Homewood Mountain Resort will host a Craft Beer & Food Truck Festival on Aug. 28.

It will feature food trucks, live music and a craft beer garden from noon-4pm.

The event is free and open to all ages. An array of beers will be available for purchase by guests ages 21+, including taps from Lagunitas, Great Basin, Track 7, Founders and Elysian. Festival attendees will have the option of buying a flight for $15 that will allow them to sample all taps.

The food truck lineup will include food for purchase from Starkeys Food Truck, Red Truck, EATS Truckee and IceCycle Creamery.

Live music will be performed by Jeff Jones and Brad Perry.

By Joseph Serna and Veronica Rocha, Los Angeles Times

As California enters traditional brush-fire season, there is something ominous in the air and on the ground.

Drought-stricken and ready to burn, the tree canopy in the central and southern end of the Sierra Nevada is awash in yellows, browns and oranges. Many of the trees showing green are already dead, but they just haven’t shown it yet, said Jeffrey Moore, acting regional aerial survey program manager for the U.S. Forest Service.

“From our written history, this has probably been the worst situation California’s forests have faced,” Moore said. “If a fire comes in, it kills everything and leaves nothing behind.”

Already, the fire statistics for 2016 are grim.

State fire officials estimate roughly 223,600 acres, or 350 square miles, of California have burned so far this year in some 4,000 wildfires on state and federal land. More than 300 homes have burned, and eight people have been killed, including a bulldozer operator helping fight a fire.

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The slip n’ slide coming to Ski Run Boulevard isn’t what you remember as a kid.

It will be 1,000-feet long.

Tahoe Regional Young Professionals is teaming with Slide the City to bring the slide to South Lake Tahoe on Aug. 27 from 11am-6pm. The event will feature live music, vendors and environmental conservation information.

Purchase tickets online using promo code “TRYPSLIDE” to save 10 percent. Sliders must be at least 5 and 46-inches tall. Parking is available at Heavenly Mountain Resorts’s California Base parking lot.

Slide the City donates a portion of the proceeds to a local charity and the Tahoe Regional Young Professionals is the selected beneficiary.

By Kathy Park, KCRA-TV

California Highway Patrol air rescues hit a record last month in Northern California due to emergencies at popular outdoor attractions.

“We had the most rescues ever recorded in our unit, about 40 of them,” CHP pilot Jason Hertzell said.

In July 2015, CHP conducted 30 rescues.

Last month, most of the air rescues were between Colfax and the Lake Tahoe Basin, and half of them required a hoist.

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Rotary Club of South Lake Tahoe’s inaugural BBQ, Beer and Beats Festival is Aug. 27 from 2-7pm at Lake Tahoe Golf Course in Meyers.

Local band RedNeck Quartet will be playing as will be members of South Lake’s Ukulele Club.

There will be face painting, a balloon artist, golf games, foot golf, and raffles.

Advance tickets are $45 for adults, $10 for youth (ages 6-20) and include food, music, samples of beer (21 and over). For more information or to purchase tickets, go online.

Proceeds from the event benefit local programs and scholarships, including Boys & Girls Club, SOS Outreach, South Tahoe Swim Club, RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Academy), Rotary Youth Exchange, H.E.R.O., Tahoe Youth & Family Services, South Tahoe Sports Connection, Bread & Broth, Sawmill Pond (restocking and maintenance), Humane Society, and many more.

By Michelle L. Price, AP

More than 100 million acres of America’s most rugged landscapes designated as wilderness are off-limits to mountain bikers, but two Utah senators have introduced legislation that would allow bikers to join hikers and horseback riders in those scenic, undisturbed areas.

The proposal is controversial within the biking community and opposed by conservationists who say bikes would erode trails and upset the five-decade notion of wilderness as primitive spaces.

The bill from  Sens. Mike Lee and Orrin Hatch, both Utah Republicans, would give local officials with the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service and other federal management agencies two years to decide in each wilderness area if bikes will be allowed. If no decision is made within two years, the bike ban would be lifted in that area.

The legislation, which has not yet had a hearing, comes from somewhat unlikely sponsors. Hatch and Lee both represent Utah, where outdoor recreation and mountain biking are big business, but are supporters of the GOP state’s push to takeover public lands controlled by the federal government — something environmentalists and outdoor recreation groups oppose.

