At Lake Level aPRIL-mAY 2022 The official newsletter of the City of South Lake Tahoe

It’s back! Now is the time to register to be a part of South Lake Tahoe’s 4th of July Parade.

The 4th of July Parade is back for 2022! After a two-year hiatus, we are thrilled for the return of this hometown celebration. New this year is The Best of the Parade Awards. A judging panel will score all parade entries, and trophies will be awarded for the following categories:

• Best Float Entry
• Best Walking Entry
• Best Youth Entry
• Best Decorated Vehicle(s)
• History and Heritage Award

Individuals, businesses, sports groups, philanthropy groups, schools, and others are all invited to participate.

Float entries are highly encouraged. To sign up, visit https://forms.gle/d2oX7TqHrWG9qpr87.

For more information on the parade logistics, visit https://www.cityofslt.us/875/4th-of-July-Parade.

All entries must be submitted no later than June 10, 2022. Late entries will not be considered. Don't miss out on participating in this family-friendly event!

Proposals being accepted for the Cannabis Revenue Grant Program starting April 15

The City of South Lake Tahoe is accepting applications from April 15- May 15 for funding opportunities from local schools, government agencies, and non-profit organizations with programs or projects designed to mitigate potential impacts of the cannabis industry in South Lake Tahoe and which promote the priorities of the City’s Strategic Plan. The City’s Strategic Priorities are Built Environment, Recreation and Equitable Access, Community for All, Economic Development, and Continuous Improvement, and can be found here: https://www.cityofslt.us/DocumentCenter/View/15828/City-of-SLTStrategic-Plan-web-version

The City grant program will open annually on April 15, and the submittal period will remain open until May 15. Grant amounts will range from $1,000 to $50,000. For program guidelines and eligibility requirements visit: www.cityofslt.us/grantprogram.

For questions, please email us at grantprogram@cityofslt.us.

Parks and Recreation Commission: Special Meeting scheduled for April 20 at 6pm

The South Lake Tahoe Earth Day festival is back

April is Earth Month, and in South Lake Tahoe there are ways to celebrate our beautiful planet all month long.

This year's international Earth Day theme is "Invest in Your Planet." Check out the official Earth Day 2022 Action Toolkit to find out what individual actions you can take to help build a better future for our planet. Remember, these are actions you can take not just on Earth Day, or just in Earth Month, but every day! Commit to making a difference - everyone accounted for and everyone accountable.

On Sunday April 24, come together on the south shore to show how YOU invest in your planet. At Bijou Community Park from 10am-3pm, enjoy local vendors, live music, educational booths, and an interactive eco-kids zone at the South Tahoe Earth Day Festival. To learn more visit: www.southtahoeearthday.org.

You can also join the Tahoe Climate Change Action Network in the annual Climate March on April 24. We will meet up at 9:30am at Lakeview Commons and march to the festival to demonstrate our community’s passion for climate action. For more information go to https://bit.ly/3vkWmW0. 

Sunday isn't the only time you can show how you invest in your planet - thanks to our partnership with Take Care Tahoe, you can celebrate all week. From Mother Nature Monday to Send it Sustainability Saturday, check out what you can do for a different theme each day of the Earth Week Challenge to participate. For more details, go to www.southtahoeearthday.org.

Let's celebrate Earth Day every day!

Next Beer with the Mayor will focus on Sustainability

Recreation Swim has started back-up for the season

Recreation Swim

Spring is in the air and it’s time to have some fun! Grab your flip flops, shades, and dust off that bathing suit, Recreation Swim is back! Recreation Swim is open swimming for all ages and will be available during the scheduled times below. All participants must pass a swim test or wear a coast guard approved life jacket. Life jackets are available at no additional fee. All children under 12-years of age must be accompanied by an adult.

Wednesday Night Swim & Gym

Get out of work and get your work out on! The Recreation and Swim Complex will be open from 6pm – 8pm every Wednesday night in April. The pool will be available for Lap Swim and Recreation Swim. The Recreation Complex is available for drop-in access to the gymnasium including pickleball and basketball. The weight room, scheduled classes, meeting rooms, and ping pong will also be available. We are excited to announce additional operating hours and scheduled activities beginning in April. Register at https://cslt.sportssignup.com/ or call the front desk at 530-542-6056.

