SLT creating welcome center at airport
By Kathryn Reed
What does the lobby of Lake Tahoe Airport, aka South Lake Tahoe City Hall, say?
The answer, according to Councilmembers Wendy David, Austin Sass and Hal Cole, is that it’s shabby and there is so much potential. They voted Tuesday to spend hundreds of thousands dollars to renovate the space and transform it into a welcoming venue for locals and tourists. After all, the main offices for the city of South Lake Tahoe are expected to be located there for the unforeseeable future.
Councilmembers Tom Davis and JoAnn Conner are all for spending the money to upgrade the infrastructure and make it comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. However, neither wants to do more than the minimum.
The council on a 3-2 vote agreed to pay more than $600,000 to renovate the facility, with the goal of having it completed by the end of September. About half of the money is for needed upgrades like plumbing, electrical, heating and air conditioning. The other half is “extras” to create a visitors center of sorts, as well as upgrade council chambers and the lower lobby area.
It is not possible to divide the work into “necessary” and “extra” because that would most likely require going out to bid again. Plus, some of the improvements are intertwined.
Much of the money to do so comes from Barton Health having bought coverage from the city. The banked asset comes from the airport so the money has to be spent at that facility.
Lake Tahoe Airport’s lobby doubles as the entrance to South Lake Tahoe’s city offices. Photo/LTN file
Signs will be placed on Highway 50 directing people to the visitors center.
The city has already talked to Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority about helping with what should be included in the display. It won’t be a staffed facility. It will, though, be interactive. For those wanting to talk to someone, there is the receptionist for the city and phone lines will go directly to the LTVA.
With the restaurant at the airport being overhauled, it may also become more of a destination for locals. The new owners have already said the stack of brochures for tourist-type business will no longer be in there.
One of the major sticking points for Davis and Conner is the gas fireplace that will be installed. Plus, they don’t think this is the best use of city dollars. Conner also advocated for moving City Hall someplace closer to the heart of town so it would be easier to get to. However, she didn’t have any ideas for where the millions of dollars to do this would come from.
Davis has never supported the renovation idea.
Cole believes the upgrades will be beneficial no matter what the use of the facility is in the future, and that they are long overdue. Plus, he believes the design will be a showcase of alpine architecture with wood and rock that the electeds say they want others to incorporate when doing any future construction.
At the June 21 meeting the contract was awarded to DML Construction. The firm plans to use six local subcontractors.
In other action:
· The council unanimously agreed to make the next franchise agreement with Southwest Gas be 10 years. And the electeds want all future franchise agreements to be 10 years. Some have been for 30 or 50 years.
· The council at a future meeting will be discussing the rental car surcharge imposed by Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. This was implemented when the airport had commercial air service.
Good idea. That stretch of highway could use a public restroom.
Hail Marjorie RIP
These are the people that were voted in. One does not like the idea but does not have a better one, the others don’t mind spending all the money for an airport that is seldom used and may be closed in the future. Why take over a vacant restaurant on HWY 50 or a empty shop where the outlets used to be. Who is going to stop and use this place since all the information a visitor needs to know they can get on their phone. Total waste of taxpayers money.
Could some of those $$ be spent to upgrade the video & audio equipment so we can actually watch the meetings from home?
I love the idea that it takes $ 600,000 to provide a bathroom at a facility that has had bathrooms since it was built in the late 1950’s. It is obvious that the ADA reason listed is a distortion, the building was completely renovated prior to the City moving into the facility. One must assume that the facility complied with ADA requirements at that time, or the inspection and planning process failed.
The reasons given for the remodel do not match facts. They are simply calling it something other than what it really is, continuing a long-standing tradition with City spending. Enjoy those potholes because they are going to be with us a long time.
The ‘City of SLT has been abusing the public trust ever since it was incorporated in 1965. This city should be rolling in the dough!
‘They’ have kept the locals turnover here so high that an actual real local taxpayer voter base has not been here to vote and the few that ‘run’ things have had their way for 50 years.
The City literally stole the property donated for the City Hall from Marjorie Springmyer’s family and now an ex city employee owns the restaurant at the airport and the city council is living large out there?
RIGHT’S RIGHT
WRONG’S WRONG
THAT’S THAT
I always find it humorous to hear some long-time locals criticizing the actions and decisions of the very people that they in fact were responsible for electing to office in past decades. SLT’s roads do need rebuilding, sidewalks and streetlights do need constructing along with adequate stormwater collection systems, better paying jobs do need creating, and affordable housing is needed, but it’s been that way for a very long, long, time and the individuals that SLT’s voting populace elected to the City Councils of 20-years ago, 30-years ago, and 40 and longer years ago didn’t plan for the future and they didn’t contemplate nor make adequate provisions for those situations. Individuals wanting to know why this community has deteriorated need look no further than those decades ago elected decision-makers who were voted into office by the historical voting populace of SLT.
Hail to all you young-minded people who want to make your community better, are willing to work and pay for that, and don’t expect someone to just give you everything for free.
WTP–Work Toward Prosperity.