The public will help decide the future of Herbert Avenue. Photo/LTN

By Kathryn Reed

A spotlight is being shined on a private street with a very public profile.

Herbert Avenue in South Lake Tahoe is one of those streets that is popular with people who live in the neighborhood. They use is to avoid Ski Run Boulevard.

Now the developers of Whole Foods 365 wants to use Herbert as an access point, which could impact the commercial strip on the other side of the street.

The problem, though, is the city doesn’t own the road. Mike McKeen does.

According to McKeen, in the 1940s the street was dedicated to El Dorado County by the owner at the time. When the city incorporated in 1965, the dedication went to South Lake Tahoe. McKeen in 2003 bought the parcel fronting Highway 50 that stretches back and includes the apartment complex.

According to City Manager Nancy Kerry, “In 1946 that stretch of land was dedicated to the public – not to the city or the county. It is a dedication to the public.”

McKeen told Lake Tahoe News there is some question as to whether the street was ever officially dedicated. He’s been told he has a 50-50 chance of prevailing in court. Instead of going that route, McKeen is opting to work with the city.

He doesn’t argue that there is a prescriptive easement on that stretch of asphalt. The city maintains the road – this includes plowing it, filling in pot holes, striping and any other maintenance.

“It’s not worth the money or time to fight over it. No one wants to lose,” McKeen told Lake Tahoe News.

There was a time when he wanted to develop into the street. Now he is willing to work with the city for the betterment for all.

“If I’m going to get any bonus from Whole Foods, it needs to be almost a continuous commercial area,” McKeen said. “I have six tenants in the building. They can’t be hurt at the expense of Whole Foods.”

He envisions one day redeveloping at least some of what he owns so the commercial area seems like one contiguous entity.

Altering Herbert would help make that be more attractive to pedestrians in the area.

The idea being floated now is to have Herbert dead end at Bill Avenue, maybe making it a cul de sac. This would allow the Whole Foods that is going in where Knights Inn used to be to have access to Herbert, for McKeen’s tenants to keep parking, and for the neighborhood to have less traffic.

The city is hosting a meeting Oct. 25 from 6-7:30pm at the Senior Center to gather community input about what the future of Herbert Avenue should be.

LSC Transportation Consultants, an engineering and planning firm with offices in Tahoe City and Colorado, has been hired by the city to do a traffic study.

The future of the street will ultimately be up to the City Council.

Halferty Development, the firm that owns the old Knights Inn parcel and adjacent lot on Ski Run, has the right to have an ingress/egress on Ski Run, Herbert, and two on Highway 50.

The original traffic study had parking on Herbert at the commercial strip owned by McKeen going from perpendicular to parallel. This would dramatically decrease the number of spaces.

Already employees in the area are affected by the elimination of spots because of the redevelopment project. Lloyd Avenue used to be where they parked, but that street has been abandoned and essentially incorporated into the project area.

McKeen said he sent a letter to 82 people in the neighborhood seeking input about Herbert Avenue changes, with many favoring altering Herbert. This week everyone may weigh in.

By Van Butsic, Henry McCann and Jeffrey Mount, San Francisco Chronicle

California’s forests are on fire, with tragic consequences for communities around the state. While the firestorm in the Wine Country has made international headlines, many small mountain communities also were aflame or on high alert.

The focus now is on saving lives and protecting property, but when the fires are out, the state will have to face up to a major problem: Our forests are too dense and dry, and, in some areas, dying. We need a new way to manage this vital natural resource.

 Nowhere is our challenge greater than in our headwater forests, the watershed for roughly two-thirds of California’s surface water supply and 15 percent of its electricity from hydropower plants. Failure to better manage our forests will result in higher future costs to fight wildfires, impaired air and water quality, and increased greenhouse gases due to loss of carbon stored in trees and soils.

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By Emily Swanson and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, AP

Adult caregivers looking after aging relatives and friends have little training for their stressful roles but still find the experience rewarding, according to a poll released last week.

The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey finds that long-term caregivers don’t just provide rides to the doctor and run errands. Nearly half perform some kind of medical care, from changing bandages (30 percent) to inserting catheters or feeding tubes (6 percent).

Only 47 percent of those say they got most or all of the training needed for their often delicate tasks.

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By Anjeanette Damon, Reno Gazette-Journal
 
AT&T is the business that has applied for a substantial sales and use tax refund, claiming it mistakenly paid Nevada taxes it owed other states, according to a statement released Saturday by the company’s Nevada president.

The company could receive as much as $27 million back over three years, which could create significant budget issues for local governments.

“The Department of Taxation is currently in the process of reviewing a claim submitted by AT&T,” said Stephanie Tyler, AT&T’s president for Nevada and the Pacific Northwest. “Until the department has had the opportunity to complete a thorough review of the claim, it would be premature for us to speculate or further comment on the matter.”