Masters Swim

Swim into fitness! The Master Swim program is tailored to those looking to improve fitness, work on swim technique, train for competitions, or simply meet like-minded swim enthusiasts. The program is open to ages 18 and up. For additional information about the program call (530) 542-6056 or email the Coach Derek Beller, USMS Certified Coach directly at DBeller@cityofslt.us.

Master Swim Schedule/Program Details:

• April 5 – 28 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 6:30-7:30am
• $60 for the 12-week session or $10 drop-in rate for one class. All fees include pool use and coaching.

Want more? Your recreation services team is hard at work recruiting, hiring, training, and scheduling to bring you as many services and amenities as possible. We are a small but mighty team here to serve the South Lake Tahoe Community. We are working to expand offerings and will notify you as soon as new programs and facility hours are available.

A message from Police Chief David Stevenson

South Lake Tahoe Police Stepping up Distracted Driving and DUI enforcement

The South Lake Tahoe Police Department is conducting special traffic enforcement details April-June specifically looking for distracted drivers using hand-held cell phones and/or people driving under the influence. This extra enforcement was made possible by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety – Selective Traffic Enforcement Program Grant (STEP Grant). All residents and visitors are strongly encouraged to limit distractions when driving and never drive under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.

Police Department 2021 Annual Report

The Police Department presented their 2021 Annual Report to City Council on March 15. A huge thank you to everyone at the Police Department who helped get the report ready. Also, a special thank you to our community for your support in 2021 especially throughout this challenging year. To view the Annual report go to the following link: https://www.cityofslt.us/DocumentCenter/View/16809/PD-Annual-Report-2021-3322

All in on Sustainability!

In December 2021, our City Council took action in response to recent climate reports by passing a resolution aspiring to achieve 100 percent carbon-free renewable energy, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, community-wide by 2030. We have a long way to go to achieve both the interim municipal goals and the community-wide goals, but we have a new Sustainability Coordinator to keep us moving forward. Sara Letton started with the City in late February to help us achieve a community vision of sustainable energy, waste, and transportation systems. Although Sara only recently joined the team, there has certainly been progress in the sustainability realm to celebrate during this Climate Awareness Month. Here are a few project updates:

Solar Projects

The City completed the installation of a photovoltaic system on the airport hangar buildings in 2020. Since then, the greenhouse gasses avoided is equivalent of having taken 101 cars off the road, or avoided burning 52,742 gallons of gasoline. With recent increases in electricity rates, the City is seeing more savings than anticipated when they signed the power purchase agreement over two years ago. What a great deal!

As a matter of fact, there are multiple solar projects in the works right now that will advance our renewable electricity goal while saving money. The City’s public works yard will be getting carports with solar panels and batteries. This will not only provide electricity for City operations and Tahoe Transportation District facilities and their EV buses, but will provide significant protection from the sun’s damaging rays and will allow for quicker deployment of snow removal equipment during storms.

Building Code Changes Coming

Anyone who is following the climate conversation closely knows that we have an infrastructure challenge ahead of us. The building sector contributes over half of our emissions and we need to bring that down to zero as fast as possible to align with local, state and international goals. In particular, the City is currently working to draft ‘reach codes.’ These are building codes that ‘reach’ beyond the bare minimum of efficiency standards. This is becoming common in the state of California, with dozens of municipalities engaging in various ways. The City is considering what new construction reach codes might look like and has hired a consultant to help us determine what codes would be a good fit up here. Keep an eye out for announcements inviting you to stakeholder meetings! For more information, go to https://www.cityofslt.us/DocumentCenter/View/16299/Reach-Codes-Brochure.

Trash Ordinance Change

Our local bears have been feasting on too much human garbage recently, and that brings up a lot of conversation in this community about how we manage trash. But, it’s even bigger than that. The state of California has implemented SB1383 mandating a hefty organic waste diversion requirement from California communities. Our locally owned and operated South Tahoe Refuse is known for always going above and beyond the state-mandated minimums for diverting organics and recycling from our landfills, but this new legislation really raises the bar. The City and STR will be engaging in a new outreach and education effort to see how we can divert more residential and commercial food waste from our landfills.

