One of three people accused of stealing thousands of dollars worth of ski passes has pleaded guilty.

Tim Jacobsen

Tim Jacobsen, 22, of Minden in a deal agreed to plead guilty to embezzlement, a class C felony. He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 7. He could face up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Jacobsen admitted he stole the ski pass vouchers worth $37,920 that were valid at Heavenly, Northstar or Kirkwood and then sold them online.

Angelo Bozin, 26, of South Lake Tahoe and Mark Graham, 21, of Gardnerville were also arrested in July 2016 on charges of felony embezzlement, theft, possession of stolen property and conspiracy. They both continue to maintain a not guilty stance.

Heavenly Mountain Resort on March 10, 2016, reported 1,100 ski pass vouchers were missing from lodges on the Nevada side. The ski passes are valued at $120 each, with a total possible value of $116,520.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

A woman was pulled from the Upper Truckee River this afternoon after nearly drowning.

She was on a paddleboard with at least one friend.

It’s not known if she was wearing a life jacket while on the water; one was not on her when paramedics arrived.

A South Lake Tahoe police officer got her out of the water near the bridge at Highway 50. CPR was being administered as she was rushed to Barton Memorial Hospital about 1:30pm June 7.

Her name, age and hometown have not been released.

The river is flowing at a rapid rate as the snow continues to melt at higher elevations

“It’s very dangerous and very cold,” South Lake Tahoe fire Battalion Chief Tim Spencer told Lake Tahoe News. “Once you are in the water it drains the energy out of you and causes muscles to fail pretty quickly.”

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

In the future planes will get fuel at a self-serve station at Lake Tahoe Airport. Photo/Kathryn

By Kathryn Reed

The tower will be demolished, electric vehicle charging stations installed, commercial hangars built, and pavement removed from Lake Tahoe Airport.

These are all included in the master plan for the South Lake Tahoe facility. This is a designed to be a 20-year blueprint.

The final component of the plan was approved by the City Council on June 6. The electeds unanimously OK’d the mitigated negative declaration. No written comments were submitted regarding the document.

Environmental Science Associates prepared the initial study. It identified biological resources, cultural resources, hazards and hazardous materials, and noise as items that would need to be mitigated.

One hazardous item on the 348 acres that will be removed is the tower. Since the facility was abandoned by the FAA in 2004 water has seeped in. The end result is toxic mold.

“It’s not suitable for human habitation,” Mark Gibbs, airport director, told the council Tuesday.

An 80-foot communications tower will be built before the control tower is deconstructed.

It is up to the FAA to dismantle the old tower because that agency owns it. That could occur this year.

Nothing in the master plan expands the airport, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be improvements.

A self-serve gas station will be installed. This will eliminate the need for trucks to transport the fuel to each aircraft. The projected date for this is in 2027.

A partial list of future improvements includes reconstructing the aircraft parking apron, drainage ditch improvements, relocating taxiway H, removing excess pavement, getting rid of the bypass taxiway, installing a new automated weather observation station, improving the fixed base operations facility, and building a commercial hangar.

The Federal Aviation Administration pays for the bulk of improvements at this airport.

Another piece of the master plan is the release of 45 acres on the western edge of the airport for future non-aeronautical use. A couple years ago this undeveloped land had been talked about being converted into an outdoor concert venue. Since then it has been determined to be an inadequate site.

Three wildland fires outside of the Lake Tahoe Basin have kept crews busy on Tuesday.

The Topaz Fire destroyed one outbuilding. Eight acres were blackened near Topaz Lodge between Topaz Lake and Highway 395. The fire is fully contained. At one time more than 30 structures were threatened and the highway was closed.

The Payne Fire has charred 100 acres and as of 9pm was 40 percent contained. It is burning in Alpine County off Highway 88.

The Ray May Fire was stopped a 3.6 acres. It was located at Ray May Way and Highway 395.

All three started June 6. No cause has been released for any of the fires.

On the Payne Fire a firefighter sustained a thumb injury.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Scott McFetridge, AP

DES MOINES, Iowa — A century-old train trestle stands as one of the trophies of Des Moines’ push to spruce up its downtown. Bicyclists and pedestrians pose for pictures beside the brightly painted beams of the Red Bridge and gather on viewing platforms overlooking the Des Moines River.

