Kenneth Charles Traum

Kenneth Charles Traum passed away suddenly at his home in Martinez, Calif., on Nov. 5, 2016. He was 45.

Kenny was born on July 17, 1971, at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley. He moved to South Lake Tahoe with his mother, Judy, and brother, Mike, when both boys were toddlers. He attended preschool at Under the Magic Pine Tree, followed by Meyers and Al Tahoe elementary schools, South Tahoe Middle School, and graduated from South Tahoe High School in 1989.

Kenny was a football player in high school and a member of the ski team. As teenagers, both he and his brother had Heavenly season passes, where the boys and their friends spent countless days together on the mountain. Kenny was also an accomplished drummer. He was in both the symphonic and jazz bands in middle and high school.

Upon graduating, Kenny attended UC Berkeley, where he became a drummer in “the pacesetter of college marching bands” and “The Pride of California,” the University of California Marching Band. Kenny embodied the band’s adage of “spirit, drive and excellence.” He lived in the band’s Tellefsen Hall and was fortunate to travel the country, including performing in the 1991 season’s Citrus Bowl in Orlando.

At Cal, Kenny also became an active member of the Delta Deuteron charge of the Theta Delta Chi (TDX) International Fraternity and lived in the Delta Deut house for a couple of years. After receiving his degree at Cal, Kenny moved to the East Coast where he earned a master’s degree in public health from the University of South Carolina.

After returning to the West Coast, Kenny met fellow Cal grad Tina Morris. The two were married in 2001 and had their only child, Jacob, in 2004. The family spent many years living in Bend, Ore., before returning to and settling in the Bay Area. For most of his working career, Kenny was a human resources executive in the Bay Area’s burgeoning technological industry.

Kenny’s formative years at Lake Tahoe, the relationships and friendships he made during his time at Cal, and most of all the role of being a father, wholly defined the person that he was. In fact, just a short time before he passed, Kenny enthusiastically shared with the family that the time he spent with Jacob during the summer of 2016 was the greatest couple of months of his life.

Kenny is survived by his parents Judy Brown (Alan) of South Lake Tahoe, and Robert Traum (Valerie) of Henderson, Nev.; his wife Tina Morris-Traum and their 12-year-old son Jacob of Martinez; his brother Michael Traum (Tracy) of Davis, and their two children (Tylar, Miller); half-brothers Matthew (Sharon) and Jonathan (Susan) Traum who each have two children; and his aunt Barbara Riggs of South Lake Tahoe. He is predeceased by his uncle David Traum.

The family plans a private interment at Happy Homestead Cemetery in South Lake Tahoe. A casual celebration of life is planned for Dec. 4 from 2-4pm in the convention center at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe. The family would be honored to have you join them to remember Kenny on that day. Please contact his brother, Mike, at memoriesforkennytraum@gmail.com to RSVP and for information about a custodial fund established for Kenny’s son.

Bill Crawford

Billy “Bill” Crawford passed away on Nov. 25, 2016, in Reno after a brief illness with his family at his side. Bill lived in South Lake Tahoe for 49 years. During that time, he taught in the Lake Tahoe Unified School District and served two terms on the South Lake Tahoe City Council.

Bill loved his family, the mountains, skiing, and poetry.

He is survived by his wife, Jonnie; his children Marlowe, Paul and David; and granddaughter Caitlin. Bill requested no funeral or memorial service; the family is honoring his wish.

Bill was born in Little Rock, Ark., in 1934. A child of the Depression, the Crawford extended family of Blytheville, Ark., moved west and settled in Torrance in the greater Los Angeles area.

As a young man, he was an accomplished athlete, a champion quarterback and baseball player in the Los Angeles metro area during the 1950s. As quarterback of the 1954 El Camino Junior College football team he led El Camino to the Los Angeles Metro League Championship, and was named most valuable player of the Los Angeles Metro League. In 1973, he was inducted into the El Camino Junior College Athletic Hall of Fame.

Later in life he would enjoy running marathons, fishing, rock climbing, and alpine and cross country skiing.

In 1954, Bill married the love his life, Jonnie Brock of Inglewood, in the Wayfarer’s Chapel in Palos Verdes. They started a family and lived in Mojave, and Diamond Springs near Placerville before eventually settling in South Lake Tahoe in 1967.

Bill was an English teacher at South Tahoe High School and Mt. Tallac Continuation High School from 1967 to the late 1980s. Aside from teaching English at Mt. Tallac, he also taught subjects such as astronomy and orienteering. At South Tahoe High he also coached for the football and ski teams.

A teacher at heart, on weekends in the winter season in the 1970s and 1980s, he also taught cross country skiing in Meyers. There he taught everyone from your typical Tahoe tourist to Navy Seals the basics of cross country skiing. As a ski instructor he also guided Boy Scout troops on ski camping trips to Meiss Meadow near Carson Pass.

