U.S. Forest Service personnel are doing what they can to not have a repeat of last Fourth of July when Ski Beach on the South Shore nearly became a riot scene.

To help the regular law enforcement officers, five California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and five El Dorado County probation officers will be assisting with patrols. They will be dispersed this weekend starting July 4 at all the USFS beaches.

Officers will be making sure everyone is abiding by the rules, which includes cracking down on underage drinking.

The California Highway Patrol will conduct a sobriety/driver license checkpoint on July 5 on Highway 50 between Pioneer Trail and Highway 89.

The goal is to target roads where there is a high frequency of drunken driving.

Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the Transportation Agency.

Several Northern Nevada law enforcement agencies will be putting extra officers on the street this weekend.

On Friday afternoon and evening, police officers from the Reno and Sparks police departments, deputies from the Washoe, Lyon and Douglas counties sheriff’s offices, and troopers from the Nevada Highway Patrol will be conducting the DUI road block on Highway 50 in Douglas County.

The DUI checkpoint is funded by the Joining Forces grant secured by the Nevada Office of Traffic Safety and paid for by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

• Ted Jackson and Luke Anderson have been promoted to engineer at Lake Valley Fire Protection District.

• Joe Craven and his 12-year-old daughter, Hattie, are putting on a music workshop July 9 from 3-5pm at Valhalla on the South Shore. He will put on a concert that night at 7:30 at the Boathouse Theatre. For more info and tickets, go online.

• Hot August Nights returns to South Lake Tahoe July 25-26. Cars will be at Heavenly Village and on Ski Run Boulevard.

• Sue Fairley is Barton Health’s vice president of Nursing and Ancillary Services. She replaces Mary Bittner, who retired in April.

• There will be a boat parade July 4 starting at 11:45am at Commons Beach in Tahoe City.

Truckee’s Fourth of July fun includes a morning parade, evening music and nighttime fireworks.

The annual Firecracker Mile leads the festivities with a one mile race along the parade route down Donner Pass Road from US Bank to the Train Station.

The parade, which starts at 10am, offers up close views of the legendary Wells Fargo horse-drawn stagecoach, and the famous Truckee River Precision Drill Team. Several of the nation’s top Olympic athletes, including Julia Mancuso, Tamara McKinney and Travis Ganong, will be riding on the floats.

Fireworks start at dark over Donner Lake. If you don’t have a ticket,  find an open dock, or glide your kayak or canoe (carefully!) onto Donner Lake, park yourself and wait for the lightshow.

Click here for info about events in Truckee on Friday.

• There will be a blood drive Aug. 4 from noon-6pm at Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel in South Lake Tahoe.

• Fireworks of all sizes and types are illegal in unincorporated areas of Placer County.

• The Attic, Barton’s thrift store in South Lake Tahoe, will bring out a large selection of clearance priced holiday items from July 7-24.

• Austin’s House recently received a donation of $50,000 from Patty Clark, founder of the Austin Kirby Foundation.

• Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority has created a dedicated email for reporting firework debris — TeamFireworks@LTVA.org.

Emergency prevention is the subject of the Aug. 19 6-7pm lecture at Lake Tahoe Community College’s board room in South Lake Tahoe.

Barton’s registered nurse Tamara Burns will talk about preparing for any adventure from short hikes to long overnight trips. She will review the minimum essentials of what to bring and learn what to do if an emergency arises.

For more info, call 530.543.5537.

• Lights on the Lake Fireworks on the South Shore start at 9:45pm July 4.

• There is a Worm Composting Workshop July 28, 5:30pm that is part of the UCCE Master Gardener Green Thumb Series. It is at Lake Tahoe Community College’s demonstration garden.

• Residents in the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District will be asked in November to vote on a $170 million facilities bond.

• July 10 is the deadline for the Wilderness Photo Contest sponsored by the Sierra Club. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. Send photos to Wildernessphotocontest@gmail.com.

• Beginner curling sessions at the South Lake Tahoe Ice Arena are July 3 and July 18 from 6:30-9pm. The cost is $25 per person ($15 for locals with a valid ID).

• Thunderbird Lodge is  offering Friday wine and cheese tours in July and August for $100. For reservations, go online.

• There is a Type I Diabetes Support Group the first Tuesday of each month at 5:30pm in Barton Memorial Hospital’s board room.

• The second annual Lake Tahoe Dance Festival is July 15-17 in Tahoe City. For more info, go online.

• Lavish Green returns to the Live at Lakeview stage in South Lake Tahoe on July 3 to celebrate their 19th anniversary of performing music. The free event runs from 4:30-8:30pm.

• Here are the El Dorado-Tahoe and Sierra roadwork schedules.

Caltrans is going to begin a paving project on Highway 89 in Meyers on Monday.

About 8.6 miles will be microsurfaced and then restriped from the intersection of highways 89 and 50 south to the El Dorado/Alpine county line. Microsurfacing involves applying a cement-mixed slurry seal to the pavement.Intermountain Slurry Seal Inc. was awarded the construction contract for $821,821.

Expect one-way traffic control on weekdays from 6:30am-5pm. There will be no work on weekends and on July 4. The project is scheduled to be completed by Aug. 8.