Business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs who would like to learn how to comply with California’s tax laws are invited to attend a free small business tax seminar and resource expo in Placerville on June 8.

California Board of Equalization Vice Chair George Runner is sponsoring the event with state Sen. Ted Gaines, Assemblyman Frank Bigelow, the city of Placerville, and El Dorado County Chamber of Commerce.

Topics include avoiding common sales and use tax problems, forms of ownership, employee versus independent contractor, and recordkeeping. Representatives from the BOE, Employment Development Department, Franchise Tax Board, and Internal Revenue Service will conduct presentations and answer questions.

It will be from 8:30am-noon, with registration at 8am. It will be at the Placerville Town Hall, 549 Main St.

South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue along with multiple local agencies are coming together and hosting the fourth annual Wildfire Safety Expo on June 17.

It will be from noon-3pm at the TJ Maxx parking lot located at the Y.

The event will include information on creating a home evacuation plan, preparing for fire, creating defensible space property and more. There will also be an appearances by Smokey Bear.

·      Report from the Eldorado National Forest: Facilities above 6,000 feet in elevation that are expected to open in mid- to late June are Loon Lake, Bear River Group, and Silver Lake East. At over 7,000 feet in elevation, Kirkwood Lake, Caples Lake, Woods Lake and Wrights Lake will be the last to open, most likely in late June to early July.

·     This is the first Memorial Day weekend in a while that Sonora and Ebbetts passes are closed because of snow.

·     Bijou Golf Course in South Lake Tahoe is still closed because of all the water on it.

·     Susan Merdinger will be the guest pianist for TOCCATA in June. For details and to buy tickets, go online.

·     Due to unusually high water levels and rapid flows on the Truckee River, people are being told to refrain from swimming, rafting or otherwise entering the river until it has been declared safe and open for public use.

Nevada Department of Transportation is partnering with Waze, the free, real-time traffic and navigation app, to provide better real-time traffic information.

NDOT state road construction, incident and closure data will become available to drivers on the Waze driver information app. Likewise, Waze will provide NDOT with real-time, anonymous traffic incident and slow-down information reported by Waze users to display on the department’s Nevada 511 Travel Info system.

The data sharing comes at no additional cost to the Nevada Department of Transportation. Waze does not share driver-identifiable information other than what is already made public via the app and live map.

All navigation, even reporting a crash, can be done through voice command, supporting Nevada law prohibiting use of a handheld device while driving.

·      South Lake Tahoe’s annual Spring into Summer Kick-Off Party is June 3 from 10am to 2pm. The event is free and designed to highlight summer programs, introduce recreation instructors, and provide tours of the Recreation & Swim Complex.

·      El Dorado Beach boat ramp in South Lake Tahoe is open.

·      Truckee Chamber of Commerce is having a mixer June 1, 5-7pm at Bar of America in downtown Truckee.

·      Truckee’s Fourth of July parade will be from 10am-1pm. Entry forms are online.

·      Here is a recap of the women’s Tour of California bike race, with lots of Lake Tahoe images:

Live Violence Free is looking for volunteers to help with cleanup at the South Lake Tahoe facility.

Help is needed with raking, gardening, painting, organizing, and sprucing up the location.

The cleanup day will be June 3 from 10am-3pm. There will be multiple projects to work on throughout the day, for people of all levels of ability and handiness.

Bring gloves and other tools.

Contact Aisling Peterson at aspeterson@liveviolencefree.org or 530.544.2118, ext. 7634 with questions.

El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office Explorer Post 457 competed in a statewide competition at the California Highway Patrol Academy in Sacramento last weekend.  

There were 43 explorer posts from across the state consisting of 330 explorers who competed.

Explorers were evaluated in several reality based scenarios including crime scene investigation, traffic stops, active shooter, DUI stops, critical incident, officer needs assistance, building search, California alert system, felony stop, crisis intervention, court testimony, domestic violence, and shooting skills.

The El Dorado team brought home three trophies: fifth place in crisis intervention, fourth place in active shooter and first place in shooting skills.

·      Tahoe Vista Recreation Area’s boat launch will be open Friday-Sunday until June 30 from 8am-6pm, then Wednesday-Sunday starting July 1. It is set to open May 26. And it will be open July 3-4.

·      Truckee is having a meeting about the Envision Donner Pass Road Corridor Improvement Project on May 25 at 6pm at the airport.

·       “The Smog of the Sea” will be shown June 16 at 7:30pm at Basecamp Hotel in South Lake Tahoe for $10. It is a fundraiser for the League to Save Lake Tahoe. The movie delves into the threat of plastics in oceans.

·      The Austin Lounge Lizards return to Piper’s Opera House in Virginia City on July 1. Doors open at 6:30pm, show at 7:30pm. Tickets are available online.

·      Tahoe Resource Conservation District is putting its data on a new website.

South Lake Tahoe is looking for participants in the annual 4th of July parade.

All businesses, organizations, community members, sports teams and bands are invited to be in the parade. Floats are encouraged.

The parade starts that Tuesday at 10am.

It is free to participate. Parade applications are due June 13. Applications are online.

With one of the biggest winters in years and the snowpack level well above normal, it is expected that the excessive precipitation will likely push the start of the fire season back a couple months.

The National Interagency Fire Center and Reno National Weather Service are leaning toward July/August time frame for the grasses to cure, dry, and for fire season to heat up.

“The fire season has the potential to get busy quickly mid- to late summer once we have a few good heat waves, the snow is gone and grasses have cured and dried,” reported Edan Weishahn with the Weather Service.

A delayed fire season could mean a shorter season if winter arrives on schedule.