The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency will recognize recipients of the 2011 Best in the Basin Awards at its Governing Board meeting Feb. 22 in Stateline.

This is the 22nd year TRPA’s Best in the Basin awards program has recognized projects demonstrating exceptional planning, design, and compatibility with the Lake Tahoe environment. Local professionals in the fields of landscaping, planning, engineering, water quality, and resource management judged each category.

Van Sickle Bi-state Park is the recipient of a Best in Basin award. Photo/LTN file

The winners are:

Residential BMPs

Robert Marshall for the Marshall Residence BMP Retrofit and Defensible Space Project, 160 Marlette Drive, Tahoe City.

New Commercial Project

Vail Resorts for the LEED-certified Tamarack Lodge, Heavenly Mountain Resort.

Restoration Project

South Lake Tahoe for the Upper Truckee River Restoration, middle reach adjacent to the Lake Tahoe Airport.

Erosion Control Project

Placer County Department of Public Works for the Lake Forest Erosion Control, Stream and Habitat Restoration Project/

Public Service Project

Caltrans for the Highway 28 Environmental Improvement Program Project between Kings Beach and Carnelian Bay.

Forest Fuel Reduction Project

Dennis and Ginger Maloney for the Maloney Residence Healthy Forest, Community Fuel Reduction and Defensible Space Project, Wild Rose Drive, Tahoe Vista.

Recreation Project

California Tahoe Conservancy and Nevada Division of State Parks for the Van Sickle Bi-State Park in Stateline and South Lake Tahoe.

Green Building Project

Jeff and Karolina Miller for the Miller Residence, 1085 Mill Creek Road, Incline Village.

New Residential Project

Domus Development LLC, Meea Kang, President, for the Kings Beach Housing Now Dispersed Workforce Housing Project, Fox and Brook streets, Kings Beach.

Residential Modification Project

Ann and Lee Schweichler for the Schweichler Residence 8375 Meeks Bay Ave., Meeks Bay.

Residential Rebuild Project

Roger and Darlene Rempfer for the Rempfer Residence Rebuild, 5019 California St., Carnelian Bay.

U.S. Forest Service fuels management crews will continue prescribed fire operations in several locations around the Lake Tahoe Basin this week.

Operations may take place near Meeks Bay on the West Shore, Slaughterhouse Canyon on the East Shore and near the end of Andria Drive on Kingsbury Grade. Locations and size of the operations will depend on conditions at each site. Operations may continue through the weekend, weather permitting.

To directly receive prescribed fire updates, send an email to pa_ltbmu@fs.fed.us.

To the community,

Bread & Broth would like to warmly thank the California School Employees Association Chapter No. 286 [the classified employees at Lake Tahoe Unified School District] and its volunteers for their continued support in our Adopt-A-Day of Nourishment Program.

Volunteers from CSEA spent their Monday helping Bread & Broth volunteers serve those in need a well balanced nutritious meal to people from the community. The Bread & Broth staff that Monday was excited that the CSEA were there to offer their support for our Adopt-A-Day of Nourishment through the Bread & Broth program.

Bread & Broth is able to continue its mission of feeding the hungry of South Lake Tahoe in large part because of the generosity of the local community. A $250 sponsorship covers the cost of food and beverages for the approximately 100 people who visit each Monday evening. To find out how your family or business can Adopt-A-Day of Nourishment, contact Connie Yale at midwest2tahoe@yahoo.com or (530) 544.4945.

Bread & Broth

More than 200 people attended the 58th annual Community Awards hosted by the North Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce/CVB/Resort Association at the Ritz-Carlton, Lake Tahoe to recognize the outstanding achievements of many local residents.

Art Chapman, president and chairman of JMA Ventures, received the Citizen of the Year Award for his dynamic leadership in the $500 million redevelopment planned for Homewood Mountain Resort on the West Shore.

Longtime North Lake Tahoe resident and business owner Dave Wilderotter of Tahoe Dave’s was awarded the Distinguished Community Service Award for his significant economic and volunteer contributions to the area.

The Large Business of the Year went to Squaw Valley for its $50 million renaissance, merger with Alpine Meadows, news pass products, complimentary shuttles connecting the two ski resorts, as well as it community involvement and contributions.