Bill also loved the city of South Lake Tahoe. He was concerned about local issues and voiced his concerns about the direction of the city. He was prolific in writing letters to the editor and served two terms as a city councilman.

In his spare time, Bill wrote poetry, a verse every two or three days for well over three decades. It was his form of meditation.

Bill is loved by his family, and he will be missed.

·       Homewood Mountain Resort plans to open Dec. 9.

·       There will be a community workshop Nov. 30 from 5:30-7:30pm about Incline Village General Improvement District’s Community Services Master Plan at the Chateau, 955 Fairway Blvd.

·       Children are invited to the Douglas County Public Library in Minden for a make and take holiday crafts event on Dec. 10 from 3-4:30pm. All craft supplies will be provided by the library. 

·       Rotary Club of Incline Village is raising money by selling See’s Candy. The sweets are available at: Ace Hardware in Raley’s Center; Wired Solutions in the Upper Village Center near the thrift stores; Jonathan Smith optometry office at 780 Northwood Blvd.; Incline Cleaners at 889 Tahoe Blvd.; and Incline Vacation Rentals and Rainbow Printing at 917 Tahoe Blvd.

·       Tahoe Arts Project is raffling four one-day Park Hopper passes to Disneyland and California. Raffle tickets are $20 each and may be purchased online. The winner will be announced in February.

To the community,

The Tahoe-Douglas Elks Lodge No. 2670 is an organization that invests in its communities through programs that help those in need. On Nov. 14, the Elks Lodge hosted the Bread & Broth Adopt A Day of Nourishment Monday meal that provided hearty dinners to many disadvantaged members of our community. 

With the $250 donation provided by the Elks Lodge’s sponsorship, B&B was able to provide full course, nutritious meals to the grateful folks who came to St. Theresa Grace Hall for a free meal and food to take home.

On hand to help the B&B volunteers were Elks Lodge members Roger Barragan, Michael Corral, Steve Kurek, James Plamenig, Dan Wells and Gary Wendt. They provided incredible service. As Elks Lodge members they took the opportunity to help people in need and give back to the community selflessly. 

Serving his first time at a B&B dinner, Corral commented, “I was very surprised with the quality of food and the help that was given. It was my honor to help the team. I hope to help again.”

The Tahoe-Douglas Elks Lodge No. 2670 is a generous and frequent sponsor of B&B’s Adopt A Day program; generally hosting three to four Monday meals annually. B&B would like to thank the Elks Lodge and acknowledge their ongoing participation and contribution to easing hunger in our community.

Carol Gerard, Bread & Broth

By Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle

The California Supreme Court jumped into a high-stakes dispute over public employee pensions last week, agreeing to decide whether laws aimed at limiting preretirement actions to inflate future benefits can be applied to millions of government workers.

A state appeals court in San Francisco ruled in a Marin County case in August that the new laws could be applied to current employees — a potentially major setback for the workers and their unions, and a victory for local governments facing mounting deficits in their pension plans. But the state’s high court voted unanimously to put that ruling on hold while it reviews the issue for a future statewide resolution.

A final decision is at least a year away.

Read the whole story

Emergency crews tend to victims in a vehicle accident at Heavenly on Nov. 26. Photo/David Cook

By Kathryn Reed

Five people were taken to Barton Memorial Hospital on Saturday after the vehicle they were riding in ended up careening down World Cup run at Heavenly Mountain Resort and then landing upside down in the parking lot at California Lodge.

The Toyota 4Runner lost control about 4:30pm Nov. 26 as it came down Keller Road. There is about a 90-degree right turn. The driver was not able to handle the icy conditions.

Instead of staying on the pavement, the vehicle went onto the ski slope, picked up more speed and then went over a 12-foot retaining wall, landing on the roof of the SUV.

“Several people self-extricated. Heavenly ski patrol started rendering aid immediately,” South Lake Tahoe Battalion Chief Jim Drennan told Lake Tahoe News. “When we arrived they had two people on backboards.”

The parking lot was fairly empty because the California side of the ski resort is not open.

There were seven people in the vehicle. Of the five injured, one was four months pregnant. None of the injuries was life threatening. The group was from out of town.

“I want to stress the importance of driving slow in bad driving conditions. Certainly when you are going downhill on icy streets you need to go slow,” Drennan said.

By KCRA-TV

Rescue crews will resume the search this morning for a missing couple who became stuck in snow while driving in El Dorado County, officials said.

Rory and Susan Holloter of Yuba City were last seen in the rural mountainous area of Wentworth Springs and Ice House roads, the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office said.

The husband and wife went for a drive in their white Dodge truck about 9am Saturday, officials said. They were last heard from about 12:40pm Sunday when they sent a text to family members that they were stuck in the snow.

Read the whole story

Aqua

Aqua is a nice 2-year-old Husky. She has lots of energy, and needs a very secure yard as like most Huskys she likes to escape.

