By KOLO-TV
Nevada is one of the top states where the most children go hungry, according to a report released by one of the largest hunger relief charities and food banks in the nation.
Feeding America created Map the Meal Gap, a study measuring food insecurity within the general population and children by state and county levels. The survey ranked Nevada as fourth worst in the nation for the highest rate of food insecurity among children.
By Jason Blevins, Denver Post
One of the worst winters ever on the West Coast dragged total visits to the nation’s ski resorts down to the third-lowest mark in a decade.
The National Ski Areas Association’s tally of U.S. skier visits for the 2013-14 season reached 56.2 million, a decline of 1.3 percent from last season and below the 10-year average of 57.3 million.
Blame it on the lingering drought in California, where visits to ski resorts dropped 27.8 percent. Visits to resorts in the Pacific Northwest, which shared the super-snowless start to the season, declined 27.5 percent. The West Coast’s dry 2013-14 season sunk resort visits to the second-lowest mark in 36 years.
Round Hills Pine Resort more than 60 years ago. Photo/Lake Tahoe Historical Society/Empey
The new bicycle-walking path between Elks Point Road at Nevada Beach and Round Hill Pines Resort passes directly through these views.
The black and white photo includes likely a 1949 or 1950 Ford parked left of the white center cabin.
Round Hill Pines is being renovated. Photo/Bill Kingman
Round Hill Pines is under new management this year, and these historic buildings (plus the several others outside these photos) are undergoing restoration/renovation, starting with roofs replacement.
I’m told that key scenes from the 1990 movie “Misery” starring James Caan and Kathy Bates were filmed here at Round Hill Pines and in Genoa.
— Bill Kingman
Becky Darrow returns a shot while practicing at the Zephyr Cove courts May 2. Photos/Kathryn Reed
By Kathryn Reed
Douglas County is about to redefine what public tennis courts are all about.
County commissioners at their May 15 meeting are expected to sign a contract for the Zephyr Cove Tennis Club Foundation to operate the six courts in Zephyr Cove for the next five seasons.
“Overall, it will make for a better tennis facility,” Scott Morgan, who runs the county’s recreation facilities, told Lake Tahoe News. “Money from the contract will go back into the courts. The tennis operator saves us money.”
A back section of the library will become the pro shop.
The county has had a tennis professional operate the facility for the last 15 years. And while a pro was one of the two to bid on the concessionaire contract, it is the foundation (which is awaiting its official nonprofit status) that the county staff is recommending be the operator. Morgan said part of the reason to do so is the foundation intends to hire a pro, plus do much more than what a pro has done in the past.
Rob Wheatley is set to return as the pro. The foundation is expected to execute his one-year contract after the commission meeting.
“This kind of operation on public courts is unique, but successful,” Brian Fitzgerald, with county parks and rec, told Lake Tahoe News.
The contract calls for the foundation to pay the county $3,000 this year, $3,500 in 2015, $4,000 in 2016, $4,500 in 2017 and $5,000 in 2018.
Like in years past, the foundation will charge a seasonal use fee, or people may pay by the hour. Here is the list of court fees.
While people at times gripe about paying to play at public courts, property tax dollars don’t fund Zephyr Cove Park. It is hotel room and sales taxes that pay for it.
Improving the facility
The operation and look of the facility will be more like a traditional tennis club.
Morgan said the physical upgrades should be complete in the next two weeks.
Already gates have been put in on the right side of the courts, on the library side. This is because the library is going to have another purpose – it is going to be a clubhouse of sorts for the tennis foundation.
Spectators will be among the trees, with better views of more courts when improvements are complete.
This means players will be more apt to congregate there instead of by the shack and slab of concrete on the other side.
Paths, built with a permeable material, are being created that will lead to the courts so people aren’t tromping through manzanita.
“We are adding a viewing area that will add much better viewing for play,” foundation President Carolyn Wright told Lake Tahoe News. “It will be an elevated area where the sun is behind you.”
