A 2.4 magnitude earthquake rocked an area about six miles northwest of Truckee on Tuesday night.
The temblor was felt at 6:35pm on May 2.
Earlier in the day the area was rattled by a sonic boom. It measured 2.9 at 2:12pm.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
A plumber working at the Alder Inn in South Lake Tahoe sparked a fire that spread to the second floor.
The fire was reported at 1:30pm on May 1. Crews were able to rapidly extinguish the blaze on Lake Tahoe Boulevard.
The plumber was using a torch. The fire went up through the wall.
No one was injured.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
Several agencies in El Dorado County are teaming up to spread the word about the importance of sun safety, especially for children.
The El Dorado County Public Health Division, Placerville’s Community Services Department, Marshall Medical Center and El Dorado Community Health Center are partnering to promote skin cancer prevention and awareness. Skin cancer is one of the most common types of cancers in the United States and accounts for almost 50 percent of all cancer cases.
The Slip, Slop, Slap & Wrap campaign to encourage kids to slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen, slap on a hat, wrap on sunglasses, and seek shade between 10am and 4pm.
For sun safety tips and additional information, go online.
By Kathryn Reed
South Lake Tahoe has the opportunity to raise more than $2.5 million a year that would be spent exclusively on roads.
The City Council on Tuesday heard results from a March poll that was conducted by a consulting firm to gauge the likelihood of whether voters would approve a one-half percent sales tax hike. The results show voters are likely to say yes. The council is expected to make a decision in June about whether to place the question on the November ballot.
The state sales tax rate today is 7.25 percent. It is 7.75 percent in South Lake Tahoe. Measure Q passed with 58 percent of the vote in November 2004 to increase the sales tax by one-half cent. Those dollars go to the General Fund.
What is different with the proposed half cent hike is that it would go to a dedicated source – roads. This is why a two-thirds voter approval is needed. There would be no sunset for the tax.
That increase would equate to another 50 cents on every $100 spent on taxable goods. Groceries and health care are not taxed. Locals and tourists, who use the roads, would be paying for their upkeep through the sales tax. It is estimated visitors would pay 75 percent of the tax collected.
If approved, the tax would go into effect 30 to 60 days after the vote. The city could go out to bid in the winter and have a substantive roads project starting in summer 2018.
Ten years ago is when the public works department started the drum beat for a dedicated revenue source for roads. The council is finally listening.
The horrific conditions of city roads were exposed to an even greater and wider extent this winter. The roads are more like a mountain bike park.
Jim Marino, assistant public works director, told the council “the benefits of a dedicated source are long-term strategic plans and achieving that.” In some ways it’s a piecemeal approach today, without his department able to make substantive gains.
Marino estimates with a known dollar amount being available every season it would take four years to stabilize the roads. In year six or seven, the paving index should start to increase.
Working with utility companies as they make infrastructure improvements would help leverage city money to get even more work done.
The lodging association supports this tax because it will go just to roads. All the potholes make the area look like a poorer community and gives the city a negative reputation, according to Jerry Bindel. Real estate agent Adele Lucas said bad roads also affect her business.
Former Councilwoman JoAnn Conner questioned how the survey came about. Lake Tahoe News wrote about it in March. She also believes last fall’s vote shows voters don’t want a sales tax increase of any kind.
Measure U needed only a simple majority, but lost with only 42.26 percent wanting it. That half cent tax would not have been allocated to anything in particular. However, an advisory measurement showed voters did support roads if the money were to have been dedicated.
Councilwoman Wendy David said it is time for the city and council in particular to take action and take responsibility for the roads. “I believe this is a case when you don’t go forward with roads, you go backward.”
Consultants from True North said 68 percent of the 353 registered voters who were polled favor the tax hike if used for roads, to fix potholes, and to improve safety for drivers-pedestrians-cyclists.
A concern is that older voters are the ones most likely to show up in November, but they are the ones less likely to support a tax hike. That is something to be addressed in marketing the measure.