Lee, who said he’s a former mountain biker, said his bill takes on what he sees as another overreaching federal regulation that hamstrings locals and that there’s no evidence that mountain bike tires cause any more erosion than hikers do.

At issue is a part of the 1964 Wilderness Act restricting the use of “mechanical transport” — bikes, all-terrain vehicles and cars — in those 100-plus million wilderness acres in 44 states. It’s the only blanket ban on bicycling in the federal public lands system.

The ban on “mechanical transport” doesn’t include wheelchairs, which are allowed as part of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Lee notes that skis, rock climbing gear, kayaks, which are also allowed, “arguably involve some type of mechanical action” and help people move about.

While mountain biking wasn’t a popular sport when the law was passed, they will alter the character of those spaces and are tough on trails, said Alan Rowsome with the Wilderness Society, a Washington, D.C.-based conservation group.

Rowsome said that only about 10 to 12 percent of all U.S. public lands are protected under the Wilderness Act, one of “the bedrock environmental laws we have in this country” setting aside some areas as sacrosanct.

That includes tens of thousands of acres of forests, valleys, lakes and peaks around Lake Tahoe, that “if mountain bikers could start riding those trails, they would be in Seventh Heaven,” said Ted Stroll, president of the Sustainable Trails Coalition, a nonprofit that’s working to overturn the ban.

Stroll said the wilderness ban on bikes leaves riders in Colorado on dirt forest roads from Crested Butte to Aspen instead of more scenic single track trails. In North Dakota, he said, about 100 miles of one bike trail are bookended by wilderness zones, leaving bikers to make detours at both ends to avoid the protected areas.

The International Mountain Bicycling Association doesn’t have a position on the bill and is still reviewing it, according to President Mike Van Abel, but the association’s 40,000 mountain bikers are divided on the idea.

Some mountain bikers don’t want to upset longstanding political alliances with conservation groups and say bikers should instead focus on working with interest groups and lawmakers to negotiate and move the boundaries of wilderness areas to allow bikes on trails.

“Wilderness is the first time we as a species decided to put the needs of nature above the needs of man,” said Ashley Korenblat, the owner of a bicycling tour company based in the mountain bike Moab, Utah, a red rock mountain biking playground. “We don’t need to ride our bikes everywhere.”

Korenblat, a former chair of the International Mountain Bicycling Association, said there are few trails in wilderness areas that would be fun to ride, but “the last thing the bike industry wants to do is have a big fight with the environmental community.”

Christy Smith

Longtime Lake Tahoe resident Christy Smith died July 23, 2016. She was 67.

Christine Cosbey was born March 10, 1949, in Altadena to Jack and Marjorie Cosbey. She spent her childhood in Southern California, graduating in 1967 from Long Beach Polytechnic High School. She studied nursing at Long Beach State College and worked as a nurse in cardiology and family medicine.

She married Tim Smith in 1970, and together they had two children: a son, Corey, and a daughter, Kelly.

With 6-week-old Corey in tow, the couple moved to Lake Tahoe in 1972, and spent the rest of their years in Northern Nevada.

Once her children were in school, Christy began working as a teaching assistant in special education at Zephyr Cove Elementary School, where she served for a decade. She then returned to nursing, working in a private clinic serving South Lake Tahoe’s low income community, then at Barton Memorial Hospital until she retired in 1999.

Shortly after her retirement, Christy’s grandson, Bailey, was diagnosed with stage IV neuroblastoma. After four-plus years of assisting the family during his long, and ultimately successful, battle, Christy developed a passion for helping to build awareness and raise research dollars for childhood cancer. For the past 12 years, she has been deeply involved in the efforts of the Northern Nevada Children’s Cancer Foundation, the St. Baldrick’s Foundation and various other charitable organizations, as well as actively lobbying state and federal lawmaker on the behalf of organizations dedicated to increasing government funding for childhood cancer research.

Christy was also a talented painter, and spent her retirement years expressing this talent. She had an exceptionally keen eye for color and texture.

Christy was known throughout her life for her beautiful smile, her radiant and positive spirit, and her dedication to serving her community and the people she loved. She was exceptionally giving and caring.