Seating will be the next item to be installed.
“It’s a beautiful facility that we are enhancing,” Wright said.
Besides no longer having to sit in the dirt to watch play on the upper courts, the new area should allow spectators to see more courts at once as well as a sliver of Lake Tahoe.
The backboard on court two will be moved to the other end so it blocks the shack. The shack will remain for storage. This is also where the ice machine will go. It can’t go in the pro shop area because there was not a water line that would work.
A little remodeling is taking place at the library so a pro shop will operate there. It will carry basic tennis supplies, food and beverages. The county negotiated a deal with the library folks to make all of this work.
Whenever the pro shop is open, players will have access to the library bathrooms. Hours have not been set, but will most likely be at least from 8am-noon.
The foundation
An 11-person board is in charge of the foundation.
As with so many things, it was a simple idea that then led to the creation of the 501(c)3 and subsequently the desire to be the operators of the tennis courts. Players just wanted something other than the nasty port-a-potties, which were overused when beach-goers would stop by.
With eight USTA teams playing out of Zephyr last fall, it was getting embarrassing to have such rank bathroom facilities for locals, and especially for the teams traveling to the South Shore to play. (This reporter plays on a USTA team at Zephyr Cove.)
Wright, along with Ross Rittiman and Bob Beutenmiller, were the three main people responsible for working with the county and getting the foundation off the ground. They are all board members.
(Other board members are Grant Thompson, Bob Green, Holly Rittiman, Joyce Youngs, Neil Trebotich, Ray Fugitt, Sheryl Herschman and Hersch Herschman.)
Membership allows people to vote on the foundation’s board of directors. Members will serve for two- and three-year staggered terms. Everyone is a volunteer. Committees are set up to handle fundraising, operate the facility and put on events. The season kickoff party is May 24.
The foundation will now run the annual Tahoe Tennis Classic tournament in August.
The contract with the county mandates two youth events be put on each year, and a certain amount of free play time allowed.
Foundation documents call for all proceeds to return to the facility.
“The foundation will keep the courts in better repair than what the county can provide,” Wright said. “The long-term goal is indoor courts for year-round play.”
The county has talked about this for a number of years.
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Notes:
• Douglas County Commission meeting is May 15 at 1:30pm, 169 Highway 50, Stateline.
• Zephyr Cove Tennis Club is online; memberships are available online.
• Questions about the club or foundation may be emailed to zctennisclub@gmail.com.
• The club is also on Facebook.
To the community,
The Incline Flume Trail is an 8-mile route above Incline Village that mostly follows the route of a Comstock-era water flume. This is part of the same water system that the popular Marlette Flume Trail follows.
The Incline Flume Trail is not an authorized trail, partly because it crosses private property and partly because of the funds needed to conduct the required archaeological studies to make it a real trail. There is an opportunity before us to solve both those issues.
Washoe County is considering a proposal that would transfer the private land that the Incline Flume Trail crosses to public ownership. This is a huge opportunity for mountain bikers and other trail users. It would be a major step to make the Incline Flume Trail off of Mt. Rose Highway a legal trail. Donors have already pledged to fund the required environmental and historic preservation studies needed before the trail can be adopted into the USFS system.
Once the trail is legalized, we can begin much needed trail improvements and repairs as well as ensure continued maintenance occurs. The initial efforts to legalize this trail were focused on a re-route around the private land, however due to the terrain, it would not have been the ideal routing for the trail and it would have been very expensive and time consuming to construct. This land swap would provide for the best routing of the trail as well as the historic preservation of the bull wheel.
More information about the land swap can be found online.
Let the Washoe County Commissioners know how important trail access and the Incline Flume Trail are to you. Especially if you have ridden and enjoyed this trail, please take a moment to send an email or attend one of the upcoming meetings and let your voice be heard.
Please write to Washoe County Commissioner for this area, Marsha Berkbigler, mberkbigler@washoecounty.us or call 775.328.2005. Also it would be a good idea to include the Citizen’s Advisory Board on that message at cab@washoecounty.us.