Alpenglow Sports took home Small Business of the Year for hosting and sponsoring events to provide awareness of North Lake Tahoe’s backcountry skiing, as well as its significant involvement with the Tahoe City Downtown Association.

Nonprofit Achievement was presented to Project Mana, an integral part of the North Lake Tahoe community providing hunger relief for many families since 1991. The organization has also invested in the region’s youth, working collaboratively with local elementary schools to supplement health curriculum with hands-on nutritional activities, as well as hosting Kids Can Cook, which teaches kids about kitchen safety and nutrition.

The Regional Marketing Award was given to Northstar for providing an exceptional snow product via their considerable investment in snowmaking; media attention of its North Face Super Pipe, designed by Olympic-gold medalist Shaun White; new terrain, the Promised Land, and mid-mountain lodge Zephyr Lodge; as well as its use of social media and photography, allowing other partners to push this snow message to consumers.

The Public Servant of the Year Award was presented jointly to Chief Michael Brown of the North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District, Chief John Pang of the Meeks Bay Fire Protection District, Chief Duane Whitelaw of the North Tahoe Fire Protection District, Chief Mark Shadowens of the Northstar Fire Department and Chief Pete Bansen of the Squaw Valley Fire Department. The five departments work collaboratively together with mutual aid and automatic aid agreements, as well as provide aid resources (engines) for large fires throughout California and Nevada.

The Hospitality Award was given to the Ritz-Carlton, Lake Tahoe for meticulously exceeding guest expectations, while maintaining an impeccable standard of excellence and securing Lake Tahoe’s first five-diamond hotel rating of luxury.

Keep the Sierra Green presented the Green Business Award to Mamasake and Austin’s Restaurant for recyclable, energy-efficient and sustainable programs.

The Placer County-Lake Tahoe Film Office also recognized community members, with the Film Commission Outstanding Support for Film and Media Production presented to Squaw Valley, Alpine Meadows and the North Tahoe Fire Protection District.

A number of volunteers were recognized and included Ed Miller of the Tahoe City Public Utility District, Chuck Greene of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Advisory Planning Council, Todd and Linda Willard of the North Tahoe Business Association, Trudy Lesem of the North Lake Tahoe Historical Society, Carol Heinricy of the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center, Larry Bienati of Sierra State Parks Foundation and Dina Marshall of Tahoe SAFE Alliance.

Outstanding employees getting top honors included Jeff Cowen of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency; Shaun Chilkotowsky of the Tahoe City Public Utility District; Pat Greenlaw of the Sierra Sun; Kevin MacMillan of the Sierra Sun and North Lake Tahoe Bonanza; Northstar snowmaking team; Tim Rantz of Homewood Mountain Resort; Jamie Olson of the Tahoe City Downtown Association; Tom Baird of Tahoe City Marina; Martin Hernandez of Granlibakken Resort; Martha Vivas and Greg Whitlow of the Resort at Squaw Creek; Deb Stansell, Sara Coustette, Jenn Baker and Elaine VanFossen of Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows; Andrew Ariansen and Austin Wolf of the Ritz-Carlton, Lake Tahoe; as well as Dan Hauserman and Russ Baruh of Hauserman Real Estate.

By USSA

MOSCOW – Julia Mancuso of Squaw Valley ripped through the head-to-head style parallel slalom to win under the lights for her second Audi FIS Alpine World Cup win this season.

“Events like this are really exciting, anything can happen. You’re bummed out if you lose and when you win, it’s a big surprise,” Mancuso said. “I knew that if you can have a good start, you can make up any amount of time, so I really focused on my start.”

Teammate Lindsey Vonn of Vail tacked another 60 points to her immense overall World Cup lead with third on the 170 foot tall ramp built in Luznhiki Olympic Complex as thousands of fans braved the fridgid Moscow tempuratures. The event, presented by Soelden, the official European Training base of the U.S. Ski Team, capped a brilliant showcase of alpine skiing in Russia, host country for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.

Each match featured two runs with the fastest racer from the first earning a time advantage on the second.

Mancuso knocked out Vonn in the semifinal and Austrian Mikaela Kirchgasser in the final to win.

Vonn was down 0.30 to Riesch after the first run of the small final, but won the second run.

Frenchman Alexis Pinterault won the men’s event as Ted Ligety of Park City was knocked out in the first round.

The women’s World Cup moves to Bansko, Bulgaria, while the men race in Crans Montana, Switzerland.

