IV/CB Community Forum Meeting Minutes

October 7, 2022

Denise Davis – Forum Moderator

Good morning, Forum. I’m Denise Davis your moderator. Ronda Tycer is our Forum recap editor. And John Crockett is our tech guru. As a reminder, our meeting is being recorded. Before you begin speaking, please state your name. While speaking, please be respectful. Personal attacks will not be tolerated. For those online, if you’d like to share URLs, post them in the Chat Box and they’ll be included at the end of the meeting recap. We partner with IVCB Community 1s.t.org and IVCBA.org to get information out. So be sure to visit their websites and sign up for their newsletters. To sign up for Forum meeting notices and recaps, send an email to us at ivcbcommunityforum@gmail.com.

Kari Ferguson – Incline Village General Improvement District Communication Coordinator

Good morning everyone, and happy Friday. October is awesome. Dogs are allowed back on Ski Beach on October 15th. We are also doing a Puppy Plunge on October 15th at Ski Beach. That is through Parks & Recreation. The boat ramp will be closed during that event. Please look at your schedule and make sure you’re not trying to launch or retrieve boats on that day at that time. We do have a reservation system for boat launching. I’ll put the link in the Chat Box for that.

We have the “Trail of Treats and Terror” coming up on October 27. That will be located at the Aspen Grove Village Green on the trail there as it has been the last couple of years. We have over 600 tickets sold. When I say “sold,” the event is free. We’re just trying to capture who’s at the event. That event is for Picture Pass holders and Recreation Punch Card holders. The golf course will also be transitioning. I’m waiting on information from Baron, but as far as I know, it closes on the 16th. So on the 16th we’ll start closing down. I’ll get you that information [inaudible]. They have to get everything ready for winter. They do a lot of winterization projects out there.

We have lots of fun senior trips. We’ll have a trip to Apple Hill (Placerville) for shopping. We have Nevada City Christmas. So, definitely check out the links in the Chat Box and get involved. 

Sara Schmitz – Incline Village General Improvement District Trustee, IVCB Community 1st Director

Just a reminder, the next Board of Trustees meeting is on October 12th. My recollection is that it will include the potential approval of the Utility Master Plan contract. I understand that yesterday the Board Chair made an announcement that a Special Board Meeting will be scheduled for October 20th to rehash the facts of the Recreation Center Expansion project. It has not yet been posted on the District website, but I believe it was announced by the Chair yesterday. It will be at 6pm on October 20th and they have reserved the Chateau to allow for public comment.

Ryan Sommers – North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District Chief

Good morning. How’s everybody doing? [Great!] We are chipping. The last chipping request will be for October 23rd so we can finish off the year before the snow flies. All of our folks except for two are home from a pretty busy summer elsewhere. We will be participating in the Washoe County Sheriff’s picnic tomorrow.

Carolyn Usinger – Incline Village Resident

I have a quick question. You’ve done a great job—not just your department but others—of reducing the fire fuel along Highway 28. But I’m now concerned. Are there going to be protections to prevent soil erosion?  They’ve been cleaned so well, the soil is going to come down into the lake.

Ryan Sommers

That’s a Nevada Energy project along 28. Yes, there’s a plan for erosion control when they’re completely done. The utility company is stringing additional wires. When all that’s done and all the traffic is out of there, there will be erosion matters taking place. I don’t know what they are off the top of my head. I’m pretty sure there will be some water bars, and items like that. But erosion is definitely an issue because we’re dealing with TRPA, and they won’t let us get away with anything when it comes to that.

Denise Davis

Okay, thank you Chief and Tia. I don’t see anybody from the Washoe County Sheriff Office so I’ll remind everyone that we are having the Sheriff’s picnic tomorrow, Saturday from 10-2.There will be hotdogs and hamburgers.

The WCSO is planning to have their mounted horse units, their motors, and their canines. The Raven helicopter will be landing early so if you want to see that get to Aspen Grove early. Marine 9, the Bomb Squad, and Search and Rescue. The Citizen Emergency Response Team (CERT) will also be there. And just a reminder, we’re always looking for people to join our local CERT team. CERT’s primary mission is to help you personally get prepared for emergencies. And if you want to help your broader community, we work on those kinds of things. So you’ll see us in our little hats and vests tomorrow. We’ll also be doing a child ID service tomorrow.

And now I have quite a few things to let everyone know about. If you’re looking for information about our highway construction go to Inclinehighways.com.