(Note: Washoe County addresses usually will not receive emails from Yahoo email accounts.)
Please consider attending the following meetings:
Incline Village/Crystal Bay Citizen Advisory Board Meeting: May 6 at 5:30pm at the IVGID meeting room, 893 Southwood Blvd., Incline Village.
Washoe County Commissioners Meeting, May 13 at 10am at the Washoe County Complex, Bldg. A, 1001 E. Ninth St., Reno.
Thanks for your support.
TAMBA
By Katherine Hobson, NPR
If you’re a teenage athlete, or the parent of one, you probably live in fear of a torn anterior cruciate ligament, one of the knee’s key stabilizing ligaments.
A torn ACL often requires surgical repair. But so-called neuromuscular training programs can cut the risk of a serious ACL injury and should be recommended to at-risk young athletes, especially girls, according to a clinical report from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
ACL injuries, which can sideline an athlete for months, hit both genders, but right after puberty they occur as much as six times more frequently in young women, depending on the sport. Female high school soccer players experience 11.7 ACL injuries per 100,000 exposures, for example, compared to 4.7 for the males.
May is Wildfire Awareness Month in the Lake Tahoe Basin. This year’s theme is Prepare Your Home for Wildfire.
A fire adapted community is a community located in a fire-prone area that requires little assistance from firefighters during a wildfire. Residents of these communities recognize the responsibility of living in a high fire-hazard area. They possess the knowledge and skills to prepare their homes and property to survive wildfire, evacuate early, safely and effectively, and survive, if trapped by wildfire.
Things homeowners can do to become more fire adapted include:
Create a plan to address issues in the defensible space zone, including:
By Gary Richards, San Jose Mercury News
If $4.26 for a gallon of gas seems painful, relax. The price at the pump in California is ever so slowly falling after four weeks of constant increases — and could drop as much as 40 to 50 cents by July 4.
“They just started to ease. The worst may be behind us,” said Patrick DeHaan, petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com. “The next week is crucial. Let’s see what happens if oil is lower.”
The price of oil fell below $100 a barrel Thursday for the first time in three weeks, as the price of gas reached a state average of $4.261, down ever so slightly from $4.263 the day before.
By David Leonhardt, New York Times
The behavior gap between rich and poor children, starting at very early ages, is now a well-known piece of social science. Entering kindergarten, high-income children not only know more words and can read better than poorer children but they also have longer attention spans, better-controlled tempers and more sensitivity to other children.
All of which makes the comparisons between boys and girls in the same categories fairly striking: The gap in behavioral skills between young girls and boys is even bigger than the gap between rich and poor.
By kindergarten, girls are substantially more attentive, better behaved, more sensitive, more persistent, more flexible and more independent than boys, according to a new paper from Third Way, a Washington research group. The gap grows over the course of elementary school and feeds into academic gaps between the sexes. By eighth grade, 48 percent of girls receive a mix of A’s and B’s or better. Only 31 percent of boys do.
• Freedom Day came six days later than last year. Tax Freedom Day, calculated annually by the Tax Foundation, is the day Americans have earned enough money to pay their annual tax obligations at the federal, state and local levels. This year’s national Tax Freedom Day was April 21.
• South Tahoe Association of Realtors contributed almost $1,000 to purchase individual Easter baskets that were donated to Live Violence Free and the South Lake Tahoe Family Resource Center.
• California drought – How will we be affected in Truckee-Tahoe? is the subject of the May 13 Truckee Donner Chamber of Commerce meeting. The meeting is from 7-8:30am at the Truckee airport. Cost is $10 for chamber members, $12 for others. It includes a continental breakfast. For more info, call 530.587.2757.
• Pierre Herring has been promoted to sergeant at the South Lake Tahoe Police Department. Sgt. Brad Williams has retired.
• Lake Tahoe Marathon is Sept. 14. For more info, go online.