By Kathryn Reed

The ski pole as we know it today came to the market 50 years ago this winter after Ed Scott saw the need for a lighter pole with a smaller basket.

Steel was replaced with aluminum and the baskets used on kids’ poles became the standard size for adults.

In the 1960s, most racers were using Scott poles. But other manufacturers came along, using the same technology, and captured some of those athletes because the companies were willing to pay skiers to use their poles. Scott wanted nothing to do with that.

Before Scott’s invention, poles were said to be like using a golf club or steel croquet mallet. As skiers became faster, the steel poles were making it more cumbersome to plant in time before turning. It took great arm and upper body strength, and balance just to use poles.

Scott, who was from Sun Valley, Idaho, died in 1999 at 85.

Today, stores and slopes are filled with Scott poles — as well as others. For many recreational skiers not much thought is put into what pole they use.

“These were the ones on sale,” said Alan Asari of San Ramon of his DuraFlex poles while riding a chairlift at Heavenly Mountain Resort. “I hardly use them. They are a nuisance.”

Poles mostly range in price for $35-$120 for recreational use, and can be much more for racing poles.

“Poles are a personal preference. You can give me a rental pole and I don’t care,” said Adam Ruscitto, customer service rep for Porters Sports Lake Tahoe in Tahoe City. “The grip is probably one of the more important things people look for.”

Mark Martini of Menlo Park was using Scott poles at Heavenly, saying he likes the flexibility of the pole.

Sports Ltd. in South Lake Tahoe carries a slew of Scott poles.

“They have a pole for every condition,” salesman John Whisnant said of Scott. “The biggest advancement is the new material — carbon composites. It’s not as stiff and jarring on the wrist as an aluminum pole would be.”

By Kathryn Reed

Water might be something people in the Lake Tahoe area take for granted considering the amount of snow that falls each winter and the big lake that’s out there.

But predictions are that by 2030 two-thirds of the world will lack access to clean drinking water.

Even though 75 percent of the world is covered in water, only 1 percent is drinkable.

These and other startling facts come from the move “Tapped,” which was shown Thursday night to an audience of nearly 50 at Lake Tahoe Community College. It was sponsored by the college’s Geology Club and provided by Tahoe Water Suppliers Association.

Before and after the movie people could test their taste buds by trying three unmarked sources of water. One was bottled, one was from South Tahoe Public Utility District which gets its water from wells, and the other was from Incline Village which gets its water from Lake Tahoe.

The movie shows how the bottled water industry is unregulated. Groundwater is regulated by each state. The Food and Drug Administration was made out to look super foolish in the movie, with its half person devoted to bottle water issues and its reliance on industry reports regarding what’s in the bottles of water instead of using independent studies.

In 2007, it was an $11.5 billion dollar industry. Pepsi, Coke and Nestle are three of the biggest companies to bottle water. Part of the reason they got into water is because soda sales were declining. Now their ads are all about the benefits of drinking water, with subtle implications tap water is unsafe.

The movie said 80 million bottles of water are consumed in the United States each year. As water becomes a commodity, moral issues come into play. The debate becomes are water rights private or public?

People are paying big bucks for water at stores. One gallon ranges from more than $1 to $8, where as tap costs one-tenth of 1 cent. Much of the cost of bottled water is the plastic container its in.

The movie showed the negative affects of companies tapping into community water supplies.

The movie also delved into the hazards of these bottles made with petroleum products. Not only are the areas near the plants prone to having an abundance of residents with health issues, but the bottles also can be dangerous to drink from.

That was another troubling thing about the movie – learning some of the chemicals that have been found in bottled water and there being little or no oversight of the industry.

On top of that, the litter issue was also talked about and how recycling isn’t working when only half of the people in the United States have curbside recycling.

The movie will be shown on March 31 at 6pm for free at the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center, Sierra Nevada College Campus, 291 Country Club Drive, Incline Village.

For more information about the movie, click here.

By Kathryn Reed

STATELINE — Sometimes the line between work and play is hard to delineate for Terri Marceron.

As supervisor of the 153,000 acres that encompass the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit of the U.S. Forest Service, she is responsible for more acreage than any other entity in the basin. As an avid hiker, equestrian and boater, she likes to experience the area beyond reading report after report at her desk in South Lake Tahoe.

