There will be a fundraiser April 18 for the Family Resource Community Garden.
The 8pm event at Himmel Haus in South Lake Tahoe costs $5.
The garden will be put in this spring. It is project being put together by Gardens 4 A Healthy Tahoe and lake Tahoe Sustainability Collaborative.
By Matt Ferner, Huffington Post
By a wide margin, Americans believe that alcohol is more dangerous to a person’s health and to society in general than marijuana, according to a Pew study released Wednesday.
When asked whether marijuana or alcohol would be more harmful to personal health, if marijuana were as widely available as alcohol, 69 percent of Americans said alcohol is more dangerous, while only 15 percent said that marijuana is more dangerous. Fourteen percent said both or neither are more dangerous.
Respondents showed more trepidation when asked to consider marijuana’s potential effects on society as a whole, but a strong majority still believed that alcohol is the more harmful substance. Sixty-three percent of those polled said alcohol is more dangerous, with 23 percent saying marijuana is more dangerous and 11 percent responding that both or neither are more harmful.
The Kings Beach Commercial Core Improvement Project is scheduled to begin April 8.
Work will start on Highway 28 with altering the four-lane roadway into three lanes. Also up first is making Brook Avenue an eastbound, one-way road.
One of the largest components of the project is to capture and treat runoff. To accomplish that, a drainage system will be installed that will consist of a treatment basin and sidewalks and gutters that will funnel the runoff through the treatment system. These improvements on the south side of the highway between the North Tahoe Event Center and Coon Street are scheduled to be completed by July 1 and will include the Coon Street roundabout.
Construction will occur Mondays through Fridays, 7am-10pm. Saturday construction work will be as needed. One lane in each direction will be open and there will be no detours into streets north of the highway that run through the residential neighborhood.
By Kathryn Reed
Avoiding Tahoe Keys Boulevard this summer might make for a better driving experience.
Gerhardt & Berry Construction out of Sparks will begin a water line replacement project the first week of May that could take all summer.
The South Tahoe Public Utility District board last week awarded the $3,346,572.70 bid. Nine bids were submitted for what engineers had estimated would be at $4.1 million project.
The state streets water line project in South Lake Tahoe will be finished this year. Photo/LTN
The 2- and 4-inch lines will be replaced with 6-, 8- or 12-inch lines. The side streets get the 6-inch lines and Tahoe Keys Boulevard 12-inch, while Michael Street will have 8-inch. There will be 11,752 feet of pipe installed.
All the affected houses will also get meters.
This is the second phase of the State Street Water Line Project. South Tahoe PUD is making a concerted effort to replace water lines throughout its service area so fire suppression regulations are met. As the South Lake Tahoe-based agency does so, it is putting in the state mandated meters. All STPUD customers are expected to have meters in the next five years to meet the 2025 state deadline.
Sierra Nevada Construction, the second lowest responsive and responsible bidder, had filed a bid protest. No one from the company was at Thursday’s meeting.
The company was challenging the subcontractor being used for the jack and bore work, the pipe bedding supplier and the experience of Gerhardt & Berry. Staff and the board members didn’t believe the challenges were sufficient to not award the bid to Gerhardt & Berry.
Work on Tahoe Keys Boulevard will be Monday-Thursday. One lane will always be open, but that means delays as the traffic is controlled. Formal detours will not be set up, but there are ways to circle around throughout neighborhood streets or use Fifteenth Street off Highway 89.
“We will try to get as much done before Memorial Day as we can,” Shannon Cotulla, STPUD engineering department manager, told Lake Tahoe News, after the April 3 meeting.
Some of the state streets had work done in 2013. This year the remainder of the side streets off both sides of Tahoe Keys Boulevard will get new water lines down to Jeffery Street.
The other project South Tahoe PUD will be doing is installing a force main bypass for sewage. On Tahoe Keys the sanitary force main was installed in the 1960s, so if there were a failure, there is no backup. In other words, there is no place for sewage to go except for spilling or to create a backup into residences. The bypass will create an alternative if there were ever to be a breach in the line.
During the water line replacement STPUD will place door hangers at residences when construction will take place out front or if water will have to be turned off. At times people will not be allowed to park on their street. Access to driveways will always be allowed, but it may require getting the construction crews to move a metal plate over an open trench.
Wally
Wally is a big fellow who’s a little shy to begin with. He will need a little time to adjust to a new home, but once he knows all is well, he’s up for head and shoulder rubs and lots of love.
He is curious and playful. He will benefit from exercise and a healthy feeding regimen. He has not been aggressive with other cats at the shelter. Although he was surrendered to the shelter with another cat named Nacho, they can be adopted separately.
Wally is neutered, microchipped, tested for heart worm, and vaccinated.
He is at the El Dorado County Animal Services shelter in Meyers, along with many other dogs and cats who are waiting for their new homes. Go online or the Tahoe animal shelter’s Facebook page to see photos and descriptions of all pets at the shelter.
