vacation

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - 499 volunteers hit the beaches of Lake Tahoe Thursday as part of the annual July 5 Beach Cleanup crew. Each year, volunteers hit the beaches to pick up trash left over by holiday revelers.

This year they removed 1,458 pounds of litter from five beaches: Commons Beach in Tahoe City, Kings Beach, Kiva Beach, Nevada Beach and Regan Beach in South Lake Tahoe. Not only did they comb the six miles of beach, but they also sorted and counted the items collected.

For the second time this week, a group gathering signatures to get initiatives on November's ballot has failed to get past the first phase of signature validation.

On Friday, the El Dorado County Elections Department said the group attempting to grandfather in the existing medical marijuana dispensary in South Lake Tahoe and allow them to sell adult use marijuana failed the first count of a sample 500 signatures.

The Tahoe Wellness Cooperative at 3445 Lake Tahoe Boulevard is the only medical marijuana dispensary in the City limits.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CALIF. - El Dorado County Sheriff's Office responds to calls throughout the county. The following are calls that only pertain to the South Shore. There may be some missing calls due to sheriff's logs not being completed at time of story.

Some of those recently added to last week's log:

6/13

10:27 a.m. - Search and Rescue - Echo Summit - RESCUE FOR INJURED 56-YEAR-OLD FEMALE HORSEBACK RIDER AND HORSE.

Concern over national attention on "South Lake Tahoe being the home of the $2,000 parking ticket" may soon be a thing of the past after action initiated by City Council Tuesday.

Fines will be restructured and modified, lessening fines per occurrence of many of the violations of the vacation home rental (VHRs) ordinance. Some of the fines will be against the home owner only, while others to the renter only.

There are some “innocent” VHR owners caught in the crossfire between neighborhood residents and other VHR owners and tenants who have not observed simple and reasonable rules set forth by the city. I encourage you not to throw the baby out with the bath water and eliminate all VHR’s in residential neighborhoods.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CALIF. - El Dorado County Sheriff's Office responds to calls throughout the county. The following are calls that only pertain to the South Shore. There may be some missing calls due to sheriff's logs not being completed at time of story.

Some of those recently added to last week's log:

5/30

There will be a series of five public meetings in Douglas County to discuss proposed code amendment changes to their Vacation Home Rental Ordinance. In the old code, vacation home rentals (VHRs) were only allowed in the Tahoe Township (lake portion of the county), but the proposed changes will include VHRs in all areas.

Other proposed changes in the ordinance include:

All VHRs must have a contact person in Douglas County and the property manager must be licensed by the State of Nevada Division of Real Estate.
Unpermitted homes will be fined $500 per day up to $10,000.

Both sides of the South Lake Tahoe vacation rental ballot measures will be speaking in a forum setting at the SLT Senior Center on Saturday, June 9 from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Peggy Bourland, Ken Weitzman and Dianne Rees will be speaking for the Anti-VHR measure, while Mark Salmon, Jerry Williams and Steve Teshara will be speaking for the pro-regulation, pro-VHR measure.

Also being discussed will be housing, employment and jobs implications of either measure with representatives from various businesses, employers and housing.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CALIF. - El Dorado County Sheriff's Office responds to calls throughout the county. The following are calls that only pertain to the South Shore. There may be some missing calls due to sheriff's logs not being completed at time of story.

Some of those recently added to last week's log:

5/23

8:00 a.m. - Assist Other Agency - Johnson Blvd - SLT PD DETECTIVES REQUESTED ASSISTANCE WITH ARREST OF 29-YEAR-OLD MALE.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — “Permanent Vacation II: Eighteen Writers on Work and Life in Our National Parks” will launch June 13 at 7:00 p.m. in the Aspen Room at Lake Tahoe Community College. The second volume of this popular collection features writers from national parks all over the country, including locales like Cape Cod and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

The event is free and open to the public.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CALIF. - El Dorado County Sheriff's Office responds to calls throughout the county. The following are calls that only pertain to the South Shore. There may be some missing calls due to sheriff's logs not being completed at time of story.

Some of those recently added to last week's log:

5/17

4:10 a.m. - Coroner's Case - South Lake Tahoe - 29-YEAR-OLD MALE DECEASED.

5/19

Dear Editor,

I don’t typically endorse political candidates, but with the serious issues facing El Dorado County and the need for good leadership in our Supervisor, I’m going to break my own rule in support of Jeffrey Spencer.

While Jeffrey Spencer’s name is not as well known around town as the other candidates, Jeffrey and his family have ties to our community that go back decades. He purchased his home ten years ago with plans to retire here, and has lived here full time for five years. His two sons have attended the Middle School and South Tahoe High.

