The primary non-emergency business phone number for the South Lake Tahoe Police Department (530.542.6100) is not working.
Until it is fixed, the alternative number is 530.542.6101.
It is believed a hardware malfunction at the police department is the problem. The 911 phone lines remain fully functional.
When calling the bad number, callers will likely hear a phone ringing, but this signal is not connecting to any telephone in the police department.
Updated 11:35pm:
A brush fire consumed about 15 acres in the Pine Nuts east of Gardnerville on Wednesday. As of late that evening it was mostly contained.
Crews will continue to reinforce the line around the fire throughout the evening, and the incident will be re-evaluated Thursday.
East Fork Fire Protection District responded to the wildland fire at about noon July 13. The fire was near the Ruby Mine area. The majority of the fire appears to be on private property.
The fire was determined to be accidentally human caused. The investigation is still on going.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
Alpine County residents are trying to recall the superintendent of schools.
The petition to do so has been filed with the county’s elections department.
Patrick Traynor
Patrick Traynor took the helm of Alpine County Office of Education/Alpine County Unified School District in July 2013. He was then elected to the position in November 2014, running unopposed. Prior to being hired to work in the Markleeville-based office, he was director of the Assessment Development and Administration Division with the state Department of Education.
The petition says, “He continues to make decision that are not in the best interest of the students and stakeholders despite feedback regarding his decisions, especially in the areas of meaningful learning experiences over excessive standardized testing.”
The district has one school – Diamond Valley. After eighth grade students usually choose between Douglas and South Tahoe high schools.
“Alpine County voters should know that many/most/all of the reasons given for a recall, all of which I disagree with, were not actions or decisions I made as county superintendent,” Traynor said in a statement to LTN. “All/many/most were made as the school district superintendent, a position appointed by the Alpine County School District board of trustees and from which I cannot be recalled. The reasons all refer to personnel decisions and student issues from which I am prohibited from commenting on by law.”
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
Alternatives for where to place advertising dollars seem to grow every day. The one constant is that those choices are digital.
Lake Tahoe News is also a constant, having been the only daily news source for the Lake Tahoe Basin since September 2009. Our readership numbers continue to grow inside and outside the basin. With readers in nearly 3,000 cities and 100 countries, it proves Lake Tahoe News is the news source for visitors and second homeowners – not just locals.
The Pew Research Center recently released data from two nationwide surveys that said nearly 60 percent of people reading news do so online, while only 26 percent read print publications. Online readership keeps growing, while print keeps dropping.
It makes sense to spend your limited advertising dollars where the readers are – online.
Here are other stats from the Pew study to prove local online advertising is the way to reach current and future customers:
• 81 percent of adults get at least some of their news from websites, mobile apps or social networking services.
• 7 in 10 adults follow national and local news “somewhat or very closely.”
• 72 percent of people get news via mobile devices, compared to 54 percent in 2013.
• 7 in 10 people age 18-29 prefer mobile devices for news.
It’s time to stop worrying about where to advertise and advertise with Lake Tahoe News, Tahoe’s only source for daily news. Email us at info@LakeTahoeNews.net with “Want to Advertise” in the subject line and we’ll start the process of driving more customers to your business.
— Lake Tahoe News staff
· Windjammers Yacht Club is having an adult sailing skills clinic July 16 at 8:30 am. There will be classroom and on-the-water instruction. The cost is $45. Contact Lynn Woodward at potterybylynn@gmail.com or 530.544.1482 or Debbie Noorda at russdebbienoorda@gmail.com or 530.318.0223.
· The South Lake Tahoe Library will host Wild Things Inc. on July 15. The free outdoor show starts at 2pm at 1000 Rufus Allen Blvd in South Lake Tahoe.
· Changes are under way in Truckee regarding to the trash and recycling services. Keep Truckee Green wants public input via this survey.
· The Community Action Council of El Dorado County is seeking an individual or agency to represent the interests and concerns of low-income people/families living in El Dorado County, with special attention on housing, nutrition and low-income program needs. For an application, contact Star Walker at 530.621.6255 or star.walker@edcgov.us.
· Sierra Nevada Alliance is hosting a full moon paddle (kayak, canoe, SUP) on July 19 at 7pm at Timber Cove Marina in South Lake Tahoe. Tickets are available online.
Construction work on Highway 89 on the West Shore is now on an overnight schedule.
Work is from 6pm-6am during week and from 10pm Sunday to 6am Monday. 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift during the week and 10 p.m. Sunday to 6 a.m. Monday. This schedule is expected to continue until Aug. 15. After that, work will resume during the day. The project will be completed next year.
Work is currently ongoing between Ward Creek and Sugar Pine Road on the south end and from Pine Avenue to Cathedral Drive on the north end.
The multi-year, $70.1 million project from Tahoma to just north of Granlibakken Road in Tahoe City is upgrading stormwater drainage and treatment systems, adding curb and gutter, resurfacing and realigning the road, adding left-turn pockets and widening the shoulders on an eight-mile stretch of the highway.
