Mural in works to spruce up convention center site

By Kathryn Reed

This week work will begin on an 8-foot-high mural that will be erected in front of the foreclosed convention center project in South Lake Tahoe.

Normally Scott Blumenthal and his team from Dreams & Visions Art Company would do the mural onsite. However, with the fence being so close to the edge of Highway 50, the painting is being done elsewhere.

A mural will be put up in front of the fence near Stateline by March 1. Photo/Kathryn Reed

The plan is for the 600-foot-long piece of artwork to be assembled by March 1. Along Stateline Avenue, the first side street drivers see coming from Nevada into California, will have a bit of a face-lift as well. It will have a mural saying, “Welcome to South Lake Tahoe, America’s Year-Round Playground.”

The city is paying $10,000 for the South Lake Tahoe company to do the work. (The business relocated to South Tahoe from Long Beach last year.) City employees will be responsible for putting it into place.

“Hopefully, it will make people smile. It will be a definite improvement,” Blumenthal said.

He said the background will be scenery – with things like the lake and mountains. The foreground will be images of all things related to recreation that people can do in town – hiking, biking, skiing, fishing, horseback riding and more. It will also depict animals that are native to the area.

“The theme is the four seasons of South Lake Tahoe,” explained Gene Palazzo, South Lake Tahoe Redevelopment Agency director. It’s his budget from where the money is coming from to do the project.

He credits City Manager Tony O’Rourke for the idea of the mural. Blumenthal was one of two bids on the project.

The mural will go in front of the current fence.

The city is still looking into constructing a walkway in front of the 11-acre site. Bids for that project have not gone out.