Two South Lake Tahoe community groups have submitted petitions to get their vacation home rental (VHR) initiatives on the November, 2018 ballot. The first group, Tahoe Neighborhoods Group, submitted 1,651 signatures to the City Clerk on April 30, and the second group, Sustainable Community Alliance, turned in 1,827 signatures on May 21, less than 30 days after they started collecting them.

The South Lake Tahoe Police Department (SLTPD) held the annual awards ceremony Thursday, honoring the retirement of K9 Tara, the promotion of Jeff Roberson to Sergeant, awards for bravery and for service.

The celebration was started with the National Anthem sung by South Tahoe High School senior Caroline Krolicki and a presentation of the colors by the department's Honor Guard.

The transition to summer brings new opportunities and once again South Lake Tahoe will be front and center a national stage in more ways than one.

There are four people running for El Dorado County Supervisor for the 5th District on June 5: Incumbent Sue Novasel and challengers Kenny Curtzwiler, Norma Santiago and Jeffrey Spencer. The 5th District covers Pollock Pines to South Lake Tahoe and Tahoma.

South Tahoe Now asked each candidate the same questions, and here are all of their answers, exactly as they were presented to us.

Sue Novasel
Occupation: El Dorado County Supervisor – District V
Past political history:
2015 – Present: County Supervisor, District V

The Amgen Tour of California is just a week away, and since both the women's and men's races come through South Lake Tahoe this year, many cyclists can be seen training on area roads.

On Wednesday, four members of the United Heath Care (UNC) cycling team joined local comedian and radio personality Howie Nave on a bike ride to Round Hill Pines.

Howie participates in the annual America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride around Lake Tahoe, so he can ride, and the ladies of Amgen today treated him kindly on the roads, not leaving him in the dust as he joked about.

The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors ad hoc committee for an update to the vacation home rental ordinance will meet again on Wednesday, May 9 at 5:30 p.m. at the Lake Tahoe Environmental Magnet School in Meyers

The focus for this meeting will be a noise policy and enforcement.

This follows last week's ordinance meeting held in South Lake Tahoe where six points of the ordinance were voted on: http://southtahoenow.com/story/05/02/2018/new-updates-county-vhr-ordinance-could-be-place-july.

The last few attempts to have a special El Dorado County Board of Supervisors meeting on vacation home rentals (VHRs) have been met by bad weather and an overcrowded venue. The VHR meeting is now scheduled for Wednesday, May 2 at 6:00 p.m. in the South Tahoe Middle School multi-purpose room.

A revised VHR ordinance is the only item on the agenda.

The Board is looking at eight revisions to the current Ordinance:

1) Restructure the violation and penalty provisions;
2) Clarify the language throughout the Ordinance;
3) Require exterior signage;

We can always count on either Supervisors Novasel or Ranalli starting off each VHR public meeting discussing VHR’s with the reminder that VHR’s are an allowed use for single family dwellings under TRPA’s land use Ordinances. They have attempted to make us believe the word of God (TRPA) has set this in stone, and that we should all now work together to allow these nuisance businesses to coexist in our neighborhoods.

South Lake Tahoe Mayor Wendy David is holding her monthly "Let's Have a Conversation" on Wednesday, April 25 from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. at the Senior Center.

This month's topic will be retail sales of cannabis in the city limits.

The first monthly conversation proved to be very popular, prompting the mayor to move the community event to the Senior Center. That meeting also didn't have a focus, just general community topics. The focus the past two conversations have been vacation home rentals, and the building/permitting process.

The "South Lake Tahoe Vacation Home Rentals Restrictions Initiative" may be added to the ballot in November should proponents get enough signatures to put it there.

Created by the Sustainable Community Alliance (SCA), a group in South Lake Tahoe, the initiative is giving voters another chance to voice their opinion about vacation home rentals (VHRs) and should be on the ballot along with another initiative that wants to ban VHRs.

Tuesday, April 17 will be the next South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting, starting at 9:00 a.m. in the council chambers at the airport.

A cannabis ordinance will once again be discussed during the meeting. Micro-businesses, on-site consumption, permit costs, taxes, and number of licensees will be a few of the points they will discuss as an ordinance is developed.

The Council will also be voting on steps to replace the City Attorney and City Manager.

Weather has not be the best friend of those wanting to get a revised vacation home rental (VHR) ordinance for El Dorado County. Snow and unsafe travel conditions for staff driving to South Lake Tahoe from Placerville for the meetings lead to the cancellation of the March 3 and March 24 meetings, and the original February 1 meeting had to be stopped due to overcrowding. The next Board of Supervisors meeting on VHRs will be in South Lake Tahoe on May 2 at 6:00 p.m. in the South Tahoe Middle School multi-purpose room.