• Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority has a mobile phone app out called Tahoe South. Features include events calendar, outdoor recreation, activities, weather and road conditions, accommodations, businesses direct calling and GPS-enabled mapping that detects current locations to the nearest facilities.

• Caesars Entertainment, which owns Harrah’s and Harveys in Lake Tahoe, rolled out a loyalty rewards program for incentive and meeting planners based on its Total Rewards loyalty program for gaming clients. This is the first program like this in the gaming industry.

• Father-daughter duo Dan Schwartz and Tawny Stanton have joined the Chase International Incline Village real estate office.

• Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort hired Davy Ratchford as director of marketing.

• Anyone interested in the aquatic invasive species forum from April can view the Youtube videos and some presentation PDFs here or visit the Tahoe RCD Youtube channel.

Habitat for Humanity “A Brush with Kindness” is having a volunteer informative meeting May 17 at 6:30pm at Hope Lutheran Church, 930 Julie Lane, South Lake Tahoe.

A Brush with Kindness is a nationwide program serving low-income homeowners to maintain the exterior of their home to include exterior painting, minor repairs, and landscaping.

For more information, call Carolyn at (530) 541.4654 or email sltatahoehabitat@gmail.com for more info.

• Kirkwood’s Mountain Bike Park opens for weekends starting July 2.

• Jeannie Conner is bringing her 20 years of nonprofit leadership from the Silicon Valley to be executive director of the Squaw Valley Institute.

• For information about Placer County’s redistricting plans, go online.

• The North Shore’s reliable, consistent and non-bankrupt bus service showed an 18 percent increase in ridership for the winter season. Tahoe Area Regional Transit is also on the West Shore and Truckee.

• Lake of the Sky Outfitters opened this month on the backside of the Y Factory Stores in South Tahoe.

• Kennedy Wilson sold 15 luxury condominiums for more than $6 million at the Resort at Squaw Creek. More than 100 bidders, with 40 of them online, bid on the condos April 30.

Bert’s Café is hosting a spaghetti night fundraiser for Tahoe Arts Project on May 11 from 5:30-7:30pm.

For $10, guests may enjoy all you can eat spaghetti, Caesar salad and garlic bread. Wine will be served by donation in a TAP logo wine glass for people to keep.

Save room for dessert because there will also be a bake sale.

Board members and volunteers of Tahoe Arts Project will be your servers for the evening.

Purchase tickets in advance at the California and Nevada visitors center, Sessions Salon or from TAP board members. Tickets will also be available at the door.

For more information, call (530) 542.3632.

Tahoe Arts Project is a nonprofit organization that presents professional performing arts in the schools and community of South Lake Tahoe.

• Hot Springs Spas is back at Lake Tahoe with a store between Dart Liquor and Lakeside Inn in Stateline. It’s open Wednesday-Saturday.

• Find out about Kirkwood’s June bike camps at this website.

• Annual Tour of the California Alps — better known as the Death Ride — is July 9 starting in Markleeville. For information about the cycling event, check out this website.

• Hot August Nights: The South Lake Tahoe Experience returns with a celebration of classic cars Aug. 6-9. MontBleu is the home for the classic car event that offers free family fun with automotive exhibits, vendors, ’50s and ’60s-style live entertainment on outdoor stages.

• With the abrupt departure of Sue Niehoff as VP of Business Services at Lake Tahoe Community College, the board is toying with what to do next. At the April 26 meeting it tabled an item that would have expanded the roll of Marc Sabella, director of fiscal services. The president won’t release the separation agreement between the college and Niehoff. The issue is back on the May 10 agenda.

• Here is the Sierra roadwork schedule from Caltrans for May 8-14. And in this is the Tahoe roadwork plan.

Caregiving is a difficult and often challenging role that one can undertake, and taking the opportunity to share information and feel connected to others who are providing care is a vital step to perform this task to the best of your ability.

Take the opportunity May 12 from 5:30-7:30pm, South Lake Tahoe Senior Center, 3050 Highway 50, South Lake Tahoe, to become connected and rejuvenated at a local support group.

Refreshments will be served. Free respite care is available to qualified caregivers.

Pre-authorization is required for respite services.

Call (530) 621.6151 for more information.

Nurses Trusted to Care is this year’s theme as hospitals and health care facilities recognize nurses across the nation for their hard work and dedication during National Nurses Week, May 6-12.

“Modern nurses of today are both men and women of different ethnic groups and portray courage, hope, service and are committed to making a difference in the lives of others,” Mary Bittner, Barton chief nursing officer, said in a statement. “Nurses are by the patient’s bedside most of the time and the patient relies on them [nurses] to be their advocate, caretaker, and sometimes even their confidant.”

Barton Health is recognizing the 150 nurses who devote their time to various areas throughout the health care system. These nurses serve Lake Tahoe, Carson Valley and beyond in areas of emergency and urgent care, ski clinics, family practice, internal medicine, general surgery, pediatrics, medical imaging, rehabilitation, sports medicine and other medical services to name a few.

Mormon Emigrant Trail, once touted as an alternate route while Echo Summit is closed, won’t be an option.

With about 10-feet of snow covering it, according to the U.S. Forest Service, it may not see traffic until mid-June.

The trail goes between Sly Park and Highway 88.

Highway 50 will be closed across Echo Summit starting May 11 for 10-14 days, with about six weeks of controlled traffic after that while the rock wall is replace.

This website describes the alternate routes.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

• There is a blood drive June 6 from 11am-6pm at the South Lake Tahoe branch library.

• Just how much money did Lake Tahoe Community College spend on the Winter Expo, aka rail jam, earlier this year? Lake Tahoe News asked, but months later still hasn’t heard. The spokeswoman said the event is all about providing events for students and the community, even if it means operating at a loss.

• The public is invited to attend the interviews of the four Lake Tahoe Community College president candidates at 9am May 11 and May 12. The board of education will interview them in closed session those afternoons, do a site visit the following week, and ideally have someone hired by the end of the month.

• Marvin Child reeled in a record 36-inch, 15-pound, 15-ounce brown trout at Rubicon Point on the West Shore. He was fishing with guide Mike Nielsen.

• The Tahoe Vista Recreation Area courtesy docks project is complete. This project was funded by a grant from the California Department of Boating and Waterways.

• An intensive summer Spanish academy is being offered in South Lake Tahoe. Check out the flyer for information.

Another main road through the South Shore is about to be torn up.

Starting May 10 Southwest Gas will be installing a 12 inch gas main on Pioneer Trail from the intersection of Al Tahoe Boulevard to the intersection Highway 50 at Stateline.

There will also be work on Park Avenue as well as the intersection of Highway 50 and Heavenly Village Way.

The work will involve open cut trenching as well as horizontal boring. The contractor plans to work east from Al Tahoe toward Stateline.

The work is expected to take all summer.

This project is necessary to relocate utilities for the Caltrans Highway 50 project from Trout Creek to Ski Run Boulevard.

The project will at times cause delays in traffic because of lane closures.