meetings

The City of South Lake Tahoe has been celebrating its 50th anniversary all year long with a parade, gala and different events to highlight the successes of the city's first five decades. The actual incorporation day was November 30, 1965 and the City will commemorate that with a free community open house in the Council Chambers at the South Lake Tahoe Airport on November 30, 2015 at 3 p.m.

The recent reversal of sign ordinance fees reflects on the poor leadership of South Lake Tahoe’s government. After an eruption of dissent from the business community, the City had to reverse its onerous sign permit fees and acquiesce to the demands of the business community.

Over the past three years, a new master plan for the South Lake Tahoe airport has been in the creation process, from the awarding of a $315,000 grant from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2012 to community outreach to Tuesday's presentation on a final design plan.

On June 14, 2014, the South Lake Tahoe City Council voted to delay the implementation of the second phase of the plastic bag ban in the city. Originally slated to begin on October 15, 2014, the Council, by a vote of 3-2, moved the start date out one year to October 15, 2015.

Now that the second phase of the ban has started, Mayor Hal Cole wants to revisit that portion of the ban.

Cole said he wants to undo the ban on plastic bags for retail stores and asked for the topic to be on an upcoming agenda.

Do you want to overcome your fear of public speaking? Do you want to grow your professional skills? Then join Tahoe Toastmasters, South Lake Tahoe's local Toastmaster club.

We meet every 2nd, 4th, and 5th Monday at 6:30 PM at the South Lake Tahoe Public Utility District Boardroom at 1275 Meadow Crest Drive. Guests are welcome FREE of charge. Contact Frank at ozatlake@gmail.com for additional information.

Toastmasters provides a supportive and positive experience for you to develop communication and leadership skills. Join us! To find a club near you visit www.toastmasters.org

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The City of South Lake Tahoe has been involving the community in several planning sessions, from the Tahoe Valley Area plan to the Recreation and Airport Master Plans. On Tuesday night, the latest plan for the Regan Beach area were unveiled to a group gathered at the South Lake Tahoe recreation center.

While attendance hasn't reflected a very large portion of the community, several dozen locals have played active roles at the meetings.

The Butte Fire near Jackson, CA continues to burn but is now 74% contained. So far, 70,760 acres have burned. The destructive and deadly fire destroyed 545 homes and 356 outbuildings, as well as damaging another 42 structures. Two civilians have died in the fire.

Cal Fire is holding two community information meetings, one in each affected county. (Amador County) Monday, September 21, 2015 at 7:00 p.m. The Call Church; 18400 Ridge Road, Pine Grove, CA 95665.

City Manager Nancy Kerry and Mark Carlson, the City's Administrative Services Director presented the 2015-16 Fiscal year budget to the South Lake Tahoe City Council during a workshop Tuesday.

"There is a lot we can be proud of," Kerry said.

The budget process has been ongoing since May, involving staff in making the decision on where to cut back, and where to spend.

The community has had an opportunity all summer to meet with the South Lake Tahoe Police Chief, Lieutenants and Sergeants this summer during their "Coffee With a Cop" series which is held ever Thursday from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. at Starbucks near Stateline.

These meetings give locals and visitors the chance to meet the officers and help shape our policing efforts in South Lake Tahoe. People are encouraged to stop by and share what’s going on in your neighborhood, what you are concerned about, and of course they’re happy to hear good news as well.

It's been almost a year since the 5,400 square foot Alta Mira Building was torn down in South Lake Tahoe in order to provide open space, improve water quality and remove blight.

A new vacation home rental (VHR) ordinance will take effect in South Lake Tahoe on October 1, 2015.

The new ordinance will require all homeowners who want to rent out their homes to get it inspected by the Zoning Administrator prior to being issued a license. Since the real estate community told City Council that not having a permit prior to escrow may cause homeowners to lose sales, the current homeowner may now get it inspected prior to the sale in order to take as much uncertainty away from sales as possible. This inspection will be valid for one year.

The Zephyr Fire Crew no longer has to call the old landfill on Upper Kingsbury Grade's Logging Road Lane as their home. The Tahoe Douglas Fire Department's wildland fire/fuels reduction team was officially welcomed into new digs with an open house this week. The Tahoe Chamber was on hand for the ribbon cutting ceremony, but it wasn't any normal ribbon. Zephyr Fire crew members cut through a wooden ribbon with a chainsaw.

