Dear Friend of Valhalla,

It’s been a blur since the first June event of the 2009 Valhalla Arts, Music, and Theatre Festival. It was a great Thirtieth Anniversary season, but we’re already looking to the future. Visit our website at www.valhallatahoe.com to learn more about our festive Holiday Faire November 20-22 and the elegant Holiday Gala on December 5.

Looking a little further ahead, we already know that next year’s Festival will feature five theatre productions, the return of the Tibetan Festival and the second annual Latino Day. A great concert series, visual art exhibits, artists-in-residencies, and arts education programs for children and youth will round out the schedule.

We depend on a variety of income sources to support the Festival, and your membership contributions are crucial in two ways. First, cash flow tends to drop in the fall and winter, so your membership contribution will help right now. Second, your membership will provide valuable matching funds for the many grants we receive, greatly multiplying your contribution. TTA received over $45,000 in corporate, foundation, and government grants this year. Several more grants are pending, and grant proposals are written continuously. Having a strong membership support base gives TTA an edge in the competitive grant market.

This year we’ve added a $25 “Novice” category for seniors, teens, military, and students and we’ve greatly increased the membership benefits at the “Friend” ($50) and “Thespian” ($100) levels. Don’t worry, though, if you can contribute at the “Patron”, “Star”, or “Buscaglia” level, you’re still getting the best deal!

Here’s another approach to consider: Maybe you can only afford $25 right now. If you add to your membership periodically, we’ll give you the benefits of your total membership contribution when the 2010 season begins. For example, you can send us $25 for four months and get a $100 “Thespian” membership for a total of seven tickets. That’s three extra tickets for Festival events. Plus, for any membership contribution of $25 we’ll send you a bookmark that will remind you of the Valhalla Festival each time you read. For membership contributions of $100 or more received by December 31, we’ll send you a 2010 desktop calendar featuring Tahoe photography. The bookmark and calendar are designed by our Cultural Arts Store manager Sandy Ruacho.

Call us at (530) 541.4975 and we’ll charge your membership to your credit card.

Steve Farnsley, executive director

By Kathryn Reed

After proponents and opponents verbally attacked each other, the South Lake Tahoe City Council voted 5-0 in favor of endorsing Measure B.

The Nov. 3 ballot measure is a revision of Measure S, which was passed in 2000 by voters in El Dorado County living at the lake.

Passage of Measure B would renovate ball fields in South Lake Tahoe.

What is dividing the recreation community is the reallocation of bike trail maintenance money for improving the baseball fields near the old South Tahoe Middle School.

Measure S money can be spent on maintaining new trails, not ones in place prior to 2000. The problem is only 7 miles of trail have been put in because lawmakers in the wake of California’s budget sinkhole hijacked funding for those projects.

The reality is Measure S will never be able to accomplish what is in the document — mostly because the funds aren’t there and the projects cost too much.

When the measure was initially talked about, surveys of local residents said bike trails are of the utmost concern, then ball fields and last was an ice rink.

The ice rink got built first, a multiuse field at Lake Tahoe Community College is in the ground and 7 miles of bike trails that could be maintained with this money have been laid.

The $625,000 that is collected annually is spent on:

Bond principal and debt of nearly $400,000.

Tahoe Paradise Resort Improvement District, $50,000 a year.

Ball field maintenance, $50,000 year. What isn’t spent stays in the account.

Bike route maintenance on trails put in since 2000 at $5,000 per mile up to 25 miles for a total of $125,000/year. About 7 miles have been put in to date.

Administrative costs, which includes about $4,000 a year to John Upton.

Jerome Evans, a former city recreation commissioner, called Measure B a stealth raid on Measure S funds when he spoke before the council Oct. 20. He said the field at LTCC and the one at South Tahoe Middle School that was built since Measure S was passed, albeit without those funds, are the equivalent of the four ball fields promised in Measure S.

John Cefalu, a backer of ball fields for years, accused the biking community of being shortsighted and having a narrow view of the matter.

Accusations were hurtled back and forth about who knew what when and who should have been invited to meetings and whose opinions are more valid.

The Tahoe Mountain News published a lengthy story in February about the likelihood of Measure S being revised. The story talked about upcoming meetings. The information has been disseminated other places as well, so the electorate had the opportunity to be informed prior to the revision reaching the ballot.

The joint powers authority, which is made up of a city representative, a county person and a member of the Tahoe Paradise board, met several times earlier this year before getting the revision on the ballot.

It will take a two-thirds majority to revise the $5.8 million bond measure and special tax. No matter how people vote, single family residences in the district will continue to be assessed $18 a year on property taxes through June 30, 2030. Larger properties pay on a sliding scale.

Squaw Valley Freestyle Team is a nonprofit foundation whose main objective is to provide kids with support systems.  There are eight scholarships available for local athletes who are looking to advance their skiing knowledge and abilities.