Marceron wove a tale of her experience packing into the wilderness with friends for more than a week last year and how that relates to life on the job. The hard work, the hours involved, the beauty, compromise, overcoming challenges, setting goals and sense of accomplishment at the end of the day are part of life on the job and in the outdoors.

Terri Marceron

“I have a spiritual connection to the land,” Marceron said.

She started working for the Forest Service in 1988, coming to Tahoe in 2005.

On Wednesday she was the guest speaker at Soroptimist International of South Lake Tahoe’s lunch meeting at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe.

“One challenge in the basin is to get consensus. It doesn’t happen here in a lot of cases,” Marceron said.

She believes the process is as important as the product, but she also believes being decisive is a critical component of her job.

“I love change. A lot of people in my agency don’t,” she said.

Policies often change within the U.S. Forest Service each time a new president takes office.

With all of the regulatory bodies in the basin, Marceron’s job is not just about the land.

“My world is more political than any other forest,” she said.

When a U.S. senator calls, she picks up the phone. She is also held accountable to the regional office in Vallejo and the folks in Washington.

Questions from the audience were about the old Meyers Landfill and Angora Fire restoration.

To the former, she said the cap for old El Dorado County dump will be in place this summer or in 2011. She added Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care will not move there because the use is not compatible.

In regards to work on the 3,000 acres that burned in 2007, most of which was Forest Service land, Marceron said public comment will be sought soon on the next stage of restoration.

Part of the plan deals with tree removal around urban lots, trail work, restoration to Angora Creek, work on Seneca Pond, removing noxious weeks and improving aspen stands. Not all sections of the burn area will be touched.

“I love the work we do. I believe in my agency’s mission,” Marceron said.

By Kathryn Reed

“This was really an important day for Lake Tahoe,” Joanne Marchetta said after Wednesday;s Senate committee hearing regarding the reauthorization of the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act.

As executive director of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, Marchetta was one of three people from Lake Tahoe at the hearing in Washington. The others were Julie Regan with TRPA and Patrick Wright, executive director of the California Tahoe Conservancy.

Wright, with input from the TRPA folks, addressed the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, which is chaired by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.

Joanne Marchetta

Click here to read his testimony.

“What we are trying to do is raise the profile of Tahoe to stand up there among all other watershed restoration projects,” Marchetta told Lake Tahoe News in a phone interview from Washington. “It’s all based on building state, federal, local and private partnerships. We made that point. We have strong partnerships in Tahoe and we are going to build on that. We can show results.”

The lake’s other senators — Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev. — all spoke in favor of the bill that would bring $415 million to the lake over eight years for invasive species, lake clarity, fuels reduction and erosion control projects.

“Another way to think about this is it is in fact a jobs bill,” Marchetta said. “Our community in Tahoe is suffering from the recession like the rest of the nation. This money means we can infuse dollars back into the local economy, to put people back to work. These are jobs for the construction and restoration folks, people who want to work on road projects, engineers and designers.”

Lake Tahoe was one of five watersheds in the country asking the committee for its blessing during the nearly three-hour hearing.

None of the other regions had the show of force that Lake Tahoe did on Wednesday.

“All of the questions were about accountability. We are already out ahead of the pack on accountability and we will only strengthen those programs,” Marchetta said. “We hope to leverage more monitoring money out of this authorization.”

Having 10 years worth of science to show the senators seemed to go a long way. The first Lake Tahoe Restoration Act was passed in 2000 after then-President Bill Clinton in 1997 launched what is now the annual Lake Tahoe Environmental Summit.

Feinstein told her colleagues how in 1997 the clarity of Lake Tahoe was to a depth of 64 feet, and it’s at nearly 70 feet now. In 1968, it was 102 feet.

She rattled off numbers like the 300 projects that were completed in the last decade with the $1.4 billion public-private partnership at the lake, the 739 acres of wetlands that have been restored, the acres of fuel reduction and habitat restoration, and the efforts to reduce fine sediment from reaching the lake.

Dianne Feinstein

“Much work has been done, but much work lies ahead,” Feinstein told the panel.

Just like when she spoke at last summer’s summit, Feinstein reiterated the need to continue thinning the forest to avoid another catastrophic fire like the 2007 Angora Fire, and putting money toward the potentially devastating quagga muscles and other invasive species.

