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SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - It has been a long wait. The December, 2020 arrival of a new ladder fire truck for South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue was a journey that began in 2013 when a Ferrara ladder truck has been ordered to the tune of almost $1,050,000. That truck replaced an aging 1982 truck and was paid for by California sales tax funds that are for public safety. As soon as that truck arrived in 2014 though, it was trouble.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - There is a very short window for small businesses to apply for the latest round in COVID-19 relief grants. From December 30 2020 - January 8, 2021, businesses can apply for some of the $475 million that will be made available in two rounds.

El Dorado County, Placer County and Town of Truckee representatives have sent a letter to Airbnb, asking for assistance stopping short-term rentals (STR) during the current Stay at Home Order. They told the vacation rental booking company that their help is needed to stop the spread of COVID-19 and asked them to not allow rentals in Truckee and the California side of Lake Tahoe during the order which is through at least January 1.

Lights, Camera, Action! These three words beginning the filming of any movie and they've been heard quite a bit recently around the Lake Tahoe and the Carson City area. The beautiful scenery the area provides has been the prefect holiday backdrop for romantic Christmas movies this season.

"Feliz NaviDAD," "Dear Christmas," and "Once Upon a Main Street," were all filmed in the area this year, following last year's "Christmas Reservations" and years of Hollywood movie hits.

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Nev. = After consultation with the Douglas County officials, the towns, public safety agencies, and Douglas County Emergency Management it was determined in-person public holiday events in the towns of Gardnerville, Genoa, and Minden have been canceled. This includes the 25th annual Parade of Lights hosted by the Carson Valley Chamber of Commerce. County officials said the action was deemed necessary for the safety of the community, due to the most recent State directive limiting public gatherings to no more than 50 people.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The results from the November 3, 2020 election were certified by the El Dorado County Registrar of Voters Bill O'Neil on Wednesday and the City of South Lake Tahoe will certify the results of local items during a special meeting on Monday, November 30 at 9:00 a.m.

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. - The Board of Supervisors will consider changes to the El Dorado County Vacation Home Rental Ordinance at its November 17 meeting. The 2:00 p.m. time certain public hearing will contain consideration of a cap of 1,050 total permits issued in the unincorporated portion of the Tahoe Basin.

A waiting list would be created for those wanting a VHR permit after the 1,050 number is met. The waiting list request shall become void upon change in ownership.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The El Dorado County Elections Department tabulated another 9,614 ballots on Friday, leaving about 1,000 provisional ballots left to count.

At this time, 115,339 ballots have been counted of the possible 135,554 voters (85.09%).

Cristi Creegan and John Friedrich appear to be the next two South Lake Tahoe City councilmembers. They led the race since the first ballots were counted on election day and came out victorious in the field of ten candidates.

4:00 p.m. UPDATE: There will be no more updates to the El Dorado County ballot count on Wednesday. According to election officials, mail in ballots are being counted but nothing will be updated on their website until tabulations occur Thursday afternoon.

There have been no updates since Tuesday night to the Douglas County election results.

After listening to some TedX speeches and my own observations and common knowledge of science, I have come to understand one of the major problems of renewable energy that I believe will make most of the wind mill and solar panel energy producing processes obsolete within a few years.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - City Council made another attempt to create a Hosted Rental Ordinance but they decided at their meeting Tuesday to hand back to staff for some revisions.

After much discussion they decided to have staff clean up rules that could be potential loopholes for homeowners and/or tenants. This is the second time a first reading has been turned down for more fine tuning.

The following changes were added for Council to review October 20:

(1) Increase the required tenancy for a tenant to qualify as a hosted rental applicant from six months to two years;

Dear Voters: Everyone knows what goes downhill, but the South Tahoe Public Utility District knows how to recycle it into 381,000 kilowatts of electricity per year. A recent feature article by the Association of California Water Agencies pointed out that STPUD is one of only a handful of utility districts in the entire world that can claim 100% reuse of wastewater and bio solids. Here’s how. We use centrifuges instead of the usual pollution causing burners. That allows us to make fertilizer for ranch land.

