MontBleu has hired a general manager who is well acquainted with gaming and tourism in Northern Nevada.

Tim Maland takes over the 437-room hotel with its 40,000-square-feet of casino floor at a time when all the Stateline properties are trying to figure out how to lure people to rooms and tables.

Maland was president of the Reno Hilton from 2001-06. He was director of the Nevada Commission on Tourism from 2007-08.

Lake Tahoe Historical Society’s annual fall meeting is Nov. 10, 7pm at Camp Richardson. Dave Borges will speak on the Lincoln Highway … a marvelous story of 1913 achievement.

KTHO FM-96.1/AM-590 (www.kthoradio.com) is having South Tahoe and Whittell high school students give updates on the activities, sports and general info about what’s going on at the South Shore schools. The segments run daily at 11:15am and 5:30pm.

Letter to the Publisher,

An opponent for my re-election to the STPUD Board has stated the 0% rate increase for 2009-2010 is an election year ploy. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am an unbiased financial professional on the Board; let me explain the facts and process to you.

The 0% rate increase was discussed at the following 2009 public meetings of the District:

-2/10/09 – Finance Committee budget review meeting;

-3/4/09 – Board budget review workshop;

-5/7/09 – Public hearing to present the proposed budget to customers; and,

-5/21/09 – Regular Board meeting where the budget was adopted.

At these meetings Board members discussed the economic hardships currently facing our customers, local and non-local, and agreed the District should do what it could to ease the burden. Further, we already knew that our efforts to secure grants through Congress and the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act” had been successful beyond our hopes. We felt this was the appropriate time to give our customers some of the benefit of our staff’s tremendous efforts. Those were the reasons for no rate increases, all debated and discussed at the above listed open, public meetings.

My opponent was not present at any of these meetings or she may have a more complete understanding of our budget adoption process which included no current year rate increase. Did we help our customers in a year of true economic hardship? I hope so! Was our action for no rate increase an election year ploy? Not at all!

As for “looking at a 5% to 6% rate increase starting next year”, the ten-year plan issued July 2009 clearly states, on page 32, rate increases of 4.5% in year 2010/11 and 5% each year thereafter. This averages less than 4.5% annually for the 10 years of the plan. Rates are adopted for ONE YEAR ONLY; the Board debates and deliberates rate increases annually and must notify customers when there will be an increase. Customers, and candidates for the Board, can thus come before the Board and express concerns about District operations and/or any rate increases. The ten-year plan is just that, a plan. It is reviewed and modified every year as part of our annual budget deliberations.

Priorities: waterline replacement, to ensure continued delivery of clean drinking water and water for firefighting suppression, remains my highest priority for infrastructure improvement dollars available in the water enterprise fund.

In a Friday, 10/30/09 Letter to the Publisher, I referenced our $4.3 million grant which, under a bid we awarded at a Special Board meeting on 10/29/09, will pay for installation of 1,500+ water meters in 2010. The cost per meter installation was so favorable to the District that the State has authorized us to seek another bid to install another 1,000+ meters in 2010 with the remaining funds under this grant. This is a huge benefit to you, our customers, and District staff deserves thanks for so diligently and expertly pursuing these funds. I believe that, over the next 16 years, further governmental agency grants will be received to help us meet the compliance goal of 2025 for a fully metered water system.

These are the facts that challenge comments by my opponent. I ask for your support when you vote so I can continue to use my unbiased financial expertise and dedication to serve you for 4 more years on the Board of STPUD, Seat No. 5.

Thank you,

Eric Schafer, incumbent for STPUD Seat No. 5

Nearly 250 students from the South Tahoe middle and high schools bands,orchestras, choirs and NJROTC will perform a concert on Nov. 9 at South Tahoe Middle School’s multipurpose room.

The free concert is from 7-8pm.

The program is listed below and will include familiar patriotic music and songs that will pay tribute to our veterans and active military personnel.

Attending guests will be recognized with pins, a VIP seating section and a special musical tribute of service songs (“Armed Forces On Parade”) to which they will stand and be honored by Lake Tahoe Unified music students.

The audience and students will be provided an opportunity to write a postcard note to our troops overseas and music students will be thanking those vets in attendance with a personal note in the days after the concert.

A brief reception will be provided by parents after the concert.

Program:

Presentation of the Colors

Welcome/ Pledge of Allegiance

“Star Spangled Banner” – Combined Groups

“Bells! (Fanfare)” – Bands

“March Bits and Pieces” – Bands

“Shenandoah” – Blue Ribbon Choir

“Honor and Glory” – Orchestras

“Into the Sky” – Orchestras

“Armed Forces On Parade” – Bands and Choirs

“America Proud” – STMS and Blue Ribbon Choirs

“Espana March” – HS and MS Concert and Symphonic Bands

“America the Beautiful” – HS Band

“Mansions of the Lord” – from “We Were Soldiers”

Grand Finale: “Grand Old Flag” and ”This Is My Country”

By Susan Wood

Turkey at Thanksgiving may be considered the ultimate as a food for gatherings. But no other dish is more popular as a communal meal than pizza.