“We have 10 years of science that tells us exactly where our highest priority projects are. That bodes well for convincing people Tahoe is the right place to spend money,” Marchetta said.

Ensign expressed satisfaction that projects have not been based on personal wish lists, but instead on the science.

“Lake Tahoe is a national treasure and it needs national attention,” he said.

Other people testifying on Wednesday were Peter Silva, assistant administrator for water with the EPA; Harris Sherman, undersecretary for Natural Resource and Environment; David Dicks, with Puget Sound Partnership; Pete Grannis with New York Department of Environmental Conservation; Debrah Marriott with Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership; David Naftzger with the Council of Great Lakes Governors; John Tauzel with New York Farm Bureau; and David Ullrich of Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiatives.

Invasive species is a threat to all of the bodies of water. The threat of wildfire, especially in relation to water quality, set Lake Tahoe apart. The other entities also don’t have the extensive private-public partnership like Tahoe does.

The committee will vote on the bill. Assuming it passes, it goes to the full House. The House authorizes expenditures, so it may mean more lobbying in Washington by Lake Tahoe officials to convince lawmakers to spend the money. Funds aren’t likely to be allocated until fiscal year 2012.

“We think we have a really good shot to get this bill passed,” Regan said. “We have strong bipartisan support. Our clarity is showing a more stabilizing trend. That is a really good story to tell.”

By Kathryn Reed

Things are beginning to sizzle at Chase’s Bar and Grill inside Lake Tahoe Airport and it has nothing to do with what’s being prepared in the kitchen.

Owner Sam Sonki Ahn believes the city of South Lake Tahoe, as his landlord, is not acting in good faith in negotiating a new lease. He is accusing the city of negotiating a lease with a potential buyer of the restaurant.

City Attorney Patrick Enright acknowledges the city is in talks with Tom and Diane Miller.

Sam Sonki Ahn discusses his lease with South Lake Tahoe to operate Chase’s restaurant. Photo/Kathryn Reed

“They won’t buy it without a lease. We are talking to the potential buyers about what the lease would be,” Enright said.

The Millers, who used to own Steamers Bar and Grill in South Lake Tahoe, could not be reached for comment. They were at the Jan. 26 City Council meeting and spoke briefly before the council went into closed session to discuss the lease.

The direction from the council was for the city attorney’s office to negotiate a more coherent lease with someone.

“What we want is a viable restaurant there. Now no one frequents it. The new owners have new marketing ideas and would market it more aggressively. They want to change the menu and be open more hours,” Enright told Lake Tahoe News.

What has Ahn frustrated is that he says the Millers are not talking to him directly about the sale of the restaurant and are instead making a deal with the city that will run him out of business. He believes the city, as the landlord, should have no say in the sale of a private business.

Enright agrees the actual sale should be between the Millers and Ahn. However, even Enright is calling the Millers the new owners, but the current owner says he has not negotiated any deal with anyone for the sale of Chase’s.

Ahn said he has been trying to negotiate a long-term lease with the city, like he has had in the past, but the city since November will only keep it month-to-month.

Ahn took over the restaurant about five years ago from Mike Weber. Ahn said he paid $78,728.17, plus $8,000 for inventory to Weber.

He said he is willing to sell the restaurant for $49,000.

“I also bought the equipments and more fixtures. I invested about $150,000 total,” Ahn said.

But what he owns and what the city thinks it owns are in dispute.

“The current lease is confusing and vague as to who owns what. What we are willing to do is pay a nominal amount and city would own it and there would be no issue in the future,” Enright said. “The city is only negotiating to resolve the dispute as to who owns what.”

The city has offered Ahn $5,000 for the fixtures, bar, lights and everything in the commercial kitchen.

Ahn contends about two-thirds of the items in the nearly 3,000-square-foot restaurant belong to him — including the counter, water faucets, bar area and other objects.

Enright and Ahn agree the liquor license belongs to Ahn. It is in the name of the restaurant and cannot be transferred off the site.

Ahn pays the city $552 in rent each month, plus 5 percent of gross revenue.

The city wants the restaurant to be a bigger moneymaker — to be a place locals visit as well as those on business at the airport, and to possibly be a place where service clubs would meet.

