By Kathryn Reed

California’s budget mess had employees at Lahontan Water Quality Control Board scrambling to figure out a way to keep the lights on.

With rent not being paid on the South Lake Tahoe office on Lake Tahoe Boulevard, it also meant the electric bill was not getting paid. These checks are cut in Sacramento and the state isn’t writing checks because it doesn’t have a budget for the fiscal year that began July 1.

NV Energy had threatened to shut off power beginning Sept. 27. The landlord stepped in, paid the bill and Lahontan workers will keep working – except, of course, on the second, third and fourth Fridays of the month because of the state-imposed furlough days.

Contingency plans were being made for some Lahontan workers to squeeze into the annex building on James Street if the lights went out at the main office.