By Tom Hals, Las Vegas Review-Journal
Caesars Entertainment Corp and Caesars Acquisition Co. have amended their proposed merger agreement, which is intertwined with the $18 billion bankruptcy of the casino company’s main operating unit, the companies said on Monday.
The operating unit, Caesars Entertainment Operating Co., or CEOC, received approval from a U.S. bankruptcy judge last month to begin seeking votes from creditors on its plan to restructure its debt and exit bankruptcy.
The bankruptcy plan would slash $10 billion of debt and split the CEOC unit into a new operating company and a real estate investment trust.
Caesars Entertainment is the parent company of Harrah’s Lake Tahoe and Harveys in Stateline.
By Kathryn Reed
By March 2019 it’s possible the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department will be operating at one facility instead of the current 13 on the West Slope.
A multi-million dollar public safety facility has been talked about for years as the current buildings kept losing their usefulness and the cost of out-sourcing some operations continued to escalate. The Board of Supervisors at a special meeting on July 11 pulled the trigger to go forward with the project.
“This project will finally bring all the functions of the sheriff’s office to one location, enabling us to provide the best level of public safety to the people we serve and eliminate costly lease payments and create efficiencies in communication and crime solving,” Sheriff John D’Agostini told Lake Tahoe News.
The board was presented with multiple projects. In the end the most expensive — $60 million – was chosen. This provides the department with essentially everything it wanted.
In three years El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department’s operations should be on one campus in Placerville.
A 30.7-acre parcel off Missouri Flat and Industrial roads in Placerville had already been acquired, with the main use for the sheriff’s department. Five buildings on 12 acres will be for law enforcement. Another 7 acres may become a solar farm. Development has not yet been planned for the remaining acreage.
To pay for the facility, the county is going after a loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Supervisors on July 26 will be asked to approve the final application. If the 40-year loan can be locked in by Sept. 30, the interest rate will be 2.75 percent, according to Shawne Corley, assistant chief administrative officer.
A criterion to qualify for this loan is to show five years’ of future balanced budgets. When former CAO Larry Combs this spring released the budget it neither had the sheriff’s department project in it nor future balanced budgets.
Supervisors at the June 28 meeting gave direction to current CAO Don Ashton to re-do Combs’ work. This means staff will be coming back to the electeds with ideas for how to fund the annual $2.6 million loan payments for the public safety facility.
“First we’ll work on efficiency and not necessarily just cut things,” Corley told Lake Tahoe News.
She said it’s too soon to know what the cost containment plan will look like. The final county budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year is due in September.
The staff report from Monday’s meeting said, “Regardless of which construction option is chosen, there will be a significant impact on the budget, requiring difficult service level decisions beginning this year.”
Corley said with her and Ashton being new to their jobs, they are apt to see things in the budget that others might not have – places that can be tightened or cut made without being a drastic sacrifice.
“I understand this is the biggest thing the county has ever taken on and the huge responsibility the Board of Supervisors has in regards to the overall county budget,” D’Agostini said. “This project is absolutely essential in providing the most important service to our communities and the county as a whole, that of public safety that the Board of Supervisors placed in the county’s strategic plan as the top priority. This project will never cost less than it does today. Not tomorrow, next week, next month or next year.”
The new operation will allow the county to conduct forensic autopsies on site instead of going to Sacramento. The gun range will also be part of the new campus. A training facility will also be incorporated. In all, 99,000-square-feet of space will be developed.
“The sheriff has need for extensive storage,” Russ Fackrell, county facilities manager, told Lake Tahoe News. “They have to keep evidence sometimes for more than 50 years. If the convicted person is in jail for life, they have to maintain that evidence for the whole time they are incarcerated.”
Land will also be used to store vehicles – from patrol cars, to boats, to command centers.
The main building being used today is slated to be demolished. In its place will be a juvenile detention center. The board has approved the project that comes with a price tag of nearly $12 million. Most of that — $9.6 million – will come from a state grant.
Many of the other facilities are leased, so that will be a savings.
Office space in the government complex now used by law enforcement will be taken over by other county entities.
These new buildings are expected to last 50 or more years.
By Daniel Victor, New York Times
You’re alone at the beach, or maybe in a pair or a small group. It’s pretty hot out there, so it’s time to cool down in the water.
How do you make sure your phone, money and keys aren’t stolen?
It’s a simple question with no easy answer, especially if you don’t have a car nearby. While it’s easy to suggest leaving your valuables at home or at a hotel — which is, indeed, sensible advice — that option isn’t always practical or desirable.
When I posed the question to my Facebook friends, I got a surprising variety of responses.
By Case Keefer, Las Vegas Sun
Poker players are always late — even to their game’s world championship.
Their proclivity for procrastination resulted in the final of three starting flights in the 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event going down as the largest single-day field in the tournament’s history on Monday at the Rio. Day 1C of the Main Event attracted 4,240 players who paid the $10,000 entry fee for a shot at poker’s world championship gold bracelet.
That brought the three-day total to 6,737 players, the highest number of Main Event runners since 2011 and the fourth-most of all-time. The eventual winner will earn an $8 million prize.