supervisors

With tree mortality issues so prevalent in the Sierra, the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors today launched a Tree Removal Grant Program for low-income seniors.

“The tree mortality issues in our county remain very serious. We’re just happy to have this program available to assist private homeowners, especially our seniors with limited income, who have no other means to remove dead or dying trees from threatening damage to their homes,” said District IV Supervisor, Michael Ranalli.

There will be three presentations at the next El Dorado County Board of Supervisors meeting on June 20 that pertain to fiscal year 2017-18 budget. They are required to approve it by June 30 each year.

"Every year, the County’s Chief Administrator provides a Recommended Budget to the Board of Supervisors for their consideration," said Chief Administrative Officer, Don Ashton. "It is but one step along the path to having an Adopted Budget approved by the Board in September.”

Presentations are scheduled as follows:

9:00 a.m. – Senior Legal Services
10:00 a.m. – Road Work Plan

With an increase of $4.5 million to CalPers in 2018, changes to some social service programs, the impact of prison realignment, a "challenging" budget for El Dorado County is now available for public review. It is going to the Board of Supervisors (BOS) as well and they will have future meetings on the subject.

There was one thing all speakers during Wednesday evening's Town Hall on recreational cannabis agreed on: People need to get involved, educate themselves and share their opinions with their elected leaders at local, county and state levels.

A panel of six people spoke to the crowd of almost 100 people (and another 300 who were viewing online) during the Tahoe Regional Young Professionals (TRYP) fourth Town Hall meeting in South Lake Tahoe.

Judi McCallum, the longtime El Dorado County employee who served as the assistant to the District 5 Board of Supervisors for 26 years, has shared her official resignation letter with South Tahoe Now.

On March 20, McCallum reached out with a personal letter to friends and the employees of the County as she began her first day of retirement. Here is her resignation letter:

March 27, 2017
El Dorado County Human Resources and Board of Supervisors

For the past 26 years, Judi McCallum has been keeping the El Dorado County Supervisors from Lake Tahoe organized, on schedule, and connected to those they serve.

"I have had such a great run as a Supervisor's Assistant at the County of El Dorado Board of Supervisors doing exactly what I love most, helping people," McCallum told South Tahoe Now during her first hour of retirement.

Since 1991 she has worked for four District V Supervisors, with 18 elected Supervisors down the hallway, more than 10 Chief Administrators or Interims, and 1,600 "amazing" county employees.

The following is Mayor Austin Sass's monthly letter to the community:

Do you know an outstanding older adult or a married couple 60-years or older who have performed exemplary work in El Dorado County as a volunteer? Consider nominating them for the Senior of the Year Award.

The annual “Senior of the Year” award will be presented by the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors on May 16, 2017, at the Board of Supervisors Chambers, 330 Fair Lane, Placerville, hosted by the El Dorado County Area Agency on Aging and the Commission on Aging.

It has taken 14 crew members working 12-hour shifts for the last eight days to keep the 259 miles of roads in the City of South Lake Tahoe cleared after 5.13 inches of rain and about four feet of snow hit the south shore.

A single plow of each street has been completed in the City limits, and crews will start working on widening the streets and plowing bike paths Saturday morning.

Former El Dorado County Supervisor and long time South Lake Tahoe resident William "Bill" Van Dyke Johnson passed away on December 19,2016 in South Lake Tahoe.

Bill was born at the J-Lazy-J Ranch on Mottsville Lane in Gardnerville on March 21, 1931 and was a member of Gardnerville High School class of 1949. He served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War for two years.

After the war, Bill attended hotel and restaurant management school in San Francisco, Calif. On Aug. 29, 1953, he married Felice Muldoon in South Lake Tahoe and they had three children: Ross, Kent and Curtis.

Should El Dorado County receive a $57.1 million loan from United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) to replace their aging public safety facility/Sheriff's office in Placerville? The Board of Supervisors (BOS) will make a decision on this at a special meeting on Tuesday, December 28 at 10:00 a.m.

Just after 7 a.m. on a recent Sunday, bumper-to-bumper traffic lined North Lake Boulevard in Kings Beach, a regular weekend sight in the community of about 4,000 people on Lake Tahoe’s north shore. While snow attracted the visitors on this weekend, just as many people show up in the summer to enjoy beaches and trails.

