectly.

Tash lived her short life to her fullest potential. Inspiring everyone who knew her, most of all her little sis, Kayla, who twice fearlessly donated her stem cells to give Tash a second chance at life. On Nov. 15, 2016, Natasha was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. From that day forward Tasha’s life was forever changed.

Tasha was a young and brilliant soul who bravely battled a horrific disease. On Nove. 4, 2017, this disease ultimately stole her young life. She was 24.

She was born on March 24, 1993.

Natasha is survived by her parents Margaret Sagucka and Kori Griffin; sister Kayla Sagucka; brothers Carson and Scottie Carey; stepdad Scott Carey; maternal grandmother Babi Ania Sagucka who helped raise her since she was a little girl; paternal grandfather Major Griffin; as well as her beloved boyfriend Ali Giroux; auntie Summer Schimandle; cousins Ian and Paxston; and her puppy Reno.

A Celebration of life will be on Dec. 4 at 11am at Sierra Community Church, 1165 Sierra Blvd. South Lake Tahoe.

In lieu of flowers, donation may be made to Leukemia Lymphoma Foundation, Saint Jude’s or Make a Wish.

A phone scam is targeting South Lake Tahoe residents.

The caller identifies themselves as an employee of the IRS, then says a warrant has been issued for their arrest or that the person owes taxes. Callers tell intended victims they must pay using a pre-paid debit card, credit cards or wire transfer. The scammers threaten those who refuse to pay with arrest, deportation or loss of a business or driver’s license.

The callers who commit this fraud often:

·        Use common names and fake IRS badge numbers.

·        May know the last four digits of the victim’s Social Security number.

·        Make caller ID appear as if the IRS is calling.

·        Send bogus IRS emails to support their scam.

·        Call multiple times claiming to be the police or DMV and caller ID again supports their claim.

The IRS nevers asks for payment using a pre-paid debit card, credit card, or wire transfer.

If you get a call from someone claiming to be with the IRS asking for a payment, call the IRS at 800.829.1040 if you do owe taxes; call Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 800.366.4484 if you don’t owe taxes.

Do not give the callers any personal information.

By John Clary Davies, Powder

The ski town as we know it is dead. The cause? A toxic combination of all-time national wealth inequalities, wage stagnation, the proliferation of short-term rentals, and too many damn tourists. Unless you got in early, have a family inheritance, or somehow snagged one of the few affordable rentals in town, living in a traditional ski town is a less viable option than it has ever been.

Places like Jackson, Telluride, and Mammoth—classic cute-as-a-button ski communities—are no longer realistic places to move to, but weekend stops where one might find a cool Airbnb while flexing another stop on their Mountain Collective pass.

What, you thought you could actually live there? C’mon. The median listed home prices for great places to live and ski: Bozeman, $410,000; Whitefish, $519,000; Mammoth Lakes, $539,000; Truckee, $704,250; Telluride, $1.2 million; Jackson Hole, $1.4 million. Trailers in Aspen are going for half a mill.

Read the whole story

To the community,

Tahoe Coalition for the Homeless is grateful to the Sierra Health Foundation for awarding a grant of $15,000 for the operation of the South Lake Tahoe Warm Room in 2017-18. The Sierra Health Foundation is an independent foundation committed to supporting health-related activities in Northern California. The South Lake Tahoe Warm Room is an overnight emergency shelter that operates only during the winter months in our community. 

This grant will go a long way in helping us get up and running this winter. We appreciate the Sierra Health Foundation for their acknowledgement that the health of community individuals is improved by having a safe and warm place to sleep at night.

The South Lake Tahoe Warm Room is in its third season.  The warm room provides a refuge from Tahoe’s harsh winter elements.  In 2016-17, over 200 individuals and businesses supported warm room operations.  The warm room was open 137 nights, served 136 individuals, and provided over 5500 shelter bed nights. In addition, TCH provides emergency motel rooms for families with children under 18, and did so for seven families with children last winter.  

