A progressive dinner along Ski Run Boulevard in South Lake Tahoe will combine local storytellers with local cuisine.

The April 28 event is a collaboration of Lake Tahoe Leadership and Lake Tahoe Historical Society to raise funds for the Friends of the El Dorado County Library. Dinner guests will start at Black Bear Inn for hors d’ oeuvres, stroll to Nepheles for a salad course, then to Blue Angel Café Loft for the entrée and finally shuttle or walk — depending on weather — to the Riva Grill for dessert.

Although the public library normally hosts children’s storytelling, this event is adults-only and dinner guests should be prepared for possibly bawdy tales and bring their drinking and walking shoes.

Tickets are $65. The first seating will begin at 5:30pm at the Black Bear Inn and is expected to wind up at the Riva Grill in time for sunset at 7:45pm. A parking shuttle will depart Ski Run Marina 10 minutes before each seating.

For bookings and more information, call (415) 992.2433 or email supperstroll@gmail.com.

By Kathryn Reed

If the weather cooperates, work will begin May 1 on the Sawmill Road bike trail on the South Shore.

The contract between El Dorado County and Don Garcia Excavating and Paving is signed. Permits are in hand. It’s just a waiting game right now.

Besides the 8-foot-wide class 1 bike path that will be built on the south side of the road (the right side headed from Lake Tahoe Boulevard toward Meyers), parking at Sawmill Pond will be improved, a couple spaces put in near Echo View Estates, and a ton of water quality work done. Eight culverts will be replaced, channels will be lined with rock, rock bowls created to treat stormwater, the road paved and striped, and fencing put in along with some signs.

All of this comes with a price tag of $842,000.

The dirt to the right will be a bike path on Sawmill Road by the end of summer. Photo/LTN

Much of the money comes from the Congestion for Mitigation of Air Quality funds.

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The Sawmill Road project is broken into two phases in large part because of funding. But right-of-way issues are a concern with the second phase, though not enough of one for planners to believe it won’t be built in 2013.

The first phase will go from Lake Tahoe Boulevard to about Echo View Estates. This is all adjacent to public property owned by the California Tahoe Conservancy and California State Parks.

Phase two has more private property owners so it’s taking longer to secure rights-of-way. The county cannot legally pay someone more than fair market value, no matter what the landowner believes the property is worth.

This is also why the path is being built in a non-contiguous manner. For a year the route won’t tie into the network of trails that are already in the ground.

The second phase will connect with the bridge that crosses the Upper Truckee River and is the path that extends to Meyers. The design for that section is 90 percent finished. Environmental clearance is complete. When the rights-of-way issues are put to rest, permits will be sought and the Board of Supervisors will be asked to bid the project.

“We are very hopeful it will be next season. We don’t see anything stopping it,” Brendan Ferry, senior planner with El Dorado County, told Lake Tahoe News. “It should be a nice trail for all kinds of user groups. That was the goal.”

Changes in Meyers

As people continue out to Meyers on the existing trail they will notice changes along Highway 50 in 2013-14 when Caltrans begins water quality projects in the area.

County Supervisor Norma Santiago, last week when she addressed the Meyers Roundtable, said Caltrans expects to put a pedestrian button in at the intersection of Highway 50 and Pioneer Trail so people can cross there more safely.

This piece of news was met with applause by those at the meeting.

With how the flow of traffic is now and how the lights are set, neither cyclists nor pedestrians can safely cross at that intersection.

Caltrans also plans to create a safety section for people crossing Highway 50 right in Meyers. The wide area of asphalt near the bug station will be a landing spot of sorts as people break the crossing into segments instead of dashing across all the lanes of traffic at once.

Meyers will also have class 1 and 2 bike trails when Caltrans is done with its work.

Lake Tahoe Boulevard

Changes to Lake Tahoe Boulevard will probably come in 2014, though they could start a year earlier. These two miles of work will also likely be broken into two phases.

A class 1 trail is slated to go in on the west side of the road from Sawmill Road to Viking Way. (That’s the same side as South Tahoe High School.)

“It will be a fully separated path kind of in the forest on an existing forest road,” Ferry said. “That is entirely on public land. We are working with the Forest Service to get that done. Permitting shouldn’t be too tough because it’s an existing disturbance.”

This will tie into the class 2 trail that comes from Y area of South Lake Tahoe.

A crosswalk will be put in so people can more safely get across Lake Tahoe Boulevard from one bike trail to the other.

Headed in the other direction, toward the Upper Truckee neighborhood, Lake Tahoe Boulevard for about four-tenths of a mile will go from two lanes in each direction to one. Part of the current pavement will be used for the bike path.

“It goes to two lanes after you get through the curve. We don’t see it as an impediment to timing,” Ferry said. “And it’s a cost effective, environmentally friendly way to get the bike path.”

Plus, the bike path there will be 6-feet-wide instead of the minimum 4-foot requirement.

U.S. Forest Service fuels management crews will begin prescribed fire operations in the Andria Drive area of Kingsbury Grade on April 10.

Crews anticipate burning no more than 5 acres per day. Operations may continue through the week, weather and conditions permitting.