The survey also showed a majority support a separate roads management authority to oversee that the money is spent as voters expect it to be.
Five communities in Northern Nevada have received funding from State Farm to support activities aimed at reducing potential loss of life, property and natural resources to wildfire in their communities.
The five residents were among 150 winners chosen nationwide to receive funding from a pool of 420 applicants. Applicants provided a brief description of their proposed projects, and how the State Farm award would make the projects a reality. They each will receive $500.
The Nevada winners include Zephyr Cove community leader Ann Grant, Woodminster Community resident Patricia Owens from Incline Village, Palomino Valley Auxiliary Fire volunteer Cathy Glatthar, Lakeview Community resident D. Marie Bresch from Carson City, and Rivermount Park resident Sue Markert from Reno.
Grant is partnering with the Tahoe Network of Fire Adapted Communities, Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District and volunteers from Douglas County Community Emergency Response Team and Whittell High School to distribute educational information and answer questions about defensible space and other wildfire preparedness concerns. Participants can also sign up for free defensible space evaluations and chipping services. Representatives will be on hand outside of the Zephyr Cove Post Office on May 6 from 12:30-3pm.
Woodminster community members will assess the damage and downed trees in their community resulting from the long, rough winter. Grant funding will be used to assist residents with the removal of vegetation that is deemed a wildfire hazard.
By Seth A. Richardson, Reno Gazette-Journal
Lawmakers got some good news on Monday when economic projections for the state anticipated $100 million more in revenue for the Nevada than previously expected.
The Economic Forum, a nonpartisan group who analyzes and estimates how much money the state has to spend, projected $95.7 million more in state revenue over the next biennium than their initial forecast in December.
Chief Economist Bill Anderson and Daniel White of Moody’s Analytics say wages are increasing, bringing commodity prices and tax revenue with them.
· Lake Tahoe Educational Foundation is accepting applications for its 2017 fall grant cycle. Applications are available online.
· Martis Camp, a private residential golf and ski community in North Lake Tahoe, has sold its final home site (No. 671), after launching sales in 2006.
· State Sen. Ted Gaines, R-El Dorado, has moved his office in El Dorado Hills to Granite Bay. The phone number is 916.771.5840.
· Sugar Bowl is looking for someone to take over the Summit Restaurant and Bar on Old Highway 40 after Marina Montano retired last month after operating it since 2001.
· Summer Concert on the Green returns to Tahoe Donner on July 1-2 with Joel the Band (Billy Joel tribute) and The Rising (Bruce Springsteen tribute) that Saturday and Steely Dan tribute band, Aja Vu, and the high-energy dance cover band Wonder Bread 5 on Sunday. For more info, go online.
By Jim Krajewski, Reno Gazette-Journal
The mid-summer golf/party at Lake Tahoe got a little more sizzle when Paige Spiranac announced she will be in the field at Edgewood Tahoe.
Spiranac, an aspiring professional golfer, model and social media star (with 1 million Instagram followers) will be playing in the American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament July 14-16.
Spiranac, 24, is not just another pretty face, though. She knows her way around a golf course as she played college golf at San Diego State.
Lake Tahoe Unified educators on May 1 rally for schools to be a safe haven. Photo/Provided
Lake Tahoe Unified School District teachers were among thousands of California Teachers Association members who on May 1 led a massive social justice-focused Day of Action.
Educators, administrators, students, parents and community supporters were marching to protect public education and send the message that all students deserve safe schools — no matter if they are immigrants.
State schools chief Tom Torlakson has urged all California school districts to declare themselves safe havens for students. “All across California, students, parents and community members are walking into schools together today to show that schools must be safe for everyone,” Torlakson said at a rally in the Bay Area on Monday. “Students have a right to public education, regardless of their family’s immigration status.”
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
By Kathryn Reed
Get out the bug spray – mosquito season is likely to be pretty bad in the Tahoe-Truckee area.
