The California Tahoe Conservancy is buying this parcel with the idea the building will be demolished. Photo/LTN

By Kathryn Reed

KINGS BEACH – Land acquisition, bike paths and public access projects dominated the most recent quarterly meeting of the California Tahoe Conservancy.

The old blue four-plex on the corner of Sawmill Road and Highway 50 in El Dorado County will be demolished in 2016 so the 1-acre parcel can be restored to a natural setting. It is deemed environmentally sensitive land.

The board agreed to spend $435,000 to make this happen. The bulk of the money is to buy the property. Escrow is expected to close at the end of the month. The development rights will be banked to be used in South Lake Tahoe or Meyers.

There was a question as to whether the sewer hook up had value. The answer was not today. It’s also not a parcel State Parks would be interested in because that agency wants contiguous property. They own the land across Sawmill Road.

No one is living in the structure, and it has been in foreclosure for about a year.

For about 30 years starting in the 1920s this is where Ethel’s Pie Shop was. It’s how the rock climbing area got its name.

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Proposed Lakeview Lookout in South Lake Tahoe. Rendering/Design Workshop

Funding is still being sought to transform the old Alta Mira site in South Lake Tahoe into something more than a wood-chipped parking lot. It has been renamed Lakeview Lookout.

Soroptimist International of South Lake Tahoe’s membership voted not to spend the quarter million dollars it has in the bank on this project. CTC is hoping the city of South Lake Tahoe and Tahoe Fund will be partners. The board may discuss funding in more detail in December or early next year.

A cantilevered walkway and deck, as well as slope stabilization are proposed. The idea is to make it a complementary bookend to Lakeview Commons.

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The initial phase of the long-anticipated Greenway Trail is done. Eventually it will link Meyers and Stateline.

“It felt so good this summer to get some pavement on the ground after working on this for so long,” CTC staff member Sue Rae Irelan told the board.

The first segment is 0.43 miles going from Herbert Avenue to Glenwood Way.

Last week the California Transportation Commission allocated $2 million to a consortium on the South Shore for trails. Part of this will be used to continue the Greenway through the Bijou Meadow, connecting to Al Tahoe Boulevard, and from Lake Tahoe Community College to Sierra Tract.

Most likely at the March board meeting there will be a land swap item on the agenda involving the CTC, the city and Lake Tahoe Community College. This will also involve a modification to the design plans for the path.

“We are trying to make a more direct connection to the Martin-Barbara intersection,” Irelan said.

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The Upper Truckee Marsh’s final EIR/EIS should be out in December. Photo/LTN file

The final environmental documents for the Upper Truckee River and Marsh project should be before the board in December. Construction could begin in 2018. Environmental and recreation improvements on both sides of the river are planned.

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Talks are still under way for CTC to not have a role in Van Sickle Bi-state Park. CTC stepped in when California State Parks couldn’t put money into the upkeep of the South Shore park.

“Ultimately the goal is to have Nevada manage it on both sides,” Wright said. He added there is still work to be done involving both states to make this a reality.

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The Conservancy owns 3.5 acres or six “asset lands parcels” between Tahoe Valley Pharmacy and the Factory Stores at the Y.

“The city would like the back parcel to be part of the green belt,” Aimee Rutledge of the CTC told the board.

The Tahoe Valley Area Plan calls for a green belt in this area. Rutledge also said staff envisions the Factory Store owners wanting those parcels, but the owners told Lake Tahoe News they have enough on their plate.

When there is a buyer the board will take a vote on it.

Executive Director Patrick Wright explained that new legislation allows the board to know what the future use of the property will be before agreeing to sell it.

“This give us leverage to shape the future of this property,” Wright said.

This is a completely different process from past CTC parcels that went to the highest bidder. One of the parcels was the old drive-in on Glenwood Avenue that has since had what is called a single-family residence built on it even though it looks like a mini hotel. It was built specifically to be a vacation home rental.

By Greg Botelho and Ralph Ellis, CNN

Tens of thousands of them patrol American schools every day. They are law enforcers. They are mediators. They are educators.

This week, a school resource officer in Columbia, South Carolina, was captured on a video that’s been replayed across the nation. The video shows him forcefully yanking down a 16-year-old female student, then flinging her across the floor before her arrest. The student allegedly refused to leave her desk.

Richland County sheriff’s Deputy Ben Fields has been fired.

About 43 percent of all U.S. public schools — including 63 percent of middle and 64 percent of high schools — had such officers on their grounds during the 2013-14 school year, the National Center for Education Statistics noted in May. This includes more than 46,000 full-time and 36,000 part-time officers.

School resource officers, or SROs, supervise lunchrooms, coach sports, promote drug and alcohol awareness and become confidants to teens who might have never thought they’d befriend a police officer. SROs may build relationships at a key time in many young people’s lives.

