• Here are the salaries for Lake Tahoe Unified School District.

• Lake Tahoe Marathon’s many events are Sept. 22-25.

• Matt Molinari is the newest member of the Friends of the El Dorado Trail.

• A new California law requires all students entering grades 7-12 have proof of an adolescent whooping cough/pertussis booster shot called Tdap before starting the 2011-12 school year. To schedule an appointment in South Lake Tahoe call (530) 573.3155, in Placerville call (530) 621.6100.

• Charter Cable is changing its channel lineup the first week of April for people on the South Shore. For information, call 888.438.2427.

Dear South Lake community,

This coming spring quarter at LTCC I will be teaching GSE 103, Lake Tahoe Issues and Agencies. I believe each of you is familiar with the class, but, in short, it is a survey course of the many agencies and organizations in Lake Tahoe, coupled with the issues affecting the Tahoe community and environment. The class is being offered on Mondays from 6-9pm, starting April 4 and lasting the length of the quarter (excluding Memorial Day).

The last two weeks in the quarter are reserved for student presentations.

I am writing you for your help in getting the word out about this class to you, your friends, colleagues, employees, or anyone who may be new to the Tahoe area and wants to get a handle on what’s around them. The class needs 12 students to “go.” Currently seven are enrolled.

I look forward to seeing you in April.

Thank you,

Dan Sussman, Lake Tahoe Community College instructor

After two years as general counsel for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, Nicole Rinke is leaving.

Her last day is April 8. This will get her through the board meeting this week that involves the Boulder Bay project in Crystal Bay.

Rinke became the top attorney of the bi-state regulatory agency in spring 2009 after Joanne Marchetta was elevated from that position to executive director. Rinke started as TRPA associate counsel in 2007.

Rinke did not return a phone call or email. It is not known what she will do next.

Governing Board Chairwoman Norma Santiago did not return calls either.

With the numerous lawsuits filed against TRPA, it is a highly demanding job.

The search for her replacement is expected to take six months. In the interim, the agency’s two associate attorneys and one paralegal will run the department.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

Last year, when the Rotary Club of South Lake Tahoe was doing its annual Rotary at Work Day building planter boxes in front of Bijou Community School and cleaning up Bijou and South Tahoe Middle School, club members decided to do more than one day a year.

Rotary Clubs worldwide have an annual Rotary at Work Day. This year it is April 30.

At the start of the fiscal year in July 2010, the local club began monthly R@W days. Some of our projects include cleaning up El Dorado Beach, helping at the Bijou Bash, doing the River Clean Up at Cove East, planting trees at Bijou School, painting, cleaning and repairing the ceiling at Boys and Girls Club, and working for Christmas Cheer assembling and distributing toys and food.

This week Rotarians will help at the Drug Store Project.

“What we have noticed is that we often have friends and family join us on these days and the work is obviously done quicker and is more fun,” event organizer Kathy Haven said in a statement. “So, we thought we really should try to find more community members who would like to help out so that we can do bigger and better things for our community.”

Project dates:

• April 30 — Planting trees for Sugar Pine Foundation in Angora burn area at 9am

• May 21 (dependent on weather) — Building picnic area for Tahoe Heritage Foundation at Taylor Creek Visitor Center at 8am

• June 4 — Build-A-Park at Bijou Community School from 8am to 4pm. Tools needed: shovels, brooms; rakes; wheelbarrows; electric chain saws; hammers; screwguns; cordless hammer drills.

Kathy Haven may be reached at khaven@gmail.com for people wanting to volunteer or who have a project idea.

Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe is celebrating Earth Hour by taking an inspirational pause on March 26 from 8:30-9:30pm.

The resort will toast Mother Earth in the resort’s lobby with a series of green-focused efforts:

· Lobby light dimmed

· Complimentary wine and mini spa treatments offered in lobby

· Informative guest note highlighting Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe’s green efforts and flameless candles placed in each guest room.

By Kathryn Reed

“Oh, think twice. It’s just another day for you and me in paradise. Just think about it.”

Is the Lake Tahoe Basin really paradise?

• Latest unemployment figure for South Lake Tahoe is 17.4 percent

• 7,000 jobs in gaming have been lost since 1990

• The basin lost 15 percent of its population from 2000 to 2008

• 80 percent of the basin’s Latino population lives at the poverty level

• Hotel room occupancy was at 23 percent in 2008-09

• 17.7 percent of the residents in South Lake Tahoe lived below the poverty line in 2008

• In 12 years the South Shore K-12 enrollment declined 35 percent

• 26.4 percent of children under 18 live below the poverty line.

On the flip side, based on 2007 statistics, the Lake Tahoe Basin generated $4.7 billion in revenues.

Lake Tahoe’s built environment does not match its natural beauty. Infrastructure is decaying or non-existent. Jobs are dwindling. The middle class barely has a heartbeat.

To combat the issues identified above and to bring a sense of place to the basin, the Prosperity Center is scheduled to open May 1. Offices will be on the North and South shores, with the idea the space will be donated for the greater good.

The Lake Tahoe Basin Prosperity Plan has been in the works for a couple years, with the government bodies around the lake, chambers of commerce, education, health care providers, tourism interests and others forming the plan that is designed to be an economic blueprint for the entire basin, including Truckee.

Michael Ward, project manager for the LTBPP, has been working for free as facilitator. He’s been making presentations around the lake, with the latest before the South Tahoe Public Utility District board last week.