Dan Kramer educates Lake Tahoe Community College students about pizza. Photo/Kathryn Reed

That’s why it made for an ideal culinary class at Lake Tahoe Community College this fall. It comes with a warning though. Go to class with an appetite.

My class of about a dozen students ended up making so many pizzas and calzones in the three four-hour sessions that we stayed late to finish cooking the first night. On the second evening, I was grateful for wearing loose pants. Then, I learned. After the last session, I took enough leftovers home to feed most of my coworkers the next day.

And if you’re like me, you’ll learn a few things. The first night was launched with a bit of fascinating history from instructor Dan Kramer, who runs the college kitchen with a penchant for making pies.

Pizza’s evolutionary past remains as varied as its toppings and styles, according to New York author Ed Levine, who wrote “Pizza: A Slice of Heaven.” Of Italian descent from a bastardized version of the Latin word picea, King Ferdinand IV built a pizza oven in the 1700s for his wife, Maria Carolina, the sister of Marie Antoinette. But royalty aside, its origins are rooted as an inexpensive peasant food.

Pizza hit American ovens first in a New York City grocery store in 1905, Levine explains. Seven years later, Joe’s Tomato Pies specialized in the fun food, which quickly spread through the East. In 1943, Chicago got a hold of the idea. Then the chains popped up about a decade later, partly fueled by a demand from American soldiers returning home from Italy during World War II.

Now pizza is an easy phone call away. Americans eat 350 slices of pizza per second, according to about.com.

But as I soon learned, nothing compares to the nurturing of a yeast mixture and punching a well in a bowl of flour to make your own dough. There’s a variety of dough including basic, whole wheat and cornmeal. The trick is timing — starting the dough before worrying about the sauce and toppings.

The first evening, I was in a foreign land, not only in an industrial kitchen, but also in making dough from scratch. My baking experience revolves around a Betty Crocker box and pizza dough that is premade. Focaccia dough for a Sicilian recipe was out of my vocabulary. However, what I lacked in experience I made up for in ambition — blind, as it may have seemed.

My confidence level rose with my dough in the second session. Plus, I was teamed up with two experienced cooks – Kae and Hannah. Our mission: an eggplant calzone with four cheeses and a stuffed spinach pizza. None of us is crazy for eggplant, but we did enjoy the accomplishment of working on our recipes, along with tasting the variety of calzones and deep-dish pies that other chefs brought out of the ovens. Spinach and feta, zucchini-stuffed and Italian sausage — which the class churned out that night from the grinder — rounded out the list.

My favorite dish came from the team of Julie, her daughter, Sage, and Karen.

“This could be a picture on any Chicago deep-dish menu,” Kramer said, throwing out the ultimate compliment of the night as he carved individual pieces for the class.

Kramer was full of kudos on the last night, when the class took him up on the creativity challenge of making California-style pizza.

“This has been my most creative class,”Kramer said.

Students tackled the caramelized onion and Gorgonzola, barbecued chicken, spanakopizza, pesto, smoked salmon and Brie, and their own free-for-all version of pie. Our trio’s task involved dessert — a chocolate and strawberry pizza made with sweet dough smothered in chocolate sauce and my addition of crumbled vanilla wafers for texture. I never thought of pizza as a pastry until now, but the concoction won me over. And it’s quick.

The night included a hands-on lesson in grilling pizza dough. Let’s put it this way: one can’t walk away from the stove for this type of pizza making. Watching a blaze or two that others were managing on the grill triggered my memory of having something of my own in the oven.

“The pizza,” I said, turning to Hannah. We sprinted to a back oven where an overdone crust edge had me sighing relief that the whole thing didn’t go up in flames. Sweet dough cooks faster because of the sugar content.

The culinary department of the college includes a variety of classes that range from food and wine and cheese pairing to soups and Mexican dishes. I’ve nibbled at five of the offerings. A sushi class has been added, too.

For now, those wanting to venture out of their comfort zone with an unusual holiday dessert may want to try the following recipe:

Chocolate and Berry Pizza

Sweet dough recipe (see below)

Vegetable oil or cooking spray

About 3 cups ripe raspberries or strawberries

Sugar

Melted unsalted butter for brushing crust

1 lb. cream cheese cut into small pieces

About 1C chocolate sauce

Fresh mint sprigs for garnish

Sweet Dough

Add 1 cup sugar with the flour and reduce the salt to ½ teaspoon in the yeast and water mixture. Substitute canola or other bland vegetable oil for the olive oil.

Make sweet dough and set aside to rise as directed. About 30 minutes before baking pizza prepare an oven and preheat to 500 degrees. Brush a pizza pan with oil or coat with spray and set aside. As the pizza must be removed from the oven before the crust is completely set, do not bake directly on a stone or tiles.

In a bowl, lightly sprinkle the berries with sugar to taste and set aside, stirring occasionally, until needed.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out or stretch the dough and shape it as desired. Place the dough on the prepared screen or pan. Prick the dough all over with a fork and brush it with melted butter.

Transfer the pizza to the preheated oven and bake until the crust just begins to brown, about five minutes.

