By Kathryn Reed

Righteous, ridiculous, right-on, responsible. Plenty of people have a special way of defining the R in Measure R. The board that on Wednesday voted to put it on the November ballot believes R stands for recreation.

The R is replacing Measure S – which stood for sports when South Shore voters approved it in 2000.

Youths play on the soccer field built with Measure S money. Photo/Kathryn Reed

The problem with Measure S is that the money collected — $18 from single-family residences until 2030 – was never going be enough to build all the things outlined in it. It calls for an ice rink, three ball fields and maintenance of bike trails built after 2000.

The ice rink is in, a soccer field by Lake Tahoe Community College is done and the few miles of bike trails that have been built have money for future maintenance.

The other issue with Measure S is a land’s capability assessment was not done. Even if there were money to build fields, the land doesn’t exist to do so.

Proponents say Measure S is being tweaked to better address today’s needs. That means using money to upgrade established ball fields, and improving bike trails developed pre-2000.

Opponents say the measure is taking the growing pot of money for bike trail maintenance and diverting it to ball fields. Some of these people would like the measure written so all bike trails could use the money – with no money for ball field maintenance per the original language of Measure S.

Fifteen people gave heartfelt, emotional and factual testimony – some twice – during the 2½-hour meeting July 13 of the joint powers authority board at Lake Tahoe Community College.

The board had spent 150 minutes meeting July 1 as well.

Apparently, that’s how long it takes for these three to essentially vote on one item. While most boards don’t spend the public’s time tirelessly going over typos in a document, this one does.

El Dorado County Supervisor Norma Santiago, South Lake Tahoe City Councilman Hal Cole and Tahoe Paradise Park board member Deborah Henderson make up the JPA board.

The substantive changes made to the resolution that had been in circulation include:

• Eliminating specific dates regarding when the ball field or bike entities get money via R.

• Having the ball field and bike advisory committees that will be appointed by the JPA board, if R passes, be made up of three to seven individuals.

This is the Measure R resolution the board adopted. This is what will appear in ballot documents. Eleven years ago the full resolution of S was not in the ballot document, though it did exist and is known as Resolution 06.

The JPA board will meet July 29 at 9am at Lake Tahoe Airport to work out language for the ballot argument. This is the board’s annual meeting as well. Criteria for the advisory commissions will be discussed, too.

Pro and con statements for the ballot must be submitted to the county election’s department by Aug. 1. This is why the board has a meeting set for Aug. 10 in case it wants to submit a rebuttal by the Aug. 11 deadline if anyone opposes the measure.

To be on the email list regarding Measure R, send an email to rkupton@aol.com asking to be added.

The board also at one of the next two meetings could decide to not go forward with Measure R. The overriding reason not to go forward would be the cost of the election. While the board has allocated $35,000 for the election, that amount could go up depending on what other entities are on the ballot. People can start pulling papers July 18 for offices in El Dorado County.