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Millions of dollars could be headed to the South Shore if the Douglas County Commissioners vote to increase gas tax by five cents and add an additional 0.25% infrastructure sales tax.

The Countywide Connectivity initiative looks at several projects both at the lake and in the valley that would address safety issues for walkers, cyclists and drivers while creating vibrate business districts that attract investment.

There are eight people vying for the four open positions on the Tahoe Paradise Resort Improvement District (TPRID) Board of Directors, and the public will be able to watch them in action during a candidate's forum on Thursday.

TPRID, formed in 1965, governs Lake Baron and the surrounding park in the Tahoe Paradise neighborhood of Meyers.

In just over one year, America will be selecting a new President along with new senators and local officials. To help make a dent in the number of unregistered citizens across the country, Employee Voter Registration Week was created.

Wildfire and invasive species weren't the only topics of this year's Tahoe Summit. With the theme "Connecting Lake Tahoe’s Environment and Economy Through Innovation and Transportation,” speakers at Monday's event also talked of the importance of improved roadways and access for alternative modes of transportation that will support the anticipated increase in numbers of visitors to Lake Tahoe.

The vendor pairings for the 6th Annual Sample the Sierra have been announced. Approximately 54 local restaurants, wineries, breweries, distilleries, farmers and producers will participate in the one-day farm-to-fork festival on Sunday, September 6 at Bijou Community Park in South Lake Tahoe, CA.

The pairings for this year’s Sample the Sierra are as follows:

· Beach Hut Deli with Loomis Basin Brewing Co.
· Bear Moon Bar & Grill with Auriga Wine Cellars
· Blue Angel Café with Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
· Boathouse on the Pier with Andis Wines

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.

FNCTN and Tahoe Blue Vodka’s Triple Crown of Bartending competitions continue on Sunday, July 26th at Steamers Bar & Grill from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

“The 4th Annual Bloody Mary Competition was well attended and lot of fun. Turn 3 took home the judges choice after a tie-breaker round and Cold Water Brewery was awarded the peoples choice,“ said Matt Levitt of Tahoe Blue Vodka. “I am looking forward to seeing what kind of flair the bartenders are bringing this time around.”

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.

A proposed solar panel project on 260 acres of Park Cattle Company land won approval by the Douglas County Planning Commission in May, but residents opposing the solar farm with its 148,277 panels are fighting back. They are taking their complaints to the July 2 meeting of the Douglas County Commissioners led by local residents Steve and Mary Walker who filed an appeal right after approval of the planning commission.

The Grand Jury investigated several allegations surrounding voter elected El Dorado County Auditor/Controller Joe Harn, including the fact that he lost the county more than $3.5 million due to incomplete paperwork submitted to the State of California.

The Grand Jury also found that Harn is guilty of disrespectful and harassing behavior toward others. One member of the Board of Supervisors told them, "Everybody knows Joe Harn is a bully. They have known it for twenty years.”

An effort by some residents of Olympic Valley to turn the small Sierra Nevada community into a town has attracted notable opposition from Squaw Valley, the ski resort that would provide most of the new municipality’s income.

Have you ever wanted to share your opinion, comments, ideas and other thoughts with the City of South Lake Tahoe? Everyone is now able to speak up on a website with just that name: Speak Up SLT.

Communication is now easier, both for giving and receiving feedback on this forum. SpeakUp SLT will combine the power of social innovation and crowdsourcing with an online forum to prioritize projects and make the best decisions for our community. Citizens can vote on, comment on, and share other citizens’ ideas, as well as their own

There was standing room only at Tuesday's City Council meeting as changes to the current Vacation Home Rental (VHR) ordinance were on the agenda.

Most of the audience was from the real estate and home rental management companies, both of whom felt there would be a lot of loss should a stricter policy be enforced.

Over 1,500 people attended the Tahoe Chamber's annual Business Expo at Harrah's Tahoe on Friday. Hundreds of businesses and dozens of volunteers created an evening that won't soon be forgotten.

The Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce (Tahoe Chamber) Board of Directors named Roberta Mason and Sherm McKissock honorary lifetime members of Tahoe Chamber for their contributions to the South Shore community. Patrick Atherton was awarded an honorary annual membership. Mason, McKissock and Atherton were presented with honorary memberships at the Tahoe Chamber Board of Directors meeting on March 19, 2015.

You will soon be seeing this state of the art, high tech van traveling through the streets of South Lake Tahoe. Equiped with lasers, GPS, digital measuring tools and cameras, the van will be able to record the conditions of the city's infrastructure, thus allowing the gathered data to be evaluated to priorizie all maintenance.

Nationally it is estimated that there are $2 trillion of backlog mainenance to roads and other items in the infrastruce of cities and counties. Locally the number is estimated at $26 million.

The Bijou Bike Park will take a step towards reality on Tuesday if the South Lake Tahoe City Council votes to approve the funding and in-kind services staff is recommending.

Members of the Bijou Bike Park Association (BBPA) presented the original project to the City back in September of 2011, and since then they've been working non-stop in their efforts to create the park. South Lake Tahoe BMX and Tahoe Area Mountain Biking Association have been helping BBPA in their efforts.

Five, six, seven, eight. Dancers will always have numbers in their head as they count out the beat, and those participating in the annual Dancing With the Tahoe Stars are no doubt experiencing just that as they wrap up their final two weeks of rehearsals.

There's an old saying: "Writing about art is like dancing about architecture." After watching rehearsals this week I starting searching for the words to start as I found that translating the movement of the human body into something written down to be a frustrating process.

So instead, I'll focus on those who are participating.

The Lake Tahoe Unified School Board has been without their fifth board member this year, ever since the resignation of Sue Novasel, who is the new County Supervisor. The district has been gathering applications from interested residents from Trustee Area #1 over the past month and five candidates are now up for the position.

It was another packed house meeting on Thursday night for the Tahoe Paradise Resort Improvement District.

The last few meetings have been full of anger, dysfunction, arguing and mis-information. Many came to this board meeting hoping to have answers and a clear understanding of what the future holds for the Tahoe Paradise Park, which the board oversees.

It was clear early on that this meeting was going to be more of the same.

During the City Council meeting on January 20, the new council voted to fill spots on four City Commissions.

There was just one spot filled of the required two for the Airport Land Use Commission. Michael Siracuse was appointed to the two year term. Ted Long had applied for the other position but the Council said he didn't meet the experience requirements. The City will look for a qualified candidate to fill the open spot.

The newly elected South Lake Tahoe City Council members, City Clerk and City Treasurer were all sworn in during Tuesday's council meeting.

Susan Alessi was re-elected in November as clerk and David Olivo was retained his seat as treasurer. Both terms are for four years.

Newcomers Wendy David and Austin Sass both won seats on the council and they joined re-elected Tom Davis in the swearing in ceremony.

Twenty-one days after the election, the final results have now been certified by the El Dorado County elections department.

The closest race was for the three open seats for South Lake Tahoe City Council. The top vote getter was long time local Wendy David who had 18.05 % of the vote with 1727 residents feeling confident she'd represent them well. Coming in second was incumbent Tom Davis who received 1461 votes, or 15.52% of the vote. Austin Sass moved ahead of incumbent Angela Swanson and ended up with 1318 votes to Swanson's 1289, just .31% difference.

In anticipation of the resignation of the county's Clerk/Treasurer Ted Thran, Douglas County is looking for a committee to help find a replacement as well as county residents to fill the position.

Thran resigned in August but was re-elected in November. His second resignation is expected. The term will begin on January 5, 2015.