Call 530.573.7925 for directions, hours, and other information on adopting a pet.
For spay-neuter assistance for South Tahoe residents, go online.
— Karen Kuentz
To the community,
Thank you to Hope Lutheran Church of the Sierra and the really nice group of church members for their sponsorship and volunteering at Bread & Broth’s dinner on March 31.
Many of the members of the fifth week of the month B&B volunteer team members belong to Hope Lutheran Church and they were joined by fellow church members Jennifer Holland, Mort and Carolyn Meiers, Julia Martinez, Diane Martin and Paul Zaffiro.
“Tahoe has many strengths, but nothing better than the help our community gives people in need,” said Mort Meiers. “I am reminded of that when I volunteer to assist Bread & Broth with other members of Hope Lutheran Church.”
Hope Lutheran Church hosts two Adopt A Day sponsorships annually and their support is greatly appreciated by the Bread & Broth program.
Thanks to our community donors and sponsors, not only is Bread & Broth able to provide a Monday evening meal at St. Theresa Church’s Grace Hall, but also a soup and pasta supper on Fridays at the Lake Tahoe Community Presbyterian Church. Bread & Broth would not be able to help ease hunger in our community without the assistance of community members as generous with their time and funding as Hope Lutheran Church of the Sierra.
To help B&B as a donor or sponsor, contact me at 530.542.2876 or carolsgerard@aol.com.
Carol Gerard, Bread & Broth
A Southern California man died Sunday at Northstar.
Marc L. Coleman, 67, of Van Nuys could not be revived at the Truckee at resort.
“Deputy coroners on scene determined this to be an apparent accidental ski death, although an autopsy may be pending,” Placer County sheriff’s deputies said in a statement. “Initial reports stated ski patrol was working a traumatic ski accident.”
Coleman was wearing a helmet.
No further details were available about the April 6 death.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
By Lily Dayton, Los Angeles Times
Each time health psychologist Kelly McGonigal teaches her Science of Willpower class, she asks students to select a willpower challenge to focus on during the 10-week course. Though students’ goals are diverse — kicking nicotine or getting out of debt, controlling their temper or overcoming alcohol abuse — there is one goal that is most common among the 200 or 300 students who pack the lecture hall seeking life change: They want to lose weight.
“It’s important to understand that everyone is struggling with something,” says McGonigal, whose experience in the Stanford University course inspired her to write “The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It.”
Beliefs about the role of willpower in weight loss have changed through the decades. In the mid-20th century, doctors told patients to use their will to eat less. After such restrictive diets failed, the pendulum swung in the other direction as doctors, nutritionists and psychologists recommended that people forget willpower and instead focus on making changes in their behavior that allow them to lose weight.
Placer is the second healthiest county in California according to the annual County Health Rankings & Roadmaps.
The rankings measure health factors, including high school graduation rates, obesity, smoking, unemployment, access to healthy foods, the quality of air and water, income, and teen births in nearly every county in the United States.
“The people of Placer County should be very proud of our 2nd place ranking in the recently published County Health Rankings. Our high ranking reflects years of hard work and healthy choices by the people of Placer County and our leaders, our businesses, our community- and faith-based organizations, and our very dedicated professionals in public health and health care delivery,” Robert Oldham, Placer County health officer, said in a statement. “A healthier Placer County keeps health costs down, helps our children to learn, improves our productivity and quality of life, and makes Placer County more attractive to tourists, employers, and investors. While we celebrate our success, we will also use these rankings and other available data to help us to build upon our success so that our legacy to future generations will be an even healthier Placer County.”
The Rankings & Roadmaps program is a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
The rankings are online.
2007 was the worst fire season in the Lake Tahoe Basin when 254 houses on the South Shore were destroyed. Photo/Lake Valley Fire
By Melissa Mylchreest, High Country News
Each year, wildfires claim hundreds of homes throughout the West in what’s known as the wildland-urban interface. This issue roars into the national spotlight every summer as footage of engulfed subdivisions flickers on TVs across the country. National fire suppression budgets reach into the billions of dollars every year, much of that cost associated with protecting homes and structures. But are we approaching the problem from the right angle?
Jack Cohen is a research physical fire scientist with the U.S. Forest Service, based at the Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory. With four decades of experience, he is a preeminent expert on wildfire and home ignitions, and a founder of the Firewise Communities recognition program, a project of the National Fire Protection Association that helps homeowners protect their property against wildfire.
Years of study have convinced Cohen that the loss of homes to wildfire is as much a sociopolitical problem as it is a physical, on-the-ground problem. Agencies and the public alike approach the issue as a question of fire suppression and control. Cohen, on the other hand, believes that fire is here to stay, and that proper mitigation, awareness and planning can make living with fire a whole lot easier – and safer.