What: Eight Local Skiing Scholarships for Squaw Valley Freestyle/Freeride Team

Who: Lake Tahoe Basin or Truckee student-athletes 7th-12th grades. (all schools)

Due: Nov. 1

Where: Squaw Free Scholarships: PO Box 2173 Olympic Valley, CA, 96146

Application: Available at www.squawfree.org

Contact: Nat Schirman, nat@ovfreestyle.com or (530) 412.3145

A series of classes is designed to provide instruction and support for caregivers who are or plan to care for a family member or friend 60 years of age or greater. Classes will be from 1-3pm at Embassy Suites 4130 Lake Tahoe Blvd., South Lake Tahoe.

All classes and materials are offered for free, donations are gratefully accepted.

Oct. 26: Fedora Repair, Partnering with Your Doctor, Alzheimer’s Association of Northern Nevada;

Nov. 2: Hard Hats, Working as a Family, Deborah Brusco & Nancy Milton, Elder Mediation;

Nov. 9: Removing the Black Veil, Grief, Loss, Health & Recovery, Rebecca Phillipsen, Social Worker, Barton Home Health & Barton Hospice;

Nov. 16: Sunday Bonnets, A Daughter’s Journey, Carol Kinsel, owner, Senior Care Solutions;

Nov. 23: Comfortable Baseball Cap, Affirmative Response Technique for Difficult Behavior, Laura Wayman, Dementia Whisperers.

Hear Kim Wyatt, publisher of Bona Fide Books based in Meyers, talk with Lake Tahoe News Publisher Kathryn Reed about the state of publishing and what her company is doing to keep the written word alive. She will be on KTHO-AM 590 on Saturday at 10am and Monday at 6pm. Or listen online at www.kthoradio.com.

Annual winter concert and art show at Zephyr Cove Elementary School, Dec. 15 at 9:45am

Publisher’s Note: Horizon and MontBleu casinos at Stateline are no longer operated by the same parent companies. William Yung’s Tropicana company owned Horizon and MontBleu before the parent company filed for bankruptcy. Splitting ownership of the two Lake Tahoe properties is one of the outcomes of the bankruptcy.

By Richard N. Velotta, Las Vegas Sun

Nevada Gaming commissioners didn’t hide the fact that they were a little nervous about granting a license to LV Casino LLC to operate Lake Tahoe Horizon Casino.

After all, William Yung, a top executive with the company, had his gaming license revoked in New Jersey and frequently feuded with the Culinary Union during his operation of the Tropicana in Las Vegas. He also had regulatory scrapes in Indiana.

Read the whole story

Karen Baker, from left, Brianda Torres, Noe, and Karen Houser.

By Soroptimist International Tahoe Sierra

An passionate and articulate view of Mt. Tallac High School was presented by Susan Baker to the Soroptimist International of Tahoe Sierra Thursday morning.

“This club has been there for us since its inception 11 years ago, and I’m here to thank you,” Baker said.

Their financial commitment has included funding for academics, counseling, mentoring, clothes, diapers and educational medical support. Since 1999, 140 students have graduated and moved on to other endeavors such as college and the work force.

A future graduate, Brianda Torres, shared her experience in the foster care program where she has been a participant since she was 10, support from CASA, and her early pregnancy at 16. Noe, a beautiful loving baby boy, was there as evidence of the care and love that she learned from being a student at Mt. Tallac.

The involvement of such professionals as Amy Jackson, formerly with Tahoe Youth & Family Services, STHS and now a counselor at Mt. Tallac has resulted in the success of Brianda, where she is succeeding and thriving using good decisions and staying in school.

Karen Houser, director of Boys & Girls Club, also spoke emphatically about, not only the B&G Club of Lake Tahoe’s association with Brianda, but also her direct knowledge of the fabulous mother and person Brianda has become as a result of the connection with Mt. Tallac.

Susan Baker believes that her next mission in life will be to continue her program focusing on prevention of teen pregnancy through the “Circle of Hope” which is in place at the Bijou Elementary School, but she has hopes of extending the self-esteem based program to the other schools in LTUSD.

Several members of Soroptimist International of Tahoe Sierra stated their pride in their long association with this program and how an early member (Estelle) was strategic in appropriating the Yellow Cab Company in this town to provide transportation which now is being supplied by BlueGo.

Brianda spoke to the crowd to share and show appreciation for the hard work of fund raising that SITS does and show that it does reap rewards in responsible future citizens.

Los Angeles Times

Communing with nature not only lifts spirits, it helps people behave better, according to a study published this month.

Psychologists at the University of Rochester conducted four experiments with 370 people who were shown computer images of either natural settings, such as landscapes and lakes, or man-made settings, such as buildings and roads. The subjects were encouraged to look at the surroundings carefully, noting things like colors and textures and imagining things like sounds and smells. They then completed questionnaires about the importance of various values, such as wealth, fame, connectedness to community, relationships and the betterment of society.

Read whole story

By Gus Thomson, Auburn Journal

Is the price to keep Tahoe blue too high?

A $1.2-billion estimate for getting Lake Tahoe closer to its original blue is being met with little enthusiasm by Placer County government.

With no end to tight budgets in sight, County Executive Officer Tom Miller and Granite Bay-area Supervisor Kirk Uhler questioned how the county could come up with its share of funding for work to restore the Sierra lake’s historic clarity.

Read the whole story