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Shaun White’s Instagram

By Nick Zaccardi, NBC Sports

Double Olympic snowboard champion Shaun White suffered a serious crash in training in New Zealand for the second time in as many months.

White was in the hospital after a “straight up old fashioned face plant” while preparing for the Olympic season, he said in an Instagram post Saturday.

“I’ve always lived my life by pushing the limits,” was posted on White’s Instagram. “Winning is great, but it’s the tough times that truly define you. I took a slam while training the other day, but don’t worry I’ll be back soon and better than ever!!”

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By Shivani Vora, New York Times

Natural disasters like Hurricanes Maria and Irma and the recent wildfires in California have led to a spate of warnings from countries that want to caution their citizens about the risk of traveling to the United States, but the advisories are also noting potential for violence in the wake of the Las Vegas shooting and the potential for terrorist attacks as well.

While warnings for travel to the United States aren’t new, they have picked up significantly in the last few weeks, following these events, said Ed Daly, who oversees the content for the Global Intelligence Division of iJET International, a travel intelligence firm based in Annapolis, Md.

“After a lull, there was a rash of incidents which happened one after the other and led to these advisories,” he said.

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·      On Nov. 18 at 10am there will be a book sale at the South Lake Tahoe Library on Rufus Allen Boulevard. Friends of the Library members are allowed in at 9am.

·      Heavenly Mountain and Northstar ski resorts plan to start making snow Nov. 1 prior to opening day Nov. 17. Kirkwood plans on opening Nov. 22.

·       South Lake Tahoe is having a meeting Nov. 2 at 5:30pm at the rec center to go over the Sierra Boulevard project design.

·       Here is the Sierra roadwork schedule from Caltrans for the week.

·       There will be a flu shot clinic on Oct. 25 from 3-6pm at Bijou Community School in South Lake Tahoe. Cost is $10, though will be denied for inability to pay.

A GoFundMe account has been set up for Tina Pearce as she fights for her life.

Tina Pearce

On Oct. 12, Pearce was on Interstate 80 with her beloved 12-year-old beagle Lucy going to the 24-hour emergency vet in Reno when her vehicle was hit head-on by a drunken driver, driving on the wrong side of highway.

Pearce was airlifted to Renown Medical Center in Reno with serious injuries to her face, legs and pelvis. With no injuries to her chest, or arms, it is believed that Lucy ended up between her and the steering wheel, taking the brunt of the impact.

Lucy was Pearce’s life. She was getting Lucy the care she needed and in the process saved Tina’s life.
Pearce is still in ICU recovering from her injuries. She faces more surgeries in the coming weeks.

The fund has been created to help with those expenses.

To the community,

Once the money goes into the General Fund it can end up anywhere, that’s why this Measure C is a good tax (if there is a good tax) because it is a specific fund that cannot be used for anything but what it’s voted on.

Kenny Curtzwiler

Specifically this started as a way to keep CalPERS from robbing the General Gund for unfunded pensions and liabilities. The problem is it not enough and everyone knows it even the authors. There is a scare tactic right now that if we don’t pass it we will be driving on dirt and nothing is further from the truth. If we defeat the measure now, it can be rewritten in time for the next election and that will give us time to get more funding.

The council is afraid to go after other funding sources. We are the only town that Vail is in that does not have a lift ticket tax. Vail gets $4.5 million per year, Breckenridge gets $3.5 million per year. That is why they look like they do. The council is afraid to go after other funding sources. Tax the TOT on VHRs only. You can also divert a portion of the TOT on VHRs to Measure C II. Tourists visiting VHRs and Vail use our infrastructure so why not have them help to pay for it. Raise the Measure C tax to 1 percent and lower the time involved.

Measure C as written will work but it can’t due to inadequate funding. We are kicking another can down the road for our kids as 15 years is too long to fix the roads. By the time we get to the really bad ones the bad ones will have reached a level of really bad.

Thank you,
Kenny Curtzwiler, Meyers

Bikes and roads between Sacramento and Tahoe were much different 100 years ago. Courtesy of the Photo/Center for Sacramento History Eugene Hepting Collection

By Emily Zentner, Sacramento Bee

A group of Sacramento area bicyclists took off on a 150-mile ride on Oct. 20 to commemorate a similar record-breaking ride taken in 1917.

Jeff Barker, 49, of El Dorado Hills organized the Centennial Ride to honor the 100th anniversary of Eugene Hepting and Abbie Budd’s bicycle trip from Sacramento to South Lake Tahoe. The 1917 ride broke a long-standing record at the time for the fastest ride from Sacramento to Myers Station in South Lake Tahoe, according to newspaper clippings from the Center for Sacramento History.

“The whole idea was, let’s commemorate that ride,” Barker said. “Let’s see if we can put it together, because the bikes they rode in 1917 were pretty primitive compared to what we have now. The conditions weren’t all that good.”

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