The majority of guests were Tahoe locals when they became homeless, and 26 percent were employed. The average guest stayed 25 nights last winter. In addition to shelter, the warm room provides light food and drink and referrals to resources. Last season guests received referrals to the mental health department, substance abuse programs, medical appointments, job boards/job training information, and more.  

Marissa Muscat, Tahoe Coalition for the Homeless

Starting today Lake Tahoe News is launching a book club. All of you are invited to be part of it.

The goal is get people to read more — it doesn’t matter if you buy the book in print or online (though it’s nice to help authors make a living), or borrow it from the library, or listen to it.

Come and go as you like — or as you like the book.

On the first of each month a review of the book will be written. Questions will be posted in the comments section to stimulate discussion. Then it’s up to all of you to add your comments. This is one of the rare times you may comment on LTN without being a subscriber. Comments will be moderated to keep people on topic and to make sure there is no nastiness. No need to use your real name when commenting.

At the end of the review will be the title/author of the next month’s book. Suggestions for books are welcome. If you would like to review a book, please send us an email at info@laketahoenews.net with “reviewer” in the subject line.

The December book is “The Airbnb Story: How three ordinary guys disrupted an industry, made billions … and created plenty of controversy” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017). This book was chosen because of how the vacation home rental industry is in the news here and elsewhere. The shared economy is huge and this is one example of it.

Happy reading!

LTN staff

Heavenly Mountain Resort wants to remove obstacles and put some snowmaking underground. Photo/LTN file

By Kathryn Reed

Heavenly Mountain Resort wants to cut down trees, move boulders and relocate snowmaking equipment all in the name of creating a better experience for skiers and snowboarders.

For this next phase of the master plan, the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit is taking comments on the draft environmental assessment until Dec. 22.

The work is slated for next year. A price tag for the construction has not been disclosed.

Heavenly has a number of locations where it’s rather dangerous because so many people are in a narrow area. That’s why the resort wants to do this work, the goal being to give skiers more room to spread out.

The plan is to remove congestion on 49er, Orion, Big Dipper, Cascade, Sam’s Dream, Ridge Way, Ridge Run, Olympic Downhill, $100 Saddle, Powderbowl, Comet and Bonanza. These 12 trails encompass 25.3 acres.

                                                                                                                                                   Source: USFS

According to the draft EA, “Lower Orion’s and Lower Olympic Downhill would require grading to match the widened area to the grade of the existing ski trail. Widening proposed for Ridge Run would expand the skiable boundary, but would be located within the existing special use permit boundary.”

When this project was out for scoping in the spring nine comments were submitted to the Forest Service.

“Some of the issues received, such as limiting ticket sales to manage congestion and user experience, and issues around charging fees for uphill skiing access, were deemed to be outside the scope of the proposed action,” according to the Forest Service.

The USFS is advocating for tree removal and the other work desired by Heavenly.

“There are identified locations on sections of key ski trails that, as a result of bordering forested areas, are not sufficiently wide enough to accommodate existing use levels and the desired flow of skiers and snowboarders during peak daily and seasonal periods,” the EA states.

Most of the resort operates on USFS land under a 40-year special use agreement that expires in 2042.

“Tree removal would be conducted over snow and skidded behind a snowcat over compacted snow. The trees would then be chipped and reused as mulch and soil amendment. Exposed boulders posing a safety hazard would be removed during the summer with excavators and placed in existing depressions along the edges of the widened trails,” the environmental document says.

                                                                                                                                                                    Source: USFS

Getting rid of obstacles would occur on: Little Dipper, Meteor, Cascade, Sam’s Dream, California Trail, Stagecoach, Advanced Roundabout, Ridge Run, Powderbowl and Olympic Downhill.

A result of getting rid of the boulders and downed trees would mean the depth of snow needed to ski that run would be dramatically reduced. This then reduces the amount of snowmaking needed and could open terrain sooner.

The resort is projecting to save 10.9 million gallons of water and 365,000 kilowatts of electricity by lessening the need for snowmaking on these select trails.

About 5,800 feet of snowmaking equipment would be moved to accommodate the widening and obstacle removal projects. Plus, much of it will be put underground.

The draft EA is available online.