It's a great thing to call for unity. It sounds good and feels good. But for far too long hollow calls for "working together" have become excuses for bulldozing over the needs of the people who live and work here in favor of the needs of the developers, resorts and casinos.

I chose the locals.

I choose to give a voice to those who are marginalized.

And if this seems like I’m causing trouble, then it is, as John Lewis called it, good trouble.

As a candidate for City Council, in the city of South Lake Tahoe, I became very upset at a very disturbing text I had received on Friday concerning campaign contribution and form 460 lings.

South Tahoe Now reached out to all nine candidates for South Lake Tahoe City Council and provided the same list of questions to each one of them. Once a day their answers will be published in the order received.

Today's candidate is Bruce Grego

Profession: Attorney

How many years in SLT: 53 years

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The City of South Lake Tahoe is continuing the process on the planning, design and construction of the new Community Recreation & Aquatics Center.

For the past several years the City's Parks and Recreation Department has involved the public on the future of its aging recreation center and plans for a new building through community meetings and workshops.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The Tahoe Coalition for the Homeless (TCH) will be receiving $9,576,000 to help their goal of ending homelessness in South Lake Tahoe. The community was one of seven California cities and counties to receive the first wave of Project Homekey grants totaling $76.5 million.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - For years the members of Soroptimist International of South Lake Tahoe (SISLT) have planned for a major legacy project for the community. The club has saved a portion of its fundraising proceeds for over a decade while searching for a major project which suits its mission to empower women and youth. The result of that search broke ground Wednesday - the renovation of the softball field at the South Tahoe Middle School. The socially distant ceremony was held with club members and partners in their endeavor.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - There will be two new members of the South Lake Tahoe City Council after the November 3 election. In the coming weeks the pubic will have chances to hear from the candidates both via zoom, in print and possibly in person. Below are eight of the ten candidates responses to questions asked by the local #IRunWithMaud group.

LAKE TAHOE, Calif./Nev. - In a unified move, all fire agencies around the Lake Tahoe Basin have banned all open burning utilizing wood and charcoal for the remainder of the summer, or longer if needed. This includes campgrounds with fire rings, fire pits at homes and all charcoal barbeques whether at home or at public and private facilities.

The suspension takes effect at 12:00 p.m. on Friday, August 21, 2020 and will be enforced with extinguishment and possible citations and fines.

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. - A small business relief fund has been set up to assist in alleviating debt caused by the pandemic and COVID-10 related issues.

El Dorado County (EDC) has established a $5M Small Business Relief Fund through El Dorado Community Foundation (EDCF) to assist in coordinating the the Small Business Relief Fund with assistance from the El Dorado Hills Chamber of Commerce, El Dorado County Chamber of Commerce, and the Tahoe Chamber.

Incline Village and Crystal Bay property owners will be soon getting refunds from Washoe County after the County Commission approved a settlement of an estimated $56M during their meeting Tuesday. Half of those funds will come from Washoe County and the rest will come from the other beneficiaries of those tax payments - Washoe County School District, North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District, Incline Village Improvement District, and the State of Nevada.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The next meeting of the South Lake Tahoe City Council will be on Tuesday, July 14 starting at 9:00 a.m. It will be a virtual meeting and log on/comment instructions are at the end of the story.

On the agenda:

Council will vote on a measure, that if approved by voters on November 3, will add a local one-cent sales tax for general city purposes. There has been outreach done with local residents and finding out what their highest priorities are, and this proposed tax increase would meet those requests:

The Tahoe Tax-Aide Team has determined that it will not re-open for this tax season. The health and safety of our site staff, volunteers and taxpayers is our top priority, and the decision not to re-open was made with everyone's protection in mind.

AARP Foundation Tax-Aide is offering online options to assist taxpayers affected by the suspension of in-person services:

• A self-prep option, providing free access to software so you can prepare taxes on your own, is available at aarpfoundation.org/taxaide Click on the "Get Help With Tax Prep" link.