Remove the pizza to a work surface and top with the cheese, leaving a ½-inch border around the edges. Return the pie to the oven and continue baking until the crust is golden about five minutes longer.

Meanwhile, gently heat the chocolate sauce and drain the berries.

Remove the pizza to a wire rack and drizzle the warm chocolate sauce over the cheese. Arrange the berries over the cheese, then transfer to a cutting tray or board and lightly brush the edges of the crust with melted butter. Garnish with mint sprigs. Slice and serve immediately.

Susan Wood is a freelance writer based in South Lake Tahoe. She may be reached at copysue1@yahoo.com.

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Explore Tahoe, the urban trailhead experience at Heavenly Village, is showing off its new topographical relief map and children’s discovery center.

A speakers series at the center is beginning in November.

* Nov. 19 6:30pm – Scott Valentine, LTCC Earth Sciences Instructor presents “The Geology of the Tahoe Basin” faults, volcanoes and tsunamis and the creation of the lake.

* Dec. 10 6pm – Krissi Russell, local author and teacher presents, “Don’t Feed our Bears” an interactive read and sing-a-long about local wildlife.

* Dec 17 6:30pm – David Borges, LTCC Lake Tahoe History Instructor presents “The History of the Stateline and Casino Corridor.”

* TBA Darin Talbot, musician and producer of “Around Tahoe” presents, “Ski Tours Around Tahoe.”

All events are free, refreshments will be provided and public transportation to Explore Tahoe is highly recommended.

Call Lauren at (530)542.4637 for more information or go to http://www.recreationintahoe.com/.

By Kathryn Reed

Maybe it has to do with operating next to a casino. Whatever the reason, a $200,000 gamble, or investment as some call it, turned into a savings of $322,000 for Embassy Suites in just seven months.

David Hansen, who runs the engineering department at the South Lake Tahoe property, convinced the owner (Hilton Corp.) to

Lighting choices are continuing to evolve.

spend the money to make the improvements. In his pitch he said it would take two years to see the return on investment. He was early by 17 months.

Hansen was one of the speakers last week at a green energy forum put on by the Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce.

(Hear him talk about green energy tonight at 6 on KTHO FM-96.1/AM-590 or www.kthoradio.com.)

Hot water is no longer used to launder linens. An ozone process is used. Less electricity and fuel is used, the spin cycle is reduced, linens are softer.

Incandescent 40-watt exit lights have been replaced with 1-watt LED lights.

Throughout the hotel, electricity usage has been cut by 30 percent and fuel by 50 percent — that’s where the $322,000 figure comes from.

Food scraps are hauled to the Carson Valley where they are composted. Recycled paper is weighed to see if it’s the same tonnage as what was bought.

Barbara Waldron with LV International Brands in San Diego talked about how lighting is progressing. People could touch the LED lights that were passed without getting burned.

LED bulbs can now operate on dimming systems and are available for vehicles.

Leslie Ames of Tahoe Solar Designs gave a presentation on solar for electricity as well as hot water systems. She said Tahoe is ideal for solar because of the temperature and number of sunny days.

More businesses around the Tahoe area are using solar. Sierra-at-Tahoe didn’t have power to the outlying parking lots so the ski resort installed solar systems to light those areas.

Embassy Suites is thinking about installing 60 to 70 solar panels to provide the hotel with hot water.

The chamber’s next green workshop is Nov. 17 from 10-11:30am at Embassy Suites, South Lake Tahoe. Even though the title is Green Lodging, Hansen said information will be applicable to a range of businesses. The forum is free and open to anyone.

For more information, go to www.tahoechamber.org.

By El Dorado Winery Association

This year’s near-perfect growing season and long hang time on the vines hinted that harvest would yield plenty of intensely flavored grapes — and that’s just what our vintners report from their cellars as they put these young wines to bed.

A hot spell earlier this month sped up the harvest that began the first week of September, and many wineries were done picking before the mid-October storm. One winery hauled in 26 tons just two days before.

After the rains, some hearty varieties like Mourvedre, Roussanne and Petit Verdot were still on the vine, among the last to be picked. Winemakers are wrapping up crush by pressing off the last of their reds and bringing in just a few remaining whites.

After months of nurturing these grapes, El Dorado’s vintners and their crews already are looking forward to enjoying the fruits of their labor.

South Lake Tahoe massage therapists need to have completed 12 units of continuing education credit to be able to renew their license through the police department in 2010.

You can get all 12 CE hours (or a portion of them) and learn the leading energy medicine technique and in Tahoe. EFT classes will be taught by mind-body therapist Rosemary Manning at Shannon’s Lake Tahoe Day Spa on three Sundays.

This is for massage therapists only. Manning offers EFT classes for the general public. Look under Events on Lake Tahoe News on Nov. 12 for information on those.

Massage therapists will be offered three, four-hour workshops on Nov. 15, Nov. 22 and Dec. 6. You can take one, two or all three. Individually, each workshop is $45 or take all three for $120. All participants must be pre-registered. No registrations will be taken at the door.

Seating is limited, so register early. Have questions or want to register? Contact Rosemary Manning at (530) 541.6565 or email rosemary52@sbcglobal.net.