Snippets about Lake Tahoe
• South Tahoe Public Utility District has a rebate plan for commercial customers. Call (530) 543.6268 for a free commercial water-use review. Rates for sewer customers are going up 3 percent July 1.
• Leadership Lake Tahoe is looking for participants. Applications are due June 17. For more information, call (775) 588.1728.
• Barton Hospice is looking for volunteers at the lake and in the valley. Call (530) 543.5605 for information.
• Apricot Lane has moved from the Y in South Lake Tahoe to Heavenly Village.
• On May 24 at 7pm in Camp Richardson’s lodge, the Lake Tahoe Historical Society will present a “first person” account of the Pony Express at Tahoe. Specialist Kim Copel and historian Frank Tortorich will relate stories of this short lived, but exciting endeavor. The event is free.
• Here is Caltrans’ schedule for Sierra roadwork for the next week.
Can you imagine that!
I can see STPUD Board member Eric Shafer voting for a 3% rate increase, it’s something he has always believed in and even freshman Board member Chris Cefalu, but Board President Dale Rise?
Board President Rise has always maintained that he represents and votes for the average resident and the working man?
Board member Mosbacher who voted with Board member Jones against the 3% rate
increase, could not in good conscience vote for the increase when so many in our community are in financial distress.
Kudos to Ms Mosbacher and Mr Jones.
Where is the hard charging common man’s champion we elected to keep rates low and represent the average rate payers view on the Board?
Politics and power change all but the very strongest in character. And I doubt any of those people who voted for the increase really care about much beyond their own positions.
Unbelievable! They really have no conscience over there, or they’re terrible at running a business. They are one of the best funded businesses in town, and they still say they can’t stay afloat. Time to give someone else a chance ;)
This is where your votes count.
As John said:
Kudos to Ms Mosbacher and Mr Jones.
Vote the rest of them out next time.
Jones wanted more of an increase, he should be voted out.
Good point, Lou. I was unable to attend and the print media did not make this apparent.
On the metering issue;
(outcome of the last “community meeting”)
How sad that THE TWO, MORE EQUITABLE AND AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVES were discussed; were appreciated by those attending and representing the community, and then disregarded by the board. What a farse! Nice try STPUD…pretend to care, be a team player, hear your “employer’s” voices, clap, and then just continue the same, shameless, easy agenda. Shame on you…STPUD board.
Again, take the lower road. “It is easier to anger the few, to quell the masses”…hopefully, nothing will come of it. Really?
Exactly as I called it prior to the vote. Mary Lou did not want an increase but Mr. Jones wanted and has always wanted a 12% increase. Mr. Jones started talking about this at the last meeting after everyone had left and only news persons were there to witness the petty exchange between Mr. Jones and Mr. Rise, imagine that. As far as the water meters go Mary Lou has her own well, Mr. Jones lives in the Keys and out of STPUD’s influence, Mr. Shaefer does not have a meter, Mr. Rise does not have a meter and Mr. Cefalu actually has a meter. This will fall off the radar soon due to apathy by the voters as not enough attend or call the board to voice their complaint and the board does not care one iota either as long as they get to attend all their conferences (Mr. Jones and Mr. Shaefer) There is also a lack of information being put out as the public is treated like mushrooms with the truth. All one has to do is look beyond the sugar coated “meetings” and the real reasons for the increases. The STPUD board is not a major focus now or ever has been as the TRPA, City, County and LTVA hog all the headlines and scrutiny from the various newsites, I commend them for their anonimity and lack of community sense.
As far as to how much the increase will be in the metered rate we will have to wait until we get our bill in the fall for the summer as they are are a quarter system.Everytime I bring this up and my bill has actually gone down I am told “see!!, I told you it would go down”. If my bill goes down by approx $30.00 for three quarters and my summer rate is tripled as discussed at the meeting I just lost all my savingsand my landscaping as I will let my yard go back to dirt. We will just have to wait and see next fall but I have a feeling it won’t be pretty and won’t matter either.
Another group with the bigger/box mentality. I miss the quirky and successful place that was South Lake Tahoe. A place where locals shared our town (not expected to kowtow to the ‘rich’ visitor).
Ski Bum, interesting how most of the people on the board do not have STPUD water and therefore don’t have to live with their rates.
If you have to live in the city of SLT to run or vote for council members and issues, I think STPUD board members should be within their district in order to be elected also. It only makes sense.
actually board members have to live in the district and each open position is seat specific but not area specific. They do not have open seats for election as you have to run against a specific person rather than a general election. They only installed about 1300 meters and they have over 30,000 connections so it was the luck of the draw if you got one. The district is considered everyone who has a sewer connection and not neccessarily a STPUD water connection.
All board members have sewer service from STPUD. STPUD has apx. 16,000 sewer conections and 12,000 water. The 4000 apx. differance is because of lukins, tahoe keys and lakeside park water districts and private wells. The cost to provide water storage, to put out fires, makes up apx. 40% of your bill. The Keys can provide the necessary flow to put out fires the rest need STPUD water because they don’t have any or little storage. So those 4000 customers should be paying for that storage. It would be apx. 40% of STPUD water bill. These facts will not be well received by those 4000 and the other 12,000 don’t care enough to change it.