But little more than a decade after it was restored, crews went back to the site with a crane to hoist the span 4½ feet higher, at a cost of $3 million, after experts concluded that the river’s flooding risk was nearly double earlier estimates. Climate change was likely to blame.

Climate change is often seen as posing the greatest risk to coastal areas. But the nation’s inland cities face perils of their own, including more intense storms and more frequent flooding. Even as President  Trump has announced his intention for the U.S. to withdraw from a global climate agreement, many of the nation’s river communities are responding to climate change by raising or replacing bridges that suddenly seem too low to stay safely above water.

In Reno, officials spent about $18 million to replace a bridge over the Truckee River last year and plan to replace three more after flood-danger projections were increased by up to 15 percent.

Read the whole story

A series of earthquakes have been rattling the Gardnerville area on Tuesday afternoon.

The strongest was measured at 3.9 at 3:45pm June 6. It was centered about 12.5 miles southeast of Gardnerville near Double Springs Flat.

Two subsequent temblors occurred — a 2.2 at 3:51 and a 2.1 at 4:18pm.

No injuries or damage have been reported.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

More than 2,000 customers in South Lake Tahoe have been without power for the better part of Tuesday afternoon.

This is because a vehicle took out a power pole at Al Tahoe Boulevard and Pioneer Trail.

No one was injured in the accident. No further details, though, have been provided.

Liberty Utilities said power should be restored by 5pm June 6.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Sandra Chereb, Las Vegas Review-Journal

CARSON CITY — Nevada lawmakers gave final legislative approval Monday to a package of bills that resolved a stalemate over the budget and signaled the 2017 Legislature would end without chaos by midnight.

The Assembly’s approval of three key bills needed to bring the session to a close came swiftly and without discussion Monday afternoon, about 12 hours after they were voted upon in the Senate.

Republicans and Democrats came to terms to pass Senate Bill 546, a key budget bill that was held hostage over a Republican push for education savings accounts — a voucher-like program pushed by the GOP and opposed by the Democratic majority.

Read the whole story

Douglas County deputies on June 5 search Rabe Meadow. Photo/Anthony Spatucci

Reports of a man with a gun led Douglas County sheriff’s deputies to Rabe Meadow on June 5.

Deputies drove part way onto the U.S. Forest Service property in Stateline.

“Three deputies looked and were unable to locate anything,” Deputy Bernadette Smith told Lake Tahoe News.

A person reported seeing a man with a rifle in the trees.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

The high-end Tahoe Beach Club development in Stateline has an illegal fence. Photo/Anthony Spatucci

By Kathryn Reed

Illegal fences going into Lake Tahoe have caught the attention of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.

Property owners must get a permit from the bi-state regulatory agency before construction. This was not done.

A TRPA inspector was at the Tahoe Beach Club on June 2 to talk to the Stateline property owner.

“The fencing is not allowed, but if you look you will see some sort of metal material buried in the sand in the water on the other side,” Tom Lotshaw, spokesman for TRPA, told Lake Tahoe News. “The TRPA inspector asked the property owner to come up with a timely plan to remove that buried metal material and to remove the temporary fencing, but allowed them to leave the temporary fencing in place for now since the buried material on the other side could be a safety risk.”

Just north of Cave Rock a chain link fence is extending into the lake. It starts from the land, with several sections extending into the water. It looks like it could have been out of the water during the drought. Now it just looks like trash.

A chain link fence has become a water hazard near Cave Rock. Photo/Anthony Spatucci

TRPA on June 5 contacted that property owner. According to Lotshaw, the landowner intends to let TRPA know this week how he plans to remove the fence. 

California and Nevada have different rules regarding the public’s access to the shore. This is why there tend to be more fences on the Nevada side to keep people out.

California owns a public trust easement that allows access for the public year-round between the high water mark (6,229 feet) to low water mark and below. In a drought, this can be a large swath of land, aka beach.

Such an easement does not exist in Nevada. This means it would be trespassing to walk along private property or to dock a boat there.

While it may be private property, owners still must abide by the law when it comes to putting up fences at the lake.