Did you know that food waste, green waste, paper, and cardboard account for a third of landfill material? And the methane that it produces when it breaks down is 84 times more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, over a twenty-year period? Thank goodness STR already has a residential food waste collection program–you can dump your bucket of kitchen waste there every Wednesday and they will compost it all! If you don’t want to take the trouble to do that, try to put as much as you can down your garbage disposal–every bit of that is composted. And, if you are unable to do that, then we all ask you to minimize tempting the bears with your smelly trash. A new local ordinance requires that you do not put your trash out to the curb before 6am on your pickup day, and always in a covered approved can. To learn more go to the following link: https://southtahoerefuse.com/.

Sustainability for all

Transportation, land use, building energy, and waste are all addressed in the City’s Climate Action Plan, adopted by City Council in 2020. All the projects mentioned here help us achieve the actions recommended in the Plan. We encourage you to take a look through the Plan and let us know if you have creative ideas for helping us achieve or lofty goals together. To view the Climate Action Plan, go to the following link: https://www.cityofslt.us/1126/Sustainability. If you have further questions, you can also reach out to Sara Letton at sletton@cityofslt.us or 530-542-6175.

Tahoe Valley Stormwater and Greenbelt Improvement Project (phase 1) anticipated to begin early june

What is being done in phase 1 of the project?

Phase one of the project work consists of stormwater collection, conveyance (transport, stormwater runoff), and treatment for the protection of Lake Tahoe and improvement of community drainage. All proposed collection and conveyance improvements are located within the City rights-of-way. Water Quality treatment facilities are located within property owned by the California Tahoe Conservancy (CTC). Access to the Conservancy property to construct, operate, and maintain water treatment basins is permitted through a license agreement with the CTC.

What type of improvements will be seen from this project?

Stormwater improvements within Phase 1 include three water quality treatment basins and a water quality treatment swale (watercourse, drainageway). The stormwater collection and conveyance system will intercept historically problematic stormwater flowing through residential neighborhoods in the Bonanza area. The new storm drain system will reduce flooding within the natural and development impaired drainageways in the Upper Region project area. Stormwater will be routed through a series of stormwater treatment basins before eventually flowing into the Upper Truckee River.

Construction of Phase 1 is expected to be complete by mid-October 2022.

Where is the project taking place?

The Tahoe Valley Stormwater and Greenbelt Improvement Project (Project) is located in the westerly portion of the City of South Lake Tahoe near the intersection of U.S. Highway 50 and State Route 89 (AKA “The Y”). The overall Project area is divided into two construction phases. Phase 1 of the Project is scheduled for construction in 2022. Phase 2 is scheduled for construction in 2023.

The overall Project area extends between west F Street down to Tahoe Keys Blvd. Three distinct geographic areas can be defined within the overall project as follows:

Phase One:

1. Upper Region - located between west F Street and Emerald Bay Road
2. Lower Region - located between Lake Tahoe Blvd and Tahoe Keys Blvd.

Phase Two:

1. Central Region - located between Emerald Bay Road and Lake Tahoe Blvd

To learn more about this project and the phase 2, go to the following link: https://www.cityofslt.us/827/Tahoe-Valley-Stormwater-and-Greenbelt-Im

Holiday Closures for the City of South Lake Tahoe

The City of South Lake Tahoe’s Administrative Offices will be closed on Monday, May 30 in observance of Memorial Day.

The following municipal offices and services will be closed:

• The City Manager’s Office, City Attorney’s Office, Human Resources, and the Finance Front Counter, all located at City Hall, 1901 Lisa Maloff Way.

• Development Services, 1052 Tata Ln.

• Public Works Administrative Offices, 1740 D St.

• Front counter/records of the Police Department

The following offices will operate with no schedule changes:

• City Airport, South Lake Fire Rescue, South Lake Tahoe Police Department, and dispatch will continue regular operations. Contact 911 for emergencies.