So Lou just wondernig if you know what the actual fire flows are that are needed. I would also like to know how much of STPUD area water customers truely meet those flows. All of these agencies are in the business of potable water for domestic use. I know for a fact that many areas STPUD serve do not meet these flows. Yes Lukins, Lakeside, and the Keys do not have the storage or capacity that STPUD does. Now with the new building codes requiring sprinklers in all new homes and major remodels is it really necessary to upgrade the utilities to fire code standards? This is just food for thought. Also there will be millions spent of these upgrades and can our fire department even bring enough personell to a structure to even fight the fire. Seems something could be worked out to better the fire departemtn and also better the utilities. We can have all the water in the world but with no firefighters its a waste. Same is conversly true you can have all the fire fighters in the world but without water the fire still burns. I hope for the sake of the community everyone works together and comes up with some logical soultions to a basin wide problem. And yes i see the cost of water in south shore going up and up and up. We are talking about major projects and we as the customer have to foot the bills.
Robert, almost all of the costs associated with infrastructure and new projects come from grants from the state and govt. STPUD cannot use any of the grant money for other items such as benefits and wages for the employees. Only money from rate increases can be used for increases in wages, cola matches and health benefits. In order to get the grant money STPUD has to show they are conserving and in need of improvements, this holds true for money borrowed. In order for STPUD to maintain their benefits they have to raise rates. A certain % of our new rate increases are going directly to the employees. I suggest if anyone so desires to learn the truth about where the money goes to call the board members and have them explain it to you or us. I have to tell you that you have to be very very specific with your questions as they will twist a yes or no answer into a dissertation and eventually you will forget the question. If they televised the meetings like they televise the City Council meetings they would be out of business. This televising was requested by Mr. Rise last year and has not been heard from since as the employees, mangmnt and other board members squashed it. They are a public agency yet they act like a private one. No one goes to the meetings anyway and if they do they are ignored in the long run, just ask the last members of our community who went. Lou hit the nail on the head “These facts will not be well received by those 4000 and the other 12,000 don’t care enough to change it.”
So this kind of makes sense now. All the upgrades are payed for by grants with STPUD, but the private businesses probably cannot get those grants. So it is a perfect form for the governement agencies to far outperform the private businesses, i.e Lukins, Lakeside, and numerous other private water purveyors aroound Lake Tahoe. Put in regulations that are totally unfeasable for the private and then the public will take them over. Sounds like a great plan to get rid of the private businesses. Just think of how many of these same situations are taking place all over the country.
Sprinklers are required outside of city limits if the flow in the street is less than 1000 cfs or your more than a number of feet from a hydrant. I don’t think the city requires hydrants yet.
New california fire code is sprinklers in all new construction and some limit in regards to remodels. As i understand doesnt matter how close to a hydrant you are. This becomes very costly in rural areas where you would have your own well.
As of Jan 1 it has become a requirement for all new construction.
So much for affordable housing.
It’s repealable, cuz it could be illegal, and the code can be changed.
It’s a Republic of California thing.
I wish someone had the numbers to show how many total loss house fires were in the south shore in the last 30 years. The mulitmillions of dollars we will spend in utility upgrades and the cost of new construction will never be equal to any savings of property or insurance premiums. These laws will never go away we will forever be burdened with these cost. These are some of the exact reason families and businesses are fleeing California at record paces. From what i understand in the rural areas where you are on your own well water, this new code bumps up the construction cost around $50,000.00.
So grants for meters are gone, the state is upside down. So perhaps stpud customers should pay for their meters as owners of home upgrades, remodels, or new construction have had to do for the last few years. Reality check stpud, and slt! Share the burden, be fair, be equitable. Democracy please.
John and Kenny are pretty spot on. As I ran for the STPUD board at the same time as both John and Ken, I also tried to imform the public about the metering situation and the impact it would have on those with and without meters. My biggest concern was how they would fix rates on base usage vs. metered. We all stressed that grant monies were for infrastructure improvements, that the annual rate increases were basically to cover salaries, benefits, etc. So many didn’t either chose or care to listen. I also agree that the meetings NEED to be a live feed like the city meetings. I also listened to the lame excuses put forth as to why it wouldn’t be financially solvent to do so, that most people wouldn’t listen, blah, blah, blah. They do NOT want to have their meetings accessible to those of us who must work and can’t as a general rule attend. When it was election year, the Board agreed that no salary increase would take place. Wow now there is a no brainer. However, I was personally told by a Board member, that it was also said in meeting (closed session) “However, we need to address salary increases in January.” So let me get this straight in my mind. Elections are in November, so let’s look good as incumbents, but once the dust settles, elect to up rates and give yet more raises. Status Quo at STPUD.
If you meet the storage requirements, 15,000 gal. sprinklers might not be required, so put in a swiming pool indoors.
i believe that number you are speaking of is what the storage requirement is for a rural sprinkler system along with back up pump system, back up power generation system, etc
It’s hard to know all the regs. but we do know about a lack common sence.
Is El Dorado county rural?
Yes. The Board of Supervisors for El Dorado County have deemed Meyers “a rural area of the county”. This ruling was a couple of years ago and was opposed by Ms. Santiago.