Read the whole story

Resolution could not be found Oct. 28 between the owners of Lake Tahoe Hard Rock and SMC Contracting, the firm that did the bulk of the $60 million renovation of the old Horizon hotel-casino.

A court hearing in Minden on Wednesday was a continuation of the legal dispute between the two parties. Mediation this summer did not work. Still, the judge sent both sides back to the negotiation table. The next round of mediation is to begin Nov. 16.

At issue is the contractor believes it is owed about $9 million, while Neva One — the company formed by brothers Jon and David Park to be the title owner of the Stateline property — says the cost overruns were not approved.

Since this original lawsuit was filed last spring the Parks have fired and sued the management company, Warner Hospitality, which had been overseeing the remodel and then the day-to-day operations since it opened Jan. 28.

If a settlement is not reached next month, a court hearing is scheduled for mid-December. Neither side returned phone calls.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

By Joy Resmovits, Los Angeles Times

For the first time in about a decade, steady academic progress has halted for fourth- and eighth-grade students nationally and locally, according to new standardized test results released Wednesday.

After years of small but steady increases in scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress since its first administration nationally in 1990, the trend began to reverse this year.

The results were interpreted differently across the education spectrum. “The overall news from this round isn’t good,” said U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan. “Anyone who claims to have this all figured out is peddling a personal agenda.”

Duncan theorized that the changing trend is due to an “implementation dip” caused by chaos from curricular changes in schools as districts teach new academic standards.

Read the whole story

By Jackie Wattles, CNN Money

In a pharmacy mega-merger, Walgreens is buying Rite Aid.

The $17.2 billion deal puts together the nation’s second and third largest pharmacy chains that combined will have nearly 13,000 U.S. stores. That would catapult the merged company above CVS, which has 7,800 stores.

Rite Aid (RAD) stores would keep their names “initially,” but Walgreens plans to create “a fully harmonized portfolio of stores” over time, the company said in announcing the deal Tuesday.

Read the whole story

By Jim Miller, Sacramento Bee

Frank Treanor doesn’t have exit polling to help explain why almost 38 percent of voters in the fire district he leads north of San Francisco voted against a November 2012 ballot measure to increase what property owners pay the district annually.

But Treanor, chief of the Rancho Adobe Fire Protection District, said he is sure of the reason: Most of the district falls within the vast swath of the state where property owners pay a state fire prevention fee, in addition to any local charges.

In the four years since lawmakers approved it, a state fire prevention fee on properties in about a third of the state’s rural areas had yielded more than $300 million through June for prevention-related activities.

The money has gone to administration and statewide prevention, such as defensible space inspections and vegetation clearing, amid concern by some local officials that non-profit fire safe councils haven’t received more money

Read the whole story

South Lake Tahoe police officers are now calling an Oct. 10 incident near the state line an attempted kidnapping.

A sketch of the suspect was released today.

A 36-year-old female tourist told officers a man approached her about 9:40am Oct. 10 near Park and Cedar avenues, telling her to go with him or he would shoot her. The suspect told the woman he had a gun and appeared to be holding an object concealed in his sweat shirt pocket, according to police.

She ran for safety and the suspect left before officers arrived.

The suspect is described as Caucasian or light skinned Hispanic male in his mid-20s, about 5-feet-6, medium build, a scar or injury near his right eye, wearing black wire-framed prescription glasses, wearing a grey hooded sweat shirt, dark pants and had a white bicycle.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

A Truckee man has been arrested on charges stemming from a fatal motorcycle accident on Oct. 24 on Interstate 80 east of Pyramid Highway in Sparks.

According to the Nevada Highway Patrol, Jonathan Navarro, 18, of Reno was riding west on a red Honda street bike at about 11:50pm. Navarro was in the left inside shoulder illegally passing traffic occupying the fast lane, officers said. The bike came into contact with a black Subaru Impreza in the fast lane. Navarro lost control of the motorcycle and was ejected. He was then struck by a pickup pulling a fifth-wheel trailer and pronounced dead at the scene.

The black Subaru fled the scene. The driver has since been identified as Jose Arellano, 19, of Truckee. Arellano was arrested on charges of felony duty to stop at the scene of a crash involving death, and a misdemeanor crime of duty to give information and render aid.

It is not know if either driver was impaired at the time of the crash.

Anyone who may have witnessed this incident is asked to call 775.689.4623 or email dhildebrand@dps.state.nv.us.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

El Dorado County Animal Services mailbox in Diamond Springs was broken into last weekend.

It is not known how much mail was stolen. Anyone who mailed a check to the Diamond Springs location in the last week is urged to call 530.621.5795. This way staff will be able to verify if the money arrived.

Until the mailbox is fixed Animal Services’ mail will be collected at the post office and picked up daily.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

A 3.1 earthquake rattled parts of the Carson Valley this morning.

The temblor was located 6 miles northeast of Johnson Lane in Gardnerville.

It struck at 7:22am Oct. 28.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report