Approval of two major projects in recent months has heightened concerns about growth on the north shore, and it’s against this backdrop that Placer County supervisors will consider this week how development should occur in their corner of the Tahoe Basin.

Legal action against the approved Martis Valley West project was taken in court Thursday as three groups, Sierra Watch, Mountain Area Preservation and the League to Save Lake Tahoe, joined forces to stop the controversial development proposal they feel threatens Lake Tahoe's clarity.

A former member of both the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors and California State Assembly has been named the interim director of the El Dorado County Community Development Agency.

At the BOS meeting Tuesday, Roger Niello was appointed to fill the spot vacated when Steve Pedretti left the position for Placer County.

Niello begins his job November 2.

Before he went into public service, Niello managed the Niello Auto Group for
25 years until 1999.

A prime piece of real estate in Tahoe City that was originally built in 1957 for housing during the 1960 Olympics has never lived up to its potential, and is now proposed for destruction to make way for a 118-room hotel.

Sold at the end of 2013, the property known as the Hendrickson Building located at the west end of Tahoe City at 255 North Lake Blvd. is being transformed into the Tahoe City Lodge.

Two hot topics for locals were discussed during a Caltrans informational meeting at the Lake Tahoe Airport on Thursday evening: A roundabout and viaduct replacement.

The 3-legged Roundabout

Citing the safety of the intersection of Highway 50 and 89 in Meyers as the catalyst, project managers, engineers and planners unveiled their plans for a three-legged roundabout at the intersection to the dozens of interested citizens who attended.

$825,000 is headed to El Dorado County for help in removing trees dying from the extreme drought and related bark beetle infestations.

With an estimated 66 million dead trees in the state of California, Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency almost one year ago.

To get a look at the properties the County owns, and to get a look at services and programs going on in South Lake Tahoe, the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors (BOS) met on the South Shore last week for tours and discussions.

The County owned properties in SLT were highlighted during a morning tour. Each of the properties, the Senior Center, the Museum, the Art League building and the Visitor's Authority building, are owned by the County and maintained by the City.

The Placer County Supervisors today approved one portion of the controversial Martis Valley Project on 1,052 acres adjacent to the Northstar California Resort, west of State Route 267.

Known at Martis Valley West, the project will add residential and commercial uses while permanently preserving 6,376-acres known as the East Parcel. Even though the acres will be preserved, 760 units and 6.6 acres of commercial area previously approved for the East via the Martis Valley Community Plan will be transferred to the West Parcel.

The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors has appointed Patricia Charles-Heathers as the new director of the Health and Human Services Agency.

During their meeting on August 16, 2016, they approved her appointment to take over the agency once headed by the County's current Chief Administrative Officer, Donald Ashton. They had been without a person in the top spot since his promotion in May.

Charles-Heathers has worked for the El Dorado County Health and Human Services Agency for over four years during which time she served as their assistant director.

South Shore ambulance service has been a hot topic both locally, and across the county with growing concern over the costs and resulting manpower shortage of providing interfacility transfers (IFTs) to facilities outside of El Dorado County.

To understand the recent actions of the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors (BOS), a look at the past year is warranted.

The City of South Lake Tahoe Wants Out of the Ambulance Business

“Last night’s vote by the Placer County Planning Commission to reject the proposed development at Martis Valley West is great news for all who love Lake Tahoe," said Darcie Goodman Collins, PhD, executive director of the League to Save Lake Tahoe.

The Placer County Planning Commission has voted to recommend denial of the Martis Valley West Parcel Specific Plan and the certification of the project environmental impact report.

With the recent vote count on Measure E in El Dorado County still too close to call, the County's Capital Improvement Program and Traffic Impact Mitigation Fee Update have been put on hold.

The County Supervisors had been tentatively scheduled to adopt the two in August, but will now wait until questions raised by the Measure are resolved.

Don Ashton, the El Dorado County Director of Health & Human Services, was appointed Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) during the Board of Supervisor's meeting in Placerville Tuesday.

When Sue Novasel, the South Shore representative on the Board of Supervisors was asked why Ashton was chosen, she said his 23 years of experience in the public sector is extensive, and he'll know how to take the county to the next level.