By Kathryn Reed

MEYERS – While El Dorado County doesn’t have plans for another Meyers Area Plan meeting before it goes before the Board of Supervisors, members of the Meyers Advisory Council are coordinating a get-together without agency involvement.

That was the outcome of a three-hour meeting June 26 at the California Conservation Corps center. MAC members told Lake Tahoe News they are shooting for late July to bring the community together to hash out issues that stand in people’s way from signing off on what officials have presented.

As for the county, it was the intention of officials the Thursday meeting would be the last before the environmental process begins. (It was reported that Supervisor Norma Santiago was ill and that is why she was not in attendance.)

Meyers is struggling to figure out what it wants to look like in the future. Photo/LTN

“We need to talk internally, with TRPA and Norma to see where we go,” Brendan Ferry, chief planner for El Dorado County, told Lake Tahoe News after the meeting.

Many of the nearly 50-person audience believed not enough outreach had occurred, that more community involvement is needed and the process needs to be slowed down – and perhaps delayed until after November when the area will be represented by a new supervisor.

If the process goes forward, there are at least five more public meeting where comments would be taken and changes could be made to the plan. Two are before the county and three involve TRPA.

While seven people acknowledged this was their first Meyers Area Plan meeting, the process has been going on for more than two years – with many public meetings. Postcards were mailed for the first time to residents announcing the meeting. However, they only went to people living or with businesses in the confines of the Tahoe Paradise Resort Improvement District, which is a fraction of the greater Meyers area.

Other than having a plan from 1993 on the books and needing to live with the rules within it, there is no legal reason the county or Tahoe Regional Planning Agency must move forward with the Meyers Area Plan. The TRPA’s Regional Plan allows these area plans; with an overriding goal to give local jurisdictions more say over planning.

Still, there is a template of sorts for these documents based on what is in the Regional Plan and laws regarding the reduction of green house gas emissions. It is not a document that is created from scratch.

The plan would be the planning blueprint for the Meyers area going forward for the next 20 years. However, it is recommended that whatever community group takes over for the Meyers Area Council reviews the plan every year.

Some of the main sticking points include determining how Meyers has a voice going forward.

County documents handed out at the meeting say, “The county is evaluating the establishment of a Community Services District, which would review proposed projects in Meyers, initiate future revisions to the plan, and direct some funding for local improvement projects.”

Stephanie McCorkle, the outside public relations person hired by the county, facilitated the meeting. She was also adamant that the county is not going to form a CSD; that it would be up to the residents of Meyers to do so if that’s what they want.

However, Ferry said, while it has not been fully flushed out, the idea of a municipal advisory council for Meyers has also been floated. He said members could be elected by the public or appointed by the Board of Supervisors.

Adam Lewandowsky with TRPA said, “The plan calls for a formal advisory council.”

With differing answers to the same question – Who is the voice for Meyers going forward? – this is an example of how distrust has become an issue when it comes to finding consensus about the plan.

Another concern is the density of multifamily homes has arbitrarily been bumped from 15 units to 20 units per acre. Some community members are not happy with that possibility.

Others want the California Tahoe Conservancy lots in Meyers to have more defined future uses. The state agency has agreed for the land use to be changed from residential/tourist to recreation. But recreation could still mean developable. That is what upsets some people.

The the community,

Opening night [June 25] at the Valhalla Boathouse was a huge success. This was our first sell out at the theater for opening night.

Thank you to our new festival director, Evangeline Elston, as well as all those who made this happen.

An evening of blues and roots music with Ray Bonneville and Lance Canales and the Flood, a roots-blues influenced Americana trio from California’s breadbasket, were both fantastic.

We are excited about our season and invite you to come check out the summer concerts as well as our plays.

For more information, go online.

Thanks,

Bob Sweatt, South Lake Tahoe

Fire restrictions went into effect in the Lake Tahoe Basin on June 26.

Campfires and charcoal barbecues will be restricted to designated recreation sites, and other fire-related activities will be prohibited until the end of fire season.

National Forest System land fire restrictions mean:

· No open fires or campfires are allowed outside of designated recreation sites even with a valid campfire permit. Portable stoves using gas, jellied petroleum or pressurized liquid fuel are allowed with a valid campfire permit.

· No possessing or using any kind of fireworks or other pyrotechnic device.

· No smoking, except within an enclosed vehicle, building, or designated recreation site.

· No welding, or operating acetylene or any other torch with an open flame.

· No operating or using any internal or external combustion engine without a spark arresting device properly installed and maintained in effective working order.

In addition, campfires are prohibited in all semi-developed sites such as Luther Pass, Blackwood Canyon, and Watson Lake campgrounds, as well as in all dispersed recreation locations, such as the Meiss backcountry area on Luther Pass and the Freel Peak roadless area on the southeast end of the Lake Tahoe Basin. Forest users should obtain specific information about restrictions and the area they are visiting before venturing out.

For more info, call 530.543.2694.

Sly Park Road in Pollock Pines will be closed overnight Thursday and Friday for bridge work.

The road will be closed to through traffic at the Highway 50 undercrossing from 9pm-5am each night as work continues on a $7.6 million project to replace the existing bridge, which was built in 1963.

The contractor, Viking Construction, is scheduled to set girders tonight and set up forms and deck supports Friday. The road may also need to be closed overnight Monday.

Marked detours and highway message boards will be used to alert motorists to the road closure.

By Edmund Lee, Bloomberg

The Internet is a set of pipes. It’s also a set of values. Whose? The people who consider it a great social equalizer, a playing field that has to be level? Or the ones who think of it as a marketplace subject to the laws of supply and demand?