“I would definitely say that with a snowpack this year that is more typical of what winter up here should look like, that we are anticipating a more typical mosquito season, which will feel like increased numbers compared to the last handful of drought years,” Angella Falco, field station manager in Tahoe for Placer Mosquito & Vector Control District, told Lake Tahoe News.
Mosquito larvae was evident in late April in Placer County with ponding water in various locations.
“This is going to be a bad year for mosquitoes, so we all have to work together. First and foremost, dump any standing water or any objects that can trap or collect water,” Krista Jenkins, district manager for Douglas County Mosquito Abatement District, told Lake Tahoe News. “Mosquitoes can breed in small amounts of water like planters, bottle caps, tires, buckets and etc.”
The district was formed in 1969 at which time the Lake Tahoe and Topaz areas of Douglas County were and still are not included. When the West Nile virus hit Douglas County in 2005, the district and Douglas County signed an agreement for services. That contract ends this fiscal year.
Standing water is where mosquitoes like to breed. Photo/Kathryn Reed
Normally mosquito breeding sites in Douglas County are monitored starting April 1. The long winter didn’t allow that to happen.
“Temperatures of both the air and the water play a big role in how the larvae stages advance. The cooler the temperature, the longer it takes the larvae to mature into flying adults, which is a good thing for us,” Jenkins said. “We cannot treat running water. When the water stops flowing and settles in the low areas or accumulates into catch basins, that is when our job begins. Emergence of the adults can happen from that point on. It all depends on the habitat of each breeding area.”
Vector control officials use what is considered an environmentally-friendly larvicide at Lake Tahoe. This is to prevent the larvae from hatching. If that doesn’t work, then an adulticide is used. This is a chemical that is released into the air.
“There are certain protocols to follow for this to happen and we are very strict about following them,” Jenkins said.
This month is when people throughout the Tahoe-Truckee area are bound to start noticing the pesky biting machines.
“With continued storms well into spring, it’s hard to estimate when adults will begin to emerge, but safe to say that mosquitoes will be found from mid- to late May, well into July based on the current snowpack,” Flaco said. “The lower elevations around the Lake Tahoe and Truckee areas will melt and produce first, and areas in and around the Soda Springs, Serene Lakes and Sugar Bowl areas producing in late spring.”
Residents are encouraged to call their county vector control office if standing water lingers, especially into the summer.
Dumping any water that has collected in containers is encouraged. This is to eliminate breeding zones. Mosquitoes can lay their eggs in the tiniest of areas.
Once they are hatched, mosquitoes are most active at dawn and the first two hours after sunset.
Authorities recommend applying insect repellent containing EPA-registered active ingredients such as DEET, Picaridin, IR3535, or oil of lemon eucalyptus to repel the insects. Wearing pants and long-sleeved shirts is also advised. Repairing torn window screens will keep the skeeters out.
Mosquitoes can carry the West Nile virus. In 2016, there were 442 confirmed cases of the virus in 30 counties throughout California, including one case in El Dorado County. Statewide there were 19 human deaths.
In the Carson Valley, there were three human cases of West Nile in 2016.
“We really have two mosquito seasons up here, snowmelt season with its handful of species, then changing over to our summer mosquitoes during the warm months,” Falco with Placer County said. “Our agency has an extensive surveillance program that includes assessing mosquito larvae and adult mosquito abundance in the spring through the summer. We do extensive treatment for mosquito larvae in snowmelt pools in the spring as well as catch-basin systems in the spring and summer. We also respond to reports of mosquitoes and dead birds. In the past several years of our enhanced surveillance in the Tahoe area, we have not found West Nile virus infected mosquitoes. Hopefully, this remains the case, but there’s no way to predict what the upcoming season may hold.”
Dogs and cats can become infected with West Nile virus, too, but they do not suffer the severe symptoms like humans, horses, and birds.
“We also trap mosquitoes on a regular basis to not only monitor the adult population, but to more importantly have the adult mosquitoes tested for the West Nile virus. This is also part of maintaining our protocols,” Jenkins said.