As Sara announced, the IVGID Board of Trustees will be having their regular Board meeting October 12 at 6pm.

And very important, on October 13 our IVCB Community Forum will be partnering with IVCBA to present the IVGID Trustee Candidate Forum. It will be from 6-8 pm at the Chateau.

We had a great turnout for the City of Incline Village town hall a week and a half ago.

So we hope to see everybody there. The candidates will be answering questions. If you have questions you’d like to ask, please submit them ahead of time to our forum email at ivcbcommunityforum@gmail.com. We’ll have limited time to take questions from the floor, but if there’s a question you’d really like answered, send it in ahead of time.

We are planning to record the candidate forum, but it won’t be broadcast live. I don’t know if you were at the EKN (Resort and Residences at Tahoe, formerly the Biltmore) presentation Wednesday, but the online trolls are active and they hijacked that meeting.

So we will record the meeting. We are not planning to stream it live.

If you’re attending in person and you want to ask a question, we will ask you to write them out so we can group similar ones together. So there is the ability to ask questions at the forum, but I can’t guarantee we’ll get to all of them. That’s why we’re urging you to submit them in advance.

There will be another session with the Lake Tahoe Destination Stewardship Plan. I don’t know if you remember the workshop we had at the Parasol months ago. We talked about the different issues facing our Basin affecting tourism and residents. So they are having another workshop in Incline Village on October 25 at the Parasol Building at 11:30 am. I guess this will be the next step. Also they have a Tahoe Resident Survey

available, so log into that and that URL will be in the recap.  

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) Advisory Planning Commission (APC) will have a meeting October 12. Judy Simon is on that committee. Do you have anything to add?

Judy Simon – Incline Village Resident, TRPA Advisory Planning Commission Member

We’re doing a field trip. So I’m very excited about that because since I was appointed all meetings have been virtual. I think we had one hybrid meeting. But this will be the first time we’re actually looking at a project. Information about the agenda and where to meet up for the field trip will be in the recap URLs.

Denise Davis

On October 26 the TRPA will be having a reception for the final four candidates applying for the TRPA Executive Director position. That will be at the TRPA office at South Shore.

[TRPA Executive Director reception – 5:30 to 7:30 pm – TRPA offices.

Each finalist will make a brief 3–5-minute presentation and after the presentations will visit with those in attendance. Appetizers will be provided and there will be a cash bar. The recruitment firm, Prothman Company, will collect comments from those in attendance. Those comments will be provided to the Board on Thursday morning, Oct 27, for review.]

I urge everyone to get familiar with the 7-7-7 funding plan, which is the TRPA and TTD plan for how they will fund more of their operations and some of their projects.  That URL will be in our meeting recap.

The Incline Village Mobility Hub committee had a meeting about a week and a half ago.

John Crockett serves on that committee.

John Crockett – Incline Village Resident, Incline Washoe County Library Head Librarian

We voted to approve the 2-year contract with the consultant with the goal of assessing possible locations for the hub and the scope of the project. These guys will start identifying alternative sites. I know there’s a lot of concern about viable alternatives to the Old Incline Elementary School. They became aware that places like Mt Rose and Diamond Peak ski areas aren’t options. But they will continue to look at other options. And they also want to engage the community on the scope of the project. Is it just a bus stop? Is it something more? Will it be mixed use so there will be more opportunity to share something else that the community wants? 

Denise Davis

The meetings are held the last Monday of the month. The next one will be October 24 at 5:30pm.  

John Crockett

They didn’t want to hold it on Halloween.

Denise Davis

As I mentioned earlier, EKN did have presentations again this week. I believe it was a lot of the presentation that we saw a couple of weeks ago. I don’t know if it will be available online due to the trolls taking over the recording.

We have a lot of things going on with our County. The Washoe Planning Commission meeting was deferred again. The agenda item of interest to us concerns changing the designation of the Commercial Regulatory Zone Special Area 1 in the Washoe Tahoe Area Plan to allow for single-family residence condominiums—specifically to allow for the 947 Tahoe Boulevard Condo development. I assume they’ll get it on the next agenda.

Kristina Hill – Incline Village Resident

That’s for the Planning Commission not the County Commissioners.

Denise Davis

On the County Commissioners’ agenda, they have an update on the tax refunds processed so far.  The refunds to date:

Total tax dollars = $16,353,524

Total interest = $15,628,128

Total tax and interest = $31,981,705.

