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SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - School in South Lake Tahoe hasn't been held in-person since March due to the coronavirus pandemic. Lake Tahoe Unified School District (LTUSD) will start the process of getting kids back into the classroom on Monday, October 12.

They will make the shift from Phase 1 to Phase 2 and a hybrid schedule with elementary students attending either Monday and Tuesday (Cohort A) or on Thursday and Friday (Cohort B), all days with a four-hour schedule. The rest of the time will be distance learning.

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and Tahoe Transportation District have released a public draft of the Main Street Management Plan, setting the stage for a major makeover to a 1-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 50 in the Stateline area near Heavenly Village and the casino core.

An 18-member stakeholder working group and multiple public input sessions helped shape the plan over the past two years. The plan outlines how the street would look, feel, and function after U.S. Highway 50 is realigned through the U.S. 50 South Shore Community Revitalization Project.

The US Forest Service has extended its emergency fire restrictions across all National Forest lands in California. This involves all USFS land in the Lake Tahoe Basin on both sides of the state line.

Smoking and all recreational fires, including campfires, bonfires, warming fires, wood fires, charcoal fires, or any other kind of outdoor fires, involving solid fuels are prohibited.

With the ongoing threat of wildfire and a very dry season, the danger of fire remains too high to allow recreational fires.

The South Tahoe Public Utility District (STPUD) is organizing a District Board Candidate Forum for Wednesday, October 14, at 6:00 p.m. in the District Board Room.

The Forum is open to the public and is an opportunity for the community to attend and hear statements from each of the seven candidates running for a seat in November.

Each candidate will give an opening statement, answer questions posed by the audience and then provide a closing statement. The Forum is anticipated to last approximately two hours.

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 Cristi Creegan

Profession: Business Owner

How many years in SLT: 23 years

LAKE TAHOE, Calif./Nev. - Years of planning for the future of transportation around Lake Tahoe has led to the creation of a Regional Transportation Plan. Join the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) on Monday, October 12 during a one-hour webinar on the draft plan starting at noon to learn more (register here).

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) is hosting their fourth annual “Fright at the Fairgrounds” every Friday and Saturday night through the month of October starting Friday October 2.

Fright at the Fairgrounds happens at the Douglas County Fairgrounds located off Pinenut Road in Gardnerville. Tickets are $5.00 for kids and $10.00 for adults.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The City Council will hold its next meeting on Tuesday, October 6 starting at 9:00 a.m. There is a full agenda and the public can participate via eComments before the meeting, phone calls during the meeting, as well as emails.

The agenda includes discussion and possible action on the following items:

Teens 4 Tahoe, an environmental stewardship group formed by six teens in collaboration with the nonprofit Tahoe Fund, will host a free virtual screening of the award-winning documentary Wilder Than Wild: Fire, Forests, and the Future on October 4, 2020 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The virtual event, proposed by the teens living in Tahoe and around the Bay Area, will be the group’s first effort to help educate their peers about wildfire preparedness. It will include viewing of the one-hour long documentary followed by an online Q&A session with Kevin White, the film’s producer.

The Nevada Tobacco Prevention Coalition (NTPC), comprised of collaborating public health and private partner organizations, celebrates MGM’s decision to open the Park MGM and NoMad in Las Vegas smoke-free. In addition to enforcing existing smoke-free policies, NTPC challenges all Nevada casinos to implement new and stronger policies to be completely smoke-free.

The I Run With Maud-South Lake Tahoe group is holding a rally at Lakeview Commons on Sunday, September 27 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. to celebrate free speech, inclusion and diversity.

Organizers said they'd like to see many of our neighbors represented at this fun, safe, family-friendly, peaceful event. They expect to have a variety of local speakers and an event that is "inspiring, uplifting and overwhelmingly positive for the South Lake Tahoe community.

Volunteers to help are also needed.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - All seven of the 96-foot long girders have been placed on US50 at Echo Summit. Over night, ultra-high performance concrete was poured to connect them and now heating blankets are keeping the concrete warm during its curing process.