By Kathryn Reed

Until these Winter Olympics close on Feb. 28, the true greenness of them won’t be known. Green as in environment, not the cash collected.

The goal from the outset of the Vancouver Olympic Committee was to make the 2010 Games the greenest to date. (London has already said it will out-do Vancouver when it hosts the 2012 Summer Olympics.)

An early goal was to offset 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide the Games were forecast to produce. Officials say 110,000 tons of carbon dioxide would be direct emissions, while two-thirds of the total would be from air travel.

Part of the off-set comes by building venues in clusters so transportation needs are cutback; expansion of public transit; hydro power replaced some diesel generators; and energy from ice refrigeration plants and the heat put off from them at places like the Whistler Sliding Centre being harvested to be turned into renewable energy.

Twenty hydrogen buses are traveling along the Sea to Sky Highway that goes from Vancouver to Whistler.

Critics say Olympics can’t really be sustainable because of the transportation issues as well as the billions of dollars in construction that is required.

Vancouver Olympic Committee officials did not return multiple calls.

Coke is doing its part to make the Games sustainable. Photo/Kathryn Reed

To reach sustainability goals it has taken the cooperation of government, corporations and the public.

Coca-Cola, a major sponsor of the Olympics, is all about recycling. The company said its goal is to have a minimum of 95 percent of the waste during the 17-days of the Olympics be diverted from landfills.

In addition, 100 percent of plastic, single-serve beverage bottles and other recyclables are being taken to a recycling center near Vancouver.

At the Richmond Oval, which is just outside of Vancouver and is the speed skating venue, rainwater is collected to be reused for irrigation and plumbing.

Richmond Oval Photo/Provided

When the Nordic venue just outside of Whistler was established, trees needed to be cut down. More than 30,000 cubic yards of wood waste was left. The material was chipped, then an organic compound was added to it and all of it was placed in plastic bags. When it’s ripe the material will be spread out to help revegetation occur.

Eight sports venues and two athletes’ villages were shooting for at least silver designation in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Two have hit gold. But in today’s construction world, LEED silver is becoming the norm and is no longer an anomaly.

Methane gas from an old landfill near Whistler is being captured and turned into a heat source.

Software company Pulse Energy partnered with utility firm BC Hydro to track energy consumption at nine Olympic venues.

For more information about sustainability efforts at the Vancouver Olympics, click here.

By Kathryn Reed

In today’s world of instant gratification, global trade and I’ll eat what I want no matter the season attitude, some folks in Lake Tahoe and beyond are putting an end to all of that.

Community Sponsored Agriculture (CSA) is a growing movement.

Loading boxes for the Great Basin Basket CSA. Photos/Provided

Small farms in California and Nevada are growing produce for the consumer, not the grocery store or some middleman distributor. This means the farmer is making more money, too.

It’s good for the farmers because they know their goods will make it to a table at a set price before the harvest. It’s good for the consumer because they are getting food straight from the farm and what is in season.

“You get what grows here and what grows well, and what should be the diet of somebody who lives here,” said Ann Louhela, coordinator for the Great Basin Basket CSA, which is based in Fallon. “If you hate beets, beets are still going to be there.”

Participants of CSA pay for weekly deliveries of produce. Boxes may have close to a dozen items. Prices and sizes of boxes vary, but can be as low as $21/week. Supplements for fruit can be added through some CSAs. In some cases, a supplement of tomatoes can be added or wheat grass or some other specialty.

In larger communities like the Bay Area, boxes arrive at an individual’s house.

For the Great Basin Basket, South Shore participants are still being gathered so a drop-off can be local instead of someone needing to bring it up from the Carson Valley.

Natural Trading Company, a CSA whose farm is in Penryn off Interstate 80, has drop-offs in Incline Village, Kings Beach, Tahoe City, Truckee and three locations on the South Shore.

Melanie Greene of South Lake Tahoe has been a member of the Natural Trading Company CSA for a handful of years.

“You are eating with the season. That is something people have to get used to,” Greene said. “You are eating more nutritious food. It makes you eat more creatively. I have great dinner parties.”

She finds the shipments less expensive than buying organic produce at the grocery store. Plus, it’s driven a shorter distance than the average 1,500 miles produce travels from farm to kitchen.

Great Basin Basket workers.