It’s a philosophical contest that’s being fought under the banner of “net neutrality,” a slogan that inspires rhetorical devotion but eludes precise definition. Broadly, it means everything on the Internet should be equally accessible — that the Internet should be a place where great ideas compete on equal terms with big money. Even in the contentious arena of net neutrality, that’s a principle everybody claims to honor. Interpreting it is a different story.

With Internet use and related costs rising fast, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission proposed in May to let Internet providers like AT&T offer better technology at a premium price to content companies like Netflix, mainly for faster delivery of video. If approved, the new FCC rules would mean that for the first time some Internet content could get preferential treatment based on how much a publisher pays, instead of on whether it improves a network’s technical efficiency. Critics said that would give deep-pocketed companies an unfair advantage over upstarts, stifling the development of a new generation of Googles and Facebooks, costing customers more and opening the door to corporate censorship.

Supporters said it would simply create a “fast lane,” an improved alternate Internet where equals compete against equals.

Both sides invoked “net neutrality,” as do countries with widely varying definitions of the principle.

Read the whole story

• The California State Fair has announced its wine winners. Lava Cap Winery took home Best of Sierra Foothills White for its 2013 El Dorado Sauvignon Blanc; Moonstone Crossing won Best of Sierra Foothills Red for the 2009 Amado County Wish Upon a Star. Moonstone also won Best of California State Red for its 2009 California Midnight Caress. Best Barbera went to Boeger Winery for its 2011 Barbera Estate. Best Other Red Varietal went to Vina Catellano for the 2009 Abuelito Placer County. Best Viognier is from Gold Hill Vineyard for its 2012 Viognier El Dorado. Here is the complete list of winners.

• Lake Tahoe Community College’s board of trustees this week agreed to ask voters in November to approve a $55 million facilities bond.

• Sierra Nevada Business Council is hosting Peak Innovation: The Next 20 Years on Oct. 8-10 at Granlibakken in Tahoe City. For more info, email mpenwarden@sierrabusiness.org.

• The farmers market at Tunnel Creek in Incline Village will be open July 3 from 4-7pm as part of the festivities of the Mountain Bike and Hike on the Flume Trail event.

To the community,

Bread & Broth would like to thank the Kiwanis Club of Lake Tahoe for the June 2 sponsorship of an “Adopt a Day of Nourishment”.

Unfortunately, many members of the South Lake Tahoe community struggle with the basic needs of everyday life. By hosting an Adopt A Day, the Kiwanis Club of Lake Tahoe provided the funds to cover the cost of food, meal preparation supplies and utility costs needed to provide a hot, full course meal to over 90 dinner guests at their adopted Monday evening dinner.

Kiwanis Club of Lake Tahoe members Jerry Klosterboer and Katie Fagan, joined the B&B volunteers with the preparations, serving and cleanup. They were there to represent the Kiwanis Club motto in that “one can make a difference”.

“This is why I do it,” Klosterboer said “It is better to give than to receive and better to serve that to be served.”

In addition to supporting B&B’s goal of feeding the most needy of our community, the Kiwanis Club of Lake Tahoe performs many community service projects in South Lake Tahoe, especially to help serve children. Bread & Broth commends the Kiwanis Club of Lake Tahoe for their commitment to the community for all of their generous financial donations and giving of their member’s time, which is as valuable as giving money.

Carol Gerard, Bread & Broth

By Adam Liptak, New York Times

WASHINGTON — In a sweeping victory for privacy rights in the digital age, the Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously ruled that the police need warrants to search the cell phones of people they arrest.

While the decision will offer protection to the 12 million people arrested every year, many for minor crimes, its impact will most likely be much broader. The ruling almost certainly also applies to searches of tablet and laptop computers, and its reasoning may apply to searches of homes and businesses and of information held by third parties like phone companies.

“This is a bold opinion,” said Orin S. Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University. “It is the first computer-search case, and it says we are in a new digital age. You can’t apply the old rules anymore.”

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the court, was keenly alert to the central role that cell phones play in contemporary life. They are, he said, “such a pervasive and insistent part of daily life that the proverbial visitor from Mars might conclude they were an important feature of human anatomy.”

Read the whole story

Mark Estee, left, competes in “Guy’s Grocery Games”. Photo/Provided

Mark Estee, owner of Burger Me in Truckee and Campo in Reno, won “Guy’s Grocery Games” on the Food Network, bringing home $10,500 for three nonprofit organizations.

Estee will split winnings equally between Northern Nevada Food Bank, Green House Project and Urban Roots.

The show titled “Marshmallow Madness” aired June 22. Three rounds of challenges included a Red Light Special where chefs incorporated marshmallows into their hearty lunch, Guys Grocery List where chefs created a taco night, and a last round where the final two chefs created a family favorite out of One Ingredient Per Aisle.

This is the second time in four years Estee has appeared on a Guy Fieri show, both of which aired on Food Network. Estee and Fieri first met when Estee’s Burge M! was featured on “Diners Drive-In’s and Dives”. Later, Fieri ranked the Italian Stallion burger among the top 10 in the country.

The eighth annual Beerfest & Bluegrass Festival is July 5 at Northstar, with the third annual Brew Master’s Dinner on July 4.

The dinner is from 6-8:30pm at Tavern 6330’ in Northstar Village. It includes a five-course dinner of farm-fresh dishes pairinged with craft beer. Tickets are $75 day-of, or $65 in advance.

The festival begins at 3pm that Saturday in the village, with more than 25 breweries participating. Each brewery will offer craft seasonal and specialty ales, lagers, stouts and porters. Barbecue will be available and bluegrass will be playing.

Tickets are $38 day-of, and $30 in advance. Each ticket includes a commemorative beer tasting glass and $1 of every ticket is donated to the Truckee Trails Foundation.