Residents and visitors can expect to see smoke from this prescribed fire project area. The Forest Service strives to minimize the impacts of smoke on local communities. Smoke-sensitive residents should consider staying indoors and keeping doors, windows and outside vents closed. To directly receive prescribed fire updates, send an email to pa_ltbmu@fs.fed.us.

South Lake Tahoe is down to two medical marijuana dispensaries.

City of Angels 2 closed Sunday night.

“I’m afraid of the feds,” owner Gino DiMatteo told Lake Tahoe News as he stood in front of the shop on Third Street.

City of Angels 2 pot club in South Lake Tahoe is closed. Photo/LTN

The professionally made sign plastered on the front door says the same thing. “Closed until further notice; Fear of feds; Nothing of value on premises” is what the sign says.

The word has not got out to all clients because people were approaching the business Monday night.

DiMatteo said he is not sure if this is a permanent decision.

He is upset he isn’t able to get people the medicine they need.

DiMatteo would not elaborate on what led to this decision. He said he has not received any notification from the feds; that this decision was his and that he was not raided; nor did he say his landlord told him to move out.

Landlords at the three South Tahoe dispensaries have received letters from the U.S. Attorney’s Office saying their property could be confiscated in addition to other penalties if they continue to allow medicinal marijuana to be sold.

— Kathryn Reed

During the month of May, Tahoe Forest Health System is offering a free monthlong walking fitness challenge — 10,000 Steps a Day for the Month of May.

All Truckee-North Lake Tahoe residents are welcome to join as individuals or as a team.

Call the Tahoe Center for Health and Sports Performance at (530) 587.3769 to register. Participants may purchase pedometers at the center.

Participants receive weekly health and fitness tips; entry into a weekly raffle for turning in step totals, and a grand prize is awarded to the most improved, and other prizes.

The benefits of walking 10,000 steps a day are significant. They include weight and body fat loss; a decrease in hip circumference; an increase in HDL (good) cholesterol and a lower body mass index (BMI). The 10,000 steps don’t have to be performed on a track or trail. They can include shuffling back and forth from your desk to the copier or the coffee machine as well as a hurried sprint to catch the bus or even your toddler.

For more information, email tchsp@tfhd.com or call (530) 587.3769.

The Tahoe Rim Trail Association is partnering with the American Red Cross, Wilderness Medicine Institute, Lake Tahoe School and Crested Butte Outdoors for a series of Wilderness Medicine Courses.

These are for crew leaders, wilderness guides, outdoor enthusiasts and people who work in a remote environment.

American Red Cross Courses

Location: 948 Incline Way, Incline Village.

May 4: Adult CPR & AED

May 5–6: Wilderness and Remote First Aid

May 4–6: Wilderness and Remote First Aid & Adult CPR/AED.

Wilderness Medicine Institute of NOLS Courses

Location: 948 Incline Way, Incline Village.

May 16–17: Wilderness First Aid.

For program fees, online registration and other details about these courses, go online and search under “Medical Trainings”.

After years of preparing, planning, designing and fundraising, the Humane Society of Truckee-Tahoe, in partnership with the Truckee, will break ground on the animal shelter June 4.

If all goes as planned, the shelter is expected to open in late 2013.

HSTT has partnered with Truckee to share the cost of construction and operation of a new shelter. Approximately 1.5 acres of the town’s new corporation yard have been secured at no cost to HSTT. Bids are due by April 26 at 2pm.

The building will include an education and training center, allowing HSTT to expand its humane education, dog training and pet assisted therapy programs.

To learn more about donating to the capital campaign, call (530) 587.5948.

Placer County Sheriff’s Council is hosting its third annual expo and classic car show June 2.

Day with a Deputy will be at Regional Park in north Auburn, from 11am-3pm. The free event will also include a classic car show.

Throughout the day there will be demonstrations by the Sheriff Office’s Special Enforcement Team, mounted team, K-9 handlers and their dog partners, the bomb squad, the helicopter crew and more. Vendors will have booths set up on the park grounds and food will be available for purchase.

A classic car show will be included and the public is invited to display their vintage cars. For more information about the car show, call (530) 906.7085.

Join astronomers Adrienne Cool and Ron Marzke of San Francisco State University for a nighttime event and slide show, peering through telescopes to spy planets, stars, and nebulae.

All ages are welcome to the May 12 event that will start about 8pm at Sorensen’s Resort in Hope Valley.

Cost is $10 adults/$5 kids, all proceeds (which will be matched by Sorensen’s) will go to support school science programs in Alpine County.

By Scott Moritz, Bloomberg

AT&T Inc. agreed to sell a majority stake in its Yellow Pages directory division to Cerberus Capital Management LP for about $950 million as part of an effort to dispose of units that are holding back revenue growth.

AT&T will receive $750 million in cash and a $200 million note, according to a statement from the Dallas-based phone carrier today. AT&T will keep a 47 percent stake in the business, which had about $3.3 billion in revenue in 2011.

The sale lets AT&T, which hung on to its Yellow Pages division as competitors fled the business, to reduce its exposure to a unit facing increasing competition from online rivals Google Inc., Groupon Inc. and Yelp Inc. To boost sales, AT&T, the biggest U.S. phone company, is focusing on its mobile- phone business, where it trails Verizon Wireless.

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