With the large bounty that arrives, friends often share a box.

Each CSA is different — it depends what grows in the area where it’s located. The variety also depends on the number of farms involved in the cooperative. With Great Basin, Lattin Farms is the primary supplier of produce, but a number of other farms are also part of it. This contrasts with Natural Trading Company, which has the loan farm run by Bryan Kaminsky and Caren Hamilton and their 12-year-old daughter.

Some CSAs allow participants to request to opt out of a certain vegetable. Others say give it to a neighbor.

Most participants say it’s like unwrapping a present each week because they don’t know what’s inside.

Both of these CSAs identify what the produce is if it might not be commonly known, sometimes offer tips how to cook it and provide full recipes on occasion.

Most CSA participants aren’t familiar with everything that shows up each week. But that’s also a nice thing because a CSA can provide things a grocery may opt not to supply.

Kohlrabi and some of the squash were new to Greene.

Nicole Zaborsky, who helps coordinate the South Shore effort for Natural Trading Company, said mizuna, a Japanese green had her scrambling to figure out what to do with it.

Zaborsky said meeting the farmers who grow her food has been an incredible experience.

“It is picked the day before so you can’t beat that,” Zaborsky said. “They started doing poultry this past fall, which was phenomenal. We got our Thanksgiving turkey through them.”

Roommates Shana Gross and Taylor Farnum have been members of both these CSAs.

As a vegetarian, Gross likes Great Basin a bit more because of the variety that comes from the ability to tap into multiple farms. Great Basin also extends its season farther into the fall.

The thing about CSAs is that it’s hard to join one once the season has begun. Deliveries often start in April and run through early fall.

Most of the CSA participants are fans of farmers markets. But some find it difficult to leave work to shop there or they use the farmers market to fill in any gaps the box may have left.

For more information about Natural Trading Company, click here. For Great Basin Basket information, click here.

By Kathryn Reed

What would you take in an emergency? Who would you call? Where would you meet? What happens if all your contacts are on your computer and it’s not with you or your cell phone doesn’t work or the battery dies?

Those are just some of the questions the “Emergency Preparedness Guide” makes people think about.

The South Lake Tahoe Emergency Management Community Council created the free 32-page document. The council is a mix of emergency responders from El Dorado, Douglas and Alpine counties.

“We talked about it before the (2007) Angora Fire. The fire gave us the drive to get it done,” Darcie Carpenter, chairwoman of the council who is also the director of Emergency Management and Infection Control for Barton HealthCare System, said of the guide. “We wrote it so the material would not be outdated tomorrow.”

She does hope it could be updated every five years to make sure things are current. Former El Dorado County Sheriff Jeff Neves’ introductory page outdates it because he is no longer in office.

A slew of people were involved in the project. Experts in a particular field were responsible for suggesting what to do in an emergency. For example, it was school officials helping to write about what happens in an emergency if school is in session. It was South Tahoe Public Utility District talking about the precautions to take before tragedy strikes in regards to water issues.

It’s not a generic guide, but it’s not too detailed either to be something people wouldn’t read or do when it comes to the checklists.

“The risks here are specific to Tahoe,” Carpenter said.

Wildland fires, floods, air quality and extreme cold weather are some the issues in the guide

A list of documents that should be able to be retrieved quickly is listed. They range from passports to wills to immunization records.

The guide lists what should be assembled for a disaster preparedness kit. In part this includes water, an extra pair of glasses, phone numbers, sanitary supplies and cash.

Something that is often not talked about when it comes to emergencies is what to do if you are work. One entry says, “Do not rely on electronic lists, direct-dial phone numbers or computer organizers that may not work in an emergency.” Thus the need to print some of that information before disaster strikes.

The council printed 14,000 copies of the guide. The Red Cross, one of the partners in the project, has distributed guides out at schools. The council will be handing them out at various community events and they are available for free at South Shore fire stations.

State grants helped pay for the printing as well as a slew of sponsors who are listed in the guide.

By Kathryn Reed

Drivers failing to slow down or move into an unoccupied lane when emergency vehicles are on the shoulder with lights on could face a hefty fine and several points on their record.

“Move-Over” is the law in 48 states, including California and Nevada.

Not slowing down when an officer has his lights on could be costly.

The problem is not many people know about it.