Thirty-two organizations in Northern Nevada are receiving grants from the NV Energy Foundation, including Tahoe Youth & Family Services, Food Bank of Northern Nevada and the Nevada Land Conservancy.

In total, the foundation is giving $342,000 to be shared among 61 organizations throughout the state.

For more information, go online.

Barton Health and other community organizations and businesses are joining forces to give South Lake Tahoe and its surrounding areas a “complete physical”.

The process, known as a Community Health Needs Assessment, consists of gathering information about the health status of residents on three levels: in-depth discussion groups; an area-wide telephone survey; and collection of state, county and national health data.

Lake Tahoe News in October 2011 first wrote about the assessment, which is now about to start. This month, the project will identify major health risks, disease incidence and service needs of residents of South Lake Tahoe and its surrounding communities.

Beginning in March, 400 20-minute phone interviews will take place with adults ages 18 and older in English and Spanish.

Barton will hold focus groups and work alongside community agencies to gather additional elemental data for the health assessment.

Full results from the CHNA will be available to the public by late summer. Barton will have the information posted online as well as have a town hall meeting to share the results and action plan.

By Bill O’Driscoll, Reno Gazette-Journal

Presidents Day weekend is when Paco Lindsay usually puts sale prices on ski gear in Paco’s Bike & Ski shop in Truckee.

Not this year. Sales at Paco’s began the day after Christmas — a first for Lindsay. Now eight weeks later, struggling like others in a winter devoid of snow by Sierra standards, he aims simply to survive what’s left of the ski season and look to next year.

Clouds on Presidents Day deliver zero moisture to Lake Tahoe. And temps are expected to be in the 50s all week. Photo/Kathryn Reed

“This is one of those winters you just want to get out of,” Lindsay said of a Tahoe Basin snowpack that last week was less than one-third of last winter’s epic depths as measured by the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

“It’s tough. On the ski side, we’re off by a good 35 percent,” he said. “This is the first time I’ve had to go to my vendors and restructure my payments. In talking to credit people, it’s a bad year everywhere. Everybody’s pulling the ripcord.”

With up to a foot of new snow earlier this week, Tahoe-area ski operators are hoping for something extra out of the Presidents Day holiday, the last three-day weekend of the season, to boost visitor numbers running as much as 40 percent below a year ago.

“It’s crucial. We’re tremendously down from last year,” said Janet Tuttle, co-owner of Donner Ski Ranch. “We opened Jan. 25, the latest opening since we’ve owned it in eight years. So this will be the first holiday we get this year.”

Other operators who opened earlier on machine-made snow say it’s difficult to overcome perceptions the dry winter has created in their key drive-up market, the San Francisco-Sacramento corridor.

Read the whole story

Lake Tahoe News Publisher Kathryn Reed will be discussing the role of online media and community journalism at a March 5 forum sponsored by the Lake Tahoe Pen Women group.

The event begins at 7pm at Bona Fide HQ, 1069 Magua St., No. 4, Meyers off Highway 50 behind the Getaway Café. It is free.

Reed, who is in her third decade as a journalist, has been in the news business since before she graduated from college in 1988.

Lake Tahoe News is the only source for news about Lake Tahoe seven days week and is strictly online. It has been delivering news to people in more than 100 countries and more than 2,000 cities since Labor Day 2009.

The National League of American Pen Women is an organization comprised of women writers, artists and musicians, whose purpose is to foster and provide support to women engaged in letters, arts and music, and to serve as a community resource in the arts.

Pen Women was founded in 1897 as an alternative to the all-male Press Club with headquarters in Washington, D.C.

• Tennis magazine ranks Northstar’s tennis resort as the fourth best in Northern California.

• The increase in South Lake Tahoe’s business tax will be called Measure B on the June ballot. Anyone wishing to have a rebuttal published in the voter guide may submit language to the city clerk in person or by registered mail by Feb. 27.

• Caltrans will be at the Feb. 21 9am South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting to discuss the possibility of increasing the Highway 50 speed limit by 5 mph.

• Christopher Beck of Diamond Springs will be representing UC Davis in Lake Havasu on Feb. 25 for the National Guard FLW College Fishing Western Conference.

• Here is Caltrans’ El Dorado-Tahoe weekly roadwork schedule.