Timber Cove Pier should be open this summer. Photo/LTN

Timber Cove Pier in South Lake Tahoe is off limits to the public until owners can stabilize the pilings under the Boathouse restaurant.

“It basically involves installing a fiberglass sheathing to strengthen the existing pilings. It would normally be a qualified exempt activity, but we’ve never approved this technique to strengthen pilings before so we wanted to be able to attach a security to the project and inspections,” Tom Lotshaw, Tahoe Regional Planing Agency spokesman, told Lake Tahoe News.

A decision about the permit is expected to be made this month.Tahoe Beach Retreat owns the pier and restaurant. A spokesman said the improvements are being made to ensure the public’s safety. For now, only employees are allowed on much of the pier that extends into Lake Tahoe. The restaurant will remain closed until the improvements are made.— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Joseph Serna, San Diego Union Tribune

Every year for almost half a century, California snow surveyor Pat Armstrong has trekked the rugged Sierra Nevada with three simple tools: a snow core tube, a scale and a notebook.

For as long as he can remember, state water officials have relied on the accuracy of those tools to deliver crucial data on the size of the Sierra snowpack and its ability to sustain a growing population.

“It hasn’t changed in a hundred years,” Armstrong said of the survey.

But there is a growing belief that this low-tech process alone is becoming too unreliable to accurately manage California’s water needs.

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The Placer County Board of Supervisors on June 27 is expected to discuss the possibility of widening Highway 267.

This route links Kings Beach and Truckee.

Part of the county’s capital improvement program calls for increasing the stretch from Truckee to the top of Brockway Summit from two to four lanes.

There is a group of area resident who are against this idea. They have an online petition saying as much.

The petition in part says, “Widening roads is used to justify more development, and more development is used to justify widening roads. This is ludicrous. The solution to the existing congestion at Lake Tahoe is not to create more traffic; more roads equals more cars, more congestion, more pollution, and more danger to area residents.”

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

Highway 50 is open in both directions without controls between Tahoe and Placerville.

On June 8 a mudslide covered a wide section of road at Alder Creek between White Hall and Kyburz. The highway was temporarily closed, then open to one-way traffic with controls.

Doug Veerkamp General Engineering was hired by Caltrans to remove the debris. About 50 truckloads were taken from the site.

With winter-like weather returning today, it’s possible more slide activity could occur in the coming days. For up-to-date road information, click on the state icon on the home page of Lake Tahoe News.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

A science center at Zephyr Cove is designed for multiple grade levels. Photo/Kathryn Reed

By Kathryn Reed

ZEPHYR COVE – No books needed. Lake Tahoe is a science lab unto itself.

While students on the South Shore have been taking advantage of learning outdoors through the South Tahoe Environmental Education Coalition, a new resource was unveiled on June 9. An Environmental Science Center is now part of Zephyr Cove Elementary School.

“It’s another opportunity for children to learn about the Lake Tahoe Basin,” Principal Nancy Cauley told Lake Tahoe News. “It teaches them how to be stewards of the place they live.”

Getting K-6 students outside to learn has been going on for the past few years on both sides of the state line. The converted classroom will be a resource for ZCES as well as other students in Douglas County, Lake Tahoe Unified and elsewhere.

Water quality, macro invertebrates and bugs are some of the topics students will delve into.

Teachers will be able to access the materials to foster science education in an age-appropriate manner. It’s also hands on.

Next year Whittell High School students may be brought into the fold.

Already on one wall is a do-it-yourself graph charting the growth of the mudsnail and magfly in the basin. It teaches youngsters about aquatic invasive species, while also allowing them to plot the findings in a large-scale visual format.

A mural fills one wall in the science center. Photo/Kathryn Reed

Lisa Kirkman and the Tahoe Art League are responsible for another wall that is a colorful mural of Lake Tahoe. The various fish that can be found in the lake are depicted as well as other wildlife.

With school about to get out for the summer, the room is expected to be put to greater use starting next school year.

“It creates a home base for outdoor education,” Devin Middlebrook with the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency told Lake Tahoe News. “They can see, touch and feel. The classroom is for more in-depth learning.”

He was instrumental in getting the grant from the Nevada Division of State Lands Lake Tahoe License Plate Program in 2016 that led to ZCES being able to be part of South Tahoe Environmental Education Coalition, which until then had only been for LTUSD students.

Since then science has been growing exponentially at Zephyr Cove. It has been a community effort with parents, teachers, an anonymous donor, grant funding, TRPA, Rotarians and others pitching in to make the on campus lab a reality.

“It’s teaching kids about where they come from,” Middlebrook said.

By Christopher S. Rugaber, AP

U.S. household debt reached a record high in the first three months of this year, topping the previous peak reached in 2008, when the financial crisis plunged the economy into a deep recession.

Americans have stepped up borrowing over the past three years, yet the nature of what Americans owe has changed since the Great Recession. Student and auto loans make up a larger proportion of household debt, while mortgages – the epicenter of the financial crisis – and credit card debt remain below pre-recession levels.

Those changes suggest households are still cautious about taking on debt to fuel day-to-day consumption.

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By Sean Whaley, Las Vegas Review-Journal

CARSON CITY — Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval on Friday signed a bill increasing the cost-of-living raises for state workers from 2 percent to 3 percent per year.

Senate Bill 368 was amended late Monday by lawmakers to increase the pay hikes, which get passed on to other public employee groups as well.

In a tweet, Sandoval said he was proud to invest in the state’s public employees with the additional pay increase.

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A 23-unit condominium project is being proposed for South Lake Tahoe.

The owners of the nearly 5-acre parcel on Wildwood Avenue want to build detached units that would be between 2,100- and 2,450-square-feet. Each dwelling would have a two-car garage. Additional parking would be provided.

The existing structure would be torn down.

The Planning Commission will have a public hearing on the matter on July 13 at 3pm at Lake Tahoe Airport.

A mitigated negative declaration has been prepared. Comments on it are being taken until July 10. A copy of it is available at city offices at 1052 Tata Lane.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Associated Press

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval has vetoed a proposal to raise state minimum wages to $11 an hour for workers insured through their employers and $12 an hour without that benefit.

Most employers must currently pay a minimum $7.25 an hour if they offer health insurance or $8.25 an hour if not.

Senate Bill 106 would have increased the minimums 75 cents annually through 2022.

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By Christopher Cadelago, Sacramento Bee
 
California voters overwhelmingly oppose a recent tax and fee package pushed by Gov. Jerry Brown and the Democratic-dominated Legislature to pay for road repairs, a new poll finds.

The gas tax law, which ushers in a 10-year program to raise more than $52 billion for transportation projects, is so unpopular it could backfire on Democrats in upcoming elections.

Fifty eight percent of voters oppose Senate Bill 1, including 39 percent who say they strongly reject the legislation, according to the survey from UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies. Only 35 percent favor the law, which raises taxes on gasoline and diesel and hikes vehicle registration fees to fix roads and highways.

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