It’ been on the books in California for several years, but was set to expire Dec. 31, 2009. Lawmakers renewed the bill and included Caltrans workers in the language. Nevada has had the law for about six years.

Although every state has different nuances to the regulations, the gist is drivers must go into the left lane when there is one and it’s safe, or slow down while passing emergency vehicles with lights on.

In Nevada, it’s the law on all roads. In California, it’s just on freeways. In the greater Lake Tahoe area that would be west of Fresh Pond to Placerville on Highway 50 and then outside of Placerville headed west. All of Interstate 80 would be subject to this law.

It’s not just all law enforcement vehicles with lights on — fire trucks, ambulances, and the amber lights of tow trucks and highway workers count, too.

“Primarily the reason why it was adopted in our state and other states is because officers were struck and killed doing their job,” Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Chuck Allen said. “You have to reduce your speed to less than what is posted. There is nothing more irritating than walking back to the patrol car and a vehicle zooms by and there is a free travel lane.”

Fines vary in different jurisdictions, but law enforcement contacted by Lake Tahoe News said to expect to pay several hundred dollars and have multiple points on your driving record if caught not slowing down or moving over.

Officers recognize that it can be difficult to catch people in the act because they are working a stop and because the slowing down part is subjective.

Lt. Tim Malone with the California Highway Patrol said it’s easy enough for officers to radio a colleague about a driver who has violated the law.

“I can’t tell you how many times our cars have been hit while parked,” Malone said.

Lt. Les Lovell with the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department is in favor having California’s law more stringent like Nevada’s.

“The reality is I think it should be applied to every thoroughfare. This is a good public safety law that keeps people from being injured,” Lovell said.

For more information about Move Over, click here.

By Kathryn Reed

A buzz filled the air as more than 50 people gathered to plot a course to make Ski Run Boulevard in South Lake Tahoe a destination.

Going from the lake to the mountains, the businesses and property owners on this street are eager to do what’s needed to be done to make this a place locals and visitors frequent. And ideally those people will visit by foot as they shop and eat along the way.

“It was like a breath of fresh air. There were people in the room who have lived here 40 years, some who have been here a year or two. It was fresh blood, it was the old boys network, it was people not on Ski Run, people around the corner and from the marina,” said Shannon O’Brien who owns Shannon’s Lake Tahoe Day Spa. “We want to get people to utilize the street for events, but also create a community space we can call our own where families can come shop, eat and play.”

O’Brien moved her business to Ski Run about 16 months ago and has been on the Ski Run Business Improvement District board for seven months.

A slew of city staff was on hand for the two-hour meeting that packed the upstairs at Riva Grill. Jerry Birdwell was the only councilman at the meeting. He owns the Black Bear Inn on Ski Run so he had a vested interest in attending the meeting.

The city paid Lani Lott of L.L. Consulting in Phoenix to facilitate the meeting. Although the city didn’t go out for a request for proposal for her services, Lott is expected to continue to work with the city and Ski Run businesses.

The Ski Run BID was formed in 2003 to beautify the area. For now it still excludes the businesses at the marina, but that is likely to change soon. Businesses are assessed a fee that the city collects each year when business licenses are renewed. The money is used by the BID board to enhance the area.

Another thing that may change is including some of the businesses along Highway 50 that consider themselves part of the neighborhood. This will necessitate a vote of the businesses and ultimate approval by the City Council.

Meeting attendees sat at nearly a dozen tables, with each small group tasked with coming up with things they’d like to see improved and potential plans for the future.

Many of the ideas presented Wednesday were ones that have been broached in the past – bringing a farmers market to Ski Run, closing off the street between the highway and Pioneer Trail for events, having music, and turning the parcel Safeway owns into a city park.

Some of the upgrades talked about include hanging decorative banners, wreaths and flowers along the street lamps. Individual businesses do some of this, but it’s not a collective effort.

It’s possible the BID will morph into two entities – one to include property owners who care about how the area looks and one  geared toward business owners who want to market the area.

Another public meeting is planned for March 10. The time and location have yet to be determined.

The BID board plans to fine-tune its bylaws a bit. Committees will be formed. And then the work will begin to implement some of the ideas discussed this week. The plan is to set immediate, two- and five-year goals.

Already Ski Run has a Facebook page to get its message out to the masses.