The South Lake Tahoe City Council narrowly approved a new temporary craft show ordinance and increased fee schedule during their meeting on Tuesday.

"Seems like overkill," said Councilwoman JoAnn Conner in her vote against the ordinance. "Its a tremendous amount of work for anyone who wants to come in and do an event and its a tremendous amount of work for staff."

Conner was speaking of the new ordinance which changes the rules for the eight temporary craft shows held annually in the city each year. She and Tom Davis were the two dissenting votes.

The South Lake Tahoe City Council will be discussing changes to the Vacation Home Rental Ordinance on Tuesday that, if passed, will bring about changes to the permit review process, add criteria to be considered when a new permit is issued, and the addition of an annual renewal review.

There have been several packed council and community meetings on the topic of the proposed updated to the Vacation Home Rental (VHR) ordinance, and Tuesday's meeting should be no different.

The South Lake Tahoe City Council once again addressed temporary craft shows on Tuesday, discussing many issues from displays, appearance, juries, and subjective verbiage including "quality," "nice" and "tidy," all of which were all part of the draft city ordinance they were reviewing.

Dealing with craft shows is nothing new for the council, having voted in 2013 to limit the number of shows in city limits to four per site with a maximum of eight per summer season.

Chautauqua performer Juanita Westbrook will present “Elizabeth ‘Bessie’ Coleman: Pioneer Aviator” at the Dangberg Home Ranch Historic Park on Wednesday July 8, at 6:30 pm. The event is open to the public and free to attend.

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Once again, an audience full of mainly Realtors and property managers filled the South Lake Tahoe City Council Chambers as the topic of Vacation Home Rentals (VHR) was on the agenda for discussion.

Renting a vacation home is being increasingly popular in South Lake Tahoe just as in other communities. Many tourists prefer to rent a VHR instead of a traditional motel or hotel room. There are many reasons from enjoying time with family to reunions and wedding parties.

The Lake Tahoe Unified School District will be holding a public hearing Tuesday on how to spend an estimated $2,159,294 in LCAP funding. They want parents to participate in the decision making and have invited everyone to the June 9 School Board meeting to encourage participation.

The Lake Tahoe Unified School District unveiled their new website which will provide schools, staff and the public with more information than has ever been made available on line before.

One can now navigate through the district site and land on each school's web page, visit departments, school programs, accountability report cards as well as community news and resources.

The site can also be translated into ten languages. Users simple select the arrow on the top right side.

The South Lake Tahoe City Council has a full agenda for their Tuesday, June 2 meeting at the airport.

After several public forums, meetings and presentations, the council will be deciding to adopt the Tahoe Valley Area Plan, which is the vision for the area around the "Y" in South Lake Tahoe. The City starting working on the plan in January of 2014, after the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) adopted the Regional Plan update at the end of 2012.

Since 2003 there has been Leadership Lake Tahoe and a few hundred people can now say they've graduated from this worthwhile program. What started as an annual joint venture between the two Chambers of Commerce that served the South Shore is now a biennial leadership experience.

I was a member of Leadership Lake Tahoe in 2006 and I can say that it changed my life.

- Many children go undiagnosed and unidentified; they are penalized for inappropriate behavior though symptomatic.
- 42% of diagnosed students graduate with a high school diploma.
- 48% of diagnosed students drop out of school.
- 50% will serve jail time after leaving school; 20% serve sentences prior to leaving school.
- Currently 12 % of children in America under the age of 18 have a diagnosable
mental illness.
- Among the US population, mental illness impacts 1 in 4 individuals.
- 50% of adult cases of mental illness had signs and symptoms by age 14.

The proposed South Tahoe Public Utility District budget for 2015-16 will be reviewed during a special public budget meeting on May 7, 2015 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The Board of Directors will also be reviewing the ten-year financial and capital improvement plan for the district.

There will be no action taken during the board at this meeting. The proposed budget will be voted on by the Board of Directors at a regular Board Meeting being held on May 21 at 2 p.m. in the District Board Room.

The majority of Tahoe locals and tourists lack knowledge of bear precaution, causing the growing presence of bears in South Lake Tahoe’s residential areas. In recent years, Lake Tahoe’s black bears have become problematic when outside their natural meadow and forest habitat. Because of human habits, bears have become attracted to local neighborhoods. Passing routines down to their cubs, bears remain dependent on the human food source left outside many residents’ homes.