Letter: Remembering Tahoe’s past

To the community,

When I was the first elected city clerk at South Lake Tahoe years ago, Marjorie Springmeyer was one of my best friends. Thank you for the notifying me of her passing. The article by Kathryn Reed is absolutely true. Marjorie was a brilliant woman with a kind and gentle heart who was a victim of local political decisions.

Marjorie was also the canary in the mine. She knew that former city manager’s poor advice encouraged many of the major financial and environmental problems for South Lake Tahoe over the years. It was City Manager Richard Milbrought who believed and stated, “The city is just a second hand rose and we can’t afford to build a new City Hall” even on donated land — and so it became accepted.

It was City Manager Gary Chase who pushed so hard for creating an artificial park at what had been a pristine beach in Al Tahoe — to be named Regan Beach which many think is for President Reagan, not for the local bank executive — by dumping dirt onto it and creating a swell of green water around it to this day.

The Al Tahoe Campground would have been a failed convention center today but for local activists Mr. and Mrs. Barney Mossbacher who fought the city to save it for local use.

And whose idea was it for the current environmental disaster massive hole in the ground at Stateline that sits as silent testimony to another failed political decision?

I was indeed heartened to read that the current city manager has suggested a review of current city policies — an excellent idea. Marjorie would have been very pleased to know of that, I’m sure.

Sincerely,

Evelyn Roberson, former city clerk of South Lake Tahoe