He showed a video, mostly in black and white, which was a bit chilling. As the song “Another Day in Paradise” played, images of despair throughout the basin were shown – boarded up businesses, for rent signs, people living in squalor, slides with sobering statistics.

Then the last image was in color – a panoramic view of Lake Tahoe. It was taken from a distance, as though to obscure the reality when one looks closer, beyond the lake and the trees.

“I think we can help broker opportunities,” Ward told Lake Tahoe News after the meeting. The goal is to have a homegrown economy based on what is working and not importing industry that doesn’t exist.

During the research phase it was discovered that two-thirds of the basin’s economy is from three areas – tourism and visitor services, environmental innovation, and health and wellness. Those sectors will be the focus of the Prosperity Center.

A reason to take a regional approach is grant dollars are more readily doled out to larger groups working on a common goal than to individual entities doing so. Plus, this should mean entities in the basin would not be competing against each other for the same dollars.

Ironically, the South Tahoe PUD knows all about a regional approach when it comes to federal dollars. The district joined forces with other water districts in the basin a few years ago, which has paid dividends.

Other reasons for the regional approach are the problems are similar as are the interests.

To date the five counties and one city that make up the Lake Tahoe Basin have put in a total of $125,000 into the project. This money is for matching funds for Economic Development Administration grants, some of which have already been secured.

The Prosperity Center, though expected to open in six weeks, cannot do so until its nonprofit status is secure. In the interim, the Parasol Foundation in Incline Village is acting as conduit for grants in the center’s name.

A board of directors, though not named yet, is likely to be large and made up of representatives from many of the entities that worked on the plan. It could be comprised of a couple dozen people.

Ward said the idea to have it be a comprehensive board.

From there, advisory committees will be formed to get down to the nitty gritty.

“We have five or six initiatives we think will be game changers,” Ward said.

Bringing broadband to the basin is one goal. The idea is current residents and businesses will benefit from it, but it will also attract others to the area. Creating a regional sports commission is another immediate goal.

Ward did not want to elaborate too much until the center is a reality so as not to get into a legal quagmire.

More information about the Lake Tahoe Basin Prosperity Plan is on the group’s website.

Lake Tahoe Unified School District’s Performing Arts Program will present Spring String Fling Concert on March 23 at 7pm in the South Tahoe Middle School multipurpose room.

The concert will feature more than 100 students in grades 4-12.

The concert is free, although donations will be gladly accepted at the door to help the LTUSD string program.

The Lake Tahoe Basin Federal Advisory Committee is meeting March 31 from 10am-4pm at the U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management office, 35 College Drive, South Lake Tahoe.

LTFAC will address issues related to federal activities at Lake Tahoe. Items on the agenda include a Tahoe Working Group presentation on the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act Round 12 capital project nominations and science themes, followed by a public comment period.

LTFAC consists of 20 members representing a broad array of constituencies.

By Freddy Perryman, U.S. Ski Team

LA PLAGNE, France -– Torin Yater-Wallace of Basalt, Colo., at just 16 years old, topped the men’s halfpipe skiing podium in the first of two World Cup halfpipe competitions Sunday in La Plagne. Also landing on the podium for the U.S. was Devin Logan of West Dover, Vt., with two seconds in the women’s contests and David Wise second and third in the men’s.

Yater-Wallace led the U.S. charge topping an impressive field with many of the skiers coming over from the European X Games in nearby Tignes earlier this week. The X Games medalist won the first of two events Sunday.

Logan led the U.S. women, finishing second in both competitions behind Canada’s Sarah Burke. Logan was joined by Annalisa Drew of Andover, Mass., in 10th in the morning then seventh Sunday evening.

Wise of Reno skied his way onto both podiums, finishing third in the morning and second at night under the lights.

Sunday was the final day of freestyle World Cup competition for the 2011 season.

Official results, World Cup, La Plagne, France, Halfpipe Skiing Morning Event

Men

1. Torin Yater-Wallace Basalt, CO, 45.7

2. Benoit Valentin, France, 45.3

3. David Wise, Reno, NV, 44.5

–

6. Joss Christensen, Park City, UT, 35.3

13. Wing Tai Barrymore, Hailey, ID, 38.5

Women

1. Sarah Burke, Canada, 45.8

2. Devin Logan, West Dover, VT, 43.1

3. Anais Caradeux, France, 41.1

–

10. Annalisa Drew, Andover, MA, 22.3

Halfpipe Skiing Night Event

Men

1. Kevin Rolland, France, 46.6

2. David Wise, Reno, NV, 44.2

3. Justin Dorey, Canada, 43.2

–

10. Penn Lukens, Steamboat Springs, CO, 24.3

11. Torin Yater-Wallace Basalt, CO, 17.4

Women

1. Sarah Burke, Canada, 46.4

2. Devin Logan, West Dover, VT, 44.3

3. Virginie Faivre, Switzerland, 42.7

–

7. Annalisa Drew, Andover, MA, 30.8

A fundraiser for the animals affected by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami will be April 3 from 11am-5pm.

The event is at Tahoe Best Friends – 2179 Ruth Ave., South Lake Tahoe.

Bring your dog and your family for portraits and fun.

A $40 donation includes a 10-minute portrait session and an 8×10 print.

All profits will go to the Japanese Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support Group.

For more information, please contact jaime@rosestreetstudio.com or (530) 544.3518

Reservations are recommended.