Aqua is spayed, microchipped, tested for heart worm, and vaccinated. She is at the El Dorado County Animal Services shelter in Meyers, along with many other dogs and cats who are waiting for their new homes. Go to the Tahoe animal shelter’s Facebook page to see photos and descriptions of all pets at the shelter.

Call 530.573.7925 for directions, hours, and other information on adopting a pet.

For spay-neuter assistance for South Tahoe residents, go online.

— Karen Kuentz

Lake Tahoe was considered for national park status multiple times. Photo/Kathryn Reed

By Kathryn Reed

One of the perks of being director of the National Park Service is being able to check in on the land you manage. So it should be no surprise Stephen Mather was in Lake Tahoe on Friday giving a talk about his agency.

But Lake Tahoe isn’t a national park and Mather died in 1930.

Steve Hale – aka Mather – regaled hikers at Van Sickle Bi-State Park about the multiple unsuccessful quests to make this area part of the park system. Mather was the first director of the park service after it was established in 1916.       

Steve Hale as Stephen Mather, the first director of the National Park Service. Photo/Kathryn Reed

On a visit to the area in 1919 Mather came across hundreds of people inside and outside a Fallen Leaf Lake lodge listening to a talk about birds. He was taken aback that people would be so enthralled by such a thing.

Watching the spectacle gave him an idea. That one incident is what led to what is now the ranger talks at national parks in the United States.

Mather wanted to start by introducing the American public to the animals in the parks, while he also realized there could be so many more educational talks.

It was in 1920 that Yosemite National Park launched the ranger programs.

The waterfall at Van Sickle Bi-state Park on Nov. 25. Photo/Kathryn Reed

This hike on Nov. 25 was part of the Tahoe Rim Trail Association’s quest to get people outdoors instead of shopping on Black Friday. Eighteen people partook in the jaunt through the South Shore park to the new bridge at the waterfall.

Hale (as Mather) stopped along the route a few times to transport people back to the last century. When he wasn’t giving a history lesson it was one of the four TRT guides – usually trail leader Jim Mrazek – talking about the state park the group was hiking in.

Development at Lake Tahoe is primarily what kept derailing the various attempts to make it a national park. The shoreline was deteriorating in the late 1800s as loggers denuded the forest in order to build silver mines in Virginia City.

The California Assembly wanted the feds to take over Lake Tahoe in 1883, but that proposal failed.

In 1899 the basin was on the congressional radar. According to Hale/Mather, the deal unraveled after an article came out in the San Francisco Chronicle on Feb. 27, 1900, detailing how the land swap would benefit the Bliss family and the railroad interests more than the public.

Jim Mrazek, TRT guide, talks about the bridge that was built this year. Photo/Kathryn Reed

William Stewart, a senator from Nevada was a leader of this particular charge to make Tahoe a national park. The newspaper article, though, exposed how Stewart wanted to build a 12-foot-high dam in Tahoe City to benefit agriculture interests in his state.

The park idea for Tahoe died.

Five years later the area became a national forest.

But the idea of Tahoe as a national park flourished one more time – this time in 1913, the same year Hetch Hetchy was approved. To this day damming this pristine area to provide water for San Francisco still rankles many people.

Agricultural and commercial interests eventually outweighed all conservation efforts to make Lake Tahoe a national park.

By Dianne Feinstein

Next year’s fire season will be far more severe if we fail to remove the growing number of dead trees in our forests. California has already experienced how extreme drought conditions and unprecedented tree mortality heighten the strength and severity of wildfires.

Dianne Feinstein

According to the U.S. Forest Service, the mortality rate for trees in California has grown exponentially since the start of the drought.

·         In 2014, the number of dead trees throughout the state was 11 million.

·         In 2015, that number grew to 40 million.

·         In 2016, the number of dead trees is 102 million.

This number is alarming and serves as an urgent call for swift action. The forest cannot naturally handle so many dead trees, which serve only to increase the fire risk. We need to remove these dead trees, particularly in high-hazard areas that pose a high risk to homes, roads and critical infrastructure.

I have requested from the USDA an additional $38 million to fund 19 projects in high-hazard areas identified by the Forest Service and the governor’s Tree Mortality Task Force. In response to that request, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack allocated only $11 million for 10 projects. I will call on Secretary Vilsack to provide the additional $27 million as soon as possible and if necessary will call on the White House to help provide supplemental funding for these vital projects. 

The majority of the 102 million dead trees are located in 10 counties in the southern and central Sierra Nevada region. The Forest Service also identified increasing mortality in the northern part of the state, including Siskiyou, Modoc, Plumas and Lassen counties.

Several years of severe drought, a dramatic rise in bark beetle infestation and warmer temperatures are leading to the increasing rate of tree mortality. In 2015, Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency due to the unprecedented number of dead and dying trees.

Dianne Feinstein is a Democratic senator from California.