Christy was preceded in death by her father, Jack Cosbey.

She is survived by her husband, Tim Smith; son Corey Smith; daughter and son-in-law Kelly and Ron Johnson; three grandchildren, Bailey and Cameron Johnson and Alexandria Smith; mother Marjorie Cosbey; and her brothers and their spouses Craig and Kim Cosbey and Bruce and Lin Cosbey.

A celebration of Christy’s Life will be Aug. 8 at 1pm at the Supper Club at Genoa Lakes Golf Club, 1 Genoa Lakes Drive, Genoa.

In lieu of flowers, consider making a donation in Christy’s memory to the Northern Nevada Children’s Cancer Foundation, 3550 Barron Way, Suite 9A, Reno, NV 89511.

The Village at Squaw Valley pays tribute to our four-legged friends with the 7th annual Peaks and Paws Festival on Aug. 27.

Peaks and Paws is a special day to celebrate dogs with pet-friendly guided hikes up the mountain, an array of specialty products pet vendors, live bluegrass music all day, the Fetch Fest at Cushing Pond, an Ultimate Flying Dog Show and demonstrations, and Yappy Hour drink specials.

All proceeds from the event benefit the Humane Society of Truckee-Tahoe, a nonprofit dedicated to saving and improving the lives of animals. Last year’s festival raised more $13,000.

The festival is Aug. 27 from 11am-7pm.

Fetch Fest is a timed ball retrieval contest to see which dog can retrieve the most tennis balls from Cushing Pond before time runs out. Fetch Fest will begin at 2m and has a $5 entry fee.

The Ultimate Flying Dog Show performances and demonstrations from JD Platt’s K9 Kings Entertainment will feature daredevil dogs showcasing some of the most incredible dog tricks and high-flying action in the world.

Live bluegrass music performances will take place throughout the day.

·      Meyers Mountain Bike Festival is Aug. 13-14. Details are online.

·      The multi-use path from the light at Zephyr Cove Resort to Warrior Way is complete.

·      Brad Deeds is now dean of Workforce Development and Instruction at Lake Tahoe Community College.

·      The Tahoe Show Fitness & Bodybuilding Championship is Aug. 27 at MontBleu in Stateline. For more info, go online.

·       On Sept. 6, Pretty Lights Live will bring it full-forced electronic wizardry with a full live band to the Reno Events Center. Doors open at 6pm, with music beginning shortly after. Tickets begin at $32. They are available at the Melting Pot and World Emporium in Reno, and at all Ticketmaster locations.

By Kathryn Reed

It’s true – a Whole Foods is looking at coming to South Lake Tahoe. But the deal has not been consummated.

It wouldn’t be the big grocery stores, but instead one of the chain’s new concepts called 365 by Whole Foods Market.

Some have compared them to a Trader Joe’s. Besides being smaller, more in the 30,000-square-foot ballpark, they have a large grab-and-go section, pricing is different so the moniker “whole paycheck” isn’t quite as true, and there is a rewards program.

Two of these stores opened this year – one in Southern California, the other Oregon. Eighteen others are in the development phase in eight states.

The South Lake Tahoe store would go where the Knights Inn is on Highway 50 near Ski Run Boulevard.

“We are not at the point where we can talk about the project we are doing with city just yet,” Chris Peto, COO with Halferty Development, told Lake Tahoe News.

He did say Whole Foods is one of the possible tenants, but would not commit. However, others close to the project have told LTN Whole Foods will be the anchor.

Halferty Development of Pasadena is purchasing the developable portion of that site for $4 million from South Lake Tahoe. The city is paying $6 million for the property that is owned by Pradip Patel. Halferty is also buying the adjacent parcel dubbed the “southwest corner” for $1.1 million from the city. The city will retain ownership of the non-developable acreage of the Knights parcel, the conference center on Lloyd Avenue and the current owner’s residence.

The area in green represents the Knights Inn, while the gold are is the “southwest corner” property at Ski Run and Highway 50. Map/South Lake Tahoe

The combined retail complex will be four buildings that could open in fall 2018. The Whole Foods would be the largest building. A T-shape building is proposed to go in at Ski Run that will be about 12,000-square feet, with a 5,000-square-foot building at Herbert Avenue and another one that size that may be a restaurant in the middle of the complex.