NEXT STEPS
Concrete barrier rail is planned to be poured starting tomorrow morning.
Asphalt paving on the approaches to the bridge is planned to start this Sunday.

According to Caltrans, the project remains ahead of schedule to reopen by or before Oct. 2.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The Lake Tahoe Unified School District (LTUSD) Board of Trustees will be holding their next meeting on Tuesday, September 22. Closed session begins at 5:00 p.m. and regular session starts at 6:00 p.m.

On the agenda will be discussion about the anticipated move to the next phase of reopening, the hybrid model.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - City Council will be holding their next meeting on Tuesday September 22 at 9:00 a.m.

The agenda is a fairly short one with the last two regular council meetings lasting about eight hours each.

There will be a closed session meeting at 8:30 a.m.

Council will consider postponing or canceling all City permitted special events until November 17, 2020 or until public health officials deem it is safe to gather in larger groups. All permitted special events have been canceled since May 12, 2020, due to the pandemic.

Each year flu causes millions of illnesses, hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations, and tens of thousands of deaths in the United States. While it is unclear what will happen this fall and winter, if there is COVID-19 and
flu at the same time, this could place a tremendous burden on our health care systems and cause many additional illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths. Now more than ever, it’s important that everyone do their part to help prevent the spread of respiratory illnesses, like flu and COVID-19, according to Alpine County Health Officer Dr. Richard Johnson.

September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. During the month of September, the El Dorado County (EDC) Behavioral Health Division encourages the community to “know the signs, find the words, and reach out” to prevent suicide, as well as learn about local suicide prevention resources.

GARDNERVILLE, Nev. – The Town of Gardnerville seeks public input to help shape the future of town owned parks and open spaces. Over the last nine months town staff has been working with Wood Rodgers Inc and the town board to draft a parks and open space master plan. The plan will guide town spending and grant submittals in the upcoming decades to help the town provide unique and desired amenities to encourage and increase resident use of the parks and open spaces.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - When Sandra Santane set out to build a "feel good" place where family moments could be created as well as a place where time could be spent for "me time," Cuppa Tahoe evolved.

"I wanted to create magic and had this idea for a long time," explained Sandra. She grew up in Holland where there were places where people would meet, talk and enjoy, and wanted that in South Lake Tahoe. She also grew up with a love of books that has stayed with her as she lived in Tunisia and now the United States. Books were both her inspiration and her escape.

The Fork Fire west of Lake Tahoe remains at 1,752 acres and is now 34 percent contained. Low pressure off the coast will advance toward the region, bringing an increase in afternoon southwest winds across ridge tops and aligned drainages. Dry conditions will persist with slight cooling.

The front will pass over the area on Friday, driving gusty southwest and west winds with cooler temperatures and higher humidity. Little to no precipitation is expected.

Sierra-at-Tahoe has spent the summer developing new operational procedures regarding COVID-19 for the 2020/21 ski and ride season. They have released their new guidelines for this winter that allow everyone to enjoy the resort while staying safe and socially distant.

:These decisions have been made in compliance with local, state and federal regulations, as well as Sierra’s commitment to the National Ski Area Association’s “Ski Well, Be Well” initiative," said Sierra-at-Tahoe representatives in a press release.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The local community has been showing their love and support for Chris Hogbin and his family. Chris has been diagnosed with Stage 4 Metastatic Melanoma in his neck, lungs, liver, lymph nodes and bones.

He and his wife Sonnet, and their three children "are doing the best they can under the circumstance but things are tough for them right now," said a story on GoFundMe.

The Sierra State Parks Foundation will host a virtual fundraiser that challenges folks to predict the first day of snow, which will run until the actual first day of snow. The first snow event will be determined when it snows one inch at the Pioneer Monument located in Donner Memorial State Park (Truckee, Calif.).

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.

UPDATE 2:30PM 9/9/20: The North Complex Fire more than tripled in size since Tuesday and is now 150,140 acres with 38 percent containment.