This is likely to be a $10 million investment from Halferty.

While the other tenants have not been disclosed, a wine bar has been discussed.

The 110 hotel units can be converted into commercial floor area – two commodities the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency created as a way to curb development. (The rooms bring in about $100,000 a year in transit occupancy tax.)

At the end of the day, the city anticipates having excess commodities that can be used elsewhere or sold. The increase in property and sales taxes is estimated to bring in much more than the hotel tax ever did.

City officials have been working for nearly four years with Halferty on the southwest corner, and more recently on the Knights site. The development company originally wanted to put a drive-through pharmacy there. The city intervened in an attempt to get something better – in terms of adding variety to the commercial offerings in town, a project with a stronger tax base and buildings that would be more pleasing – especially at a key intersection.

For much of this year the negotiations have been touch-and-go. It has to do with environmental groups in the basin trying to dictate what should happen. TRPA – the bi-state regulatory agency, California Tahoe Conservancy – which has neighboring properties, and the League to Save Lake Tahoe – the basin’s environmental watchdog, have all been at meetings between the city and developer.

“In regard to potential redevelopment of the Knights Inn site, there was some early thought that California Tahoe Conservancy Prop. 1 funding might be available to help pay for environmental improvements as part of a project,” TRPA Executive Director Joanne Marchetta told Lake Tahoe News. “That Prop. 1 funding may not be available, so the parties are all working to negotiate the best possible redevelopment project. The city of South Lake Tahoe is still negotiating and fine-tuning the parameters of this potential redevelopment project with other partners. Those talks include incorporating things such as water quality improvements.”

(The city has jurisdiction over permits for the project. The TRPA would get involved with tourist bonus units.)

The city in March spoke to the CTC board about obtaining a multi-million dollar grant for stream environmental zone restoration and water quality improvements. This is a routine allocation of CTC money. The board is expected to vote on the grant in September.

CTC Executive Director Patrick Wright has indicated that now he will ask his board to not allocate the money. Publicly he has not said why. However, those close to the talks say it is because he isn’t getting the project he wants so he is being an obstructionist. Wright did not respond to inquiries from LTN.

Larry Sevison, who is chair of that board, was unaware of any issue with allocating funding to the city until LTN called and therefore wasn’t able to talk about the subject matter.

“… projects like the Knights Inn, which is already located in a designated town center, must maximize environmental benefits. We hope we do not lose the opportunity to restore the section of stream through the parcel, which would help reduce stormwater pollution that currently flows from neighborhoods and developed areas above the parcel and into the lake via pipes at Ski Run Marina,” Darcie Goodman Collins, executive director of the League, told Lake Tahoe News. “The currently existing infrastructure under the inn is failing and polluting the lake. Any new development on the site should repair and replace that infrastructure and daylight the creek.”

City Manager Nancy Kerry told Lake Tahoe News, “This project achieves those things. It achieves both economic and environmental goals.”

What it won’t achieve is all of the potential environmental goals without the state – aka CTC – helping.

City officials estimate 8,000 pounds of sediment could be prevented from reaching the lake with the proper erosion control measures put into place. This in turn would meet more than 20 percent of the city’s sediment reduction goals that Lahontan Water Quality Control Board has mandated for the five-year period starting this year.

Not having the CTC on board is forcing the developer to rethink what the project will ultimately look like and what it is willing to spend. Build-to-suit agreements with tenants are also in jeopardy.

If the CTC says no, the city is prepared to scale back the environmental improvement aspect of the project while at the same time seeking grant funding elsewhere, including from the state Department of Water Resources.

Kerry said this project shows why it is near impossible to get rid of old hotels and redevelop them. With hotel rooms (aka tourist accommodation units) and commercial space being commodities, it inflates the price of a building – in terms of purchasing it or constructing it from scratch – to the point it’s easier to do business outside the basin. There is little or no incentive for developers to go the extra step with the environmental fixes because there is no return on investment. It takes public dollars to get the big gains. That is why grants from the CTC and others help bring the biggest environmental benefits to a project.