We had a brief update from Sara Tone at the County concerning the Resort at Tahoe project. It was the same information that Ebbie shared at the EKN presentation. 

Construction activities on site will last through mid-October, which is the TRPA deadline.

And, as a reminder, the Board of County Commissioners meeting is Tuesday, October 11. It starts at 10 am. You can attend in person or watch live. If you watch live, there’s no way for you to make public comment. So if you want to make a comment, you need to be there in person or submit your comment in writing beforehand.

We had a Citizen Advisory Board (CAB) meeting on Monday evening. Diane Becker do you want to say anything about our meeting?

Diane Becker – Incline Village Resident, Citizen Advisory Board Chairperson

I want to advise everyone that starting January 3rd we will be meeting live here at the library. It will be regularly the 1st Monday of each month at 5:30pm.  Because the first Monday in November is a legal holiday, we’ll be meeting in person January 3rd. We’ll meet in person and also on Zoom. I want to thank Denise for raising that question to our County Manager so that he authorized us to meet in person.

Secondly, we’ve asked at the CAB for several presentations on matters of importance that are coming up. For instance, the proposed amendment to the Washoe Tahoe Area Plan, and the cannabis lounges. It was explained to us that when staff is working on something and developing proposals, they can not present them to the community before presenting them to the commissioners. So I asked how do we give community input? So the way we’re going to give input—which is exciting—is we will set an item for the CAB agenda each month to get community input. We will write that up. That will be given to each of the commissioners and to staff. So for the November meeting, we will either be working on the cannabis lounges, or one other possible topic.

It would be really good if members of the public who become aware of upcoming ordinances in the County or elsewhere would suggest items on which they would like the CAB to get public input. And then we would get that over to the County staff.

Lastly, it would be really good if people could review the new list of topics for 2023. It would be great if people could look at the list and provide suggestions for additional topics. Thank you.

Denise Davis

Our next CAB meeting is scheduled for November 7, which is the day before Election Day. We also still have an opening for an Alternate CAB member. And the County has some openings for different commissions. So if you’re interested in those, the URLs for applications will be in the recap.

Judy Simon

I want to thank Diane for following up with the community on the EKN Resort at Tahoe project. It should be on the CAB website at this time. We weren’t able to get it on there before the meeting. One thing I’m not clear about is— Paul Nielson is head of Special Projects and you can contact him—and of course, Revitalize Tahoe. But I have not seen a date for that TRPA meting. I was trying to track that down. I don’t know if it will be in October. Those of us who went to the EKN presentation heard that Ebbie indicated it would be in October.  But I haven’t seen the agenda. And I don’t know if that needs to first go to the Advisory Planning Commission before the TRPA Governing Board. That’s something to look into. Maybe someone else has information about that.

Denise Davis

The Washoe County Transportation Plan public meeting has been rescheduled for November 16, from 4-7pm at the Parasol Foundation building. That’s with Amy Cummings who has been working on transportation issues.

For our CAB meeting we had a new flyer from Washoe County regarding generator safety. If you’re using a portable generator or installing a permanent generator, or you need to know what the sizes are or about carbon monoxide poisoning, there is a flyer available. The URL will be in the recap.

If you’re interested in knowing what applications for building and development projects in our District 1 have been submitted to Washoe County Planners, the URL for that page will be in the recap.

Early voting will begin October 22. Voting will take place here at the library.  So our next Community Forum meeting in October will be here, but our first meeting in November will be online only. Keep in mind that because of voting at the library, our first meeting in November will be on Zoom only.

Kathie Julian – Incline Village Resident, Board of Adjustment Member

I want to report that there was only one matter for consideration on the agenda of the Board of Adjustment meeting yesterday. That dealt with Crystal Bay.  But that item was postponed until the next meeting on November 3. I’m putting the details about that matter and the reference to the variance number in the Chat Box. So for folks interested in that Crystal Bay variance, it will be discussed on November 3.

Denise Davis

Because we briefly talked about it a minute ago, I want to let everyone know that at the Washoe County Commissioners meeting September 13, Commissioner Kitty Jung commented about a program someone started called “Grass for Grass.” I was confused because currently the marijuana excise tax money was designated to go to the Distributive School account, which is for school funding.

So I asked Commissioner Alexis Hill, “How can there be a program for marijuana money when all those funds are going to the school account?” Her response was that the County receives permitting fees for dispensaries. It’s not a lot of money, especially compared to what the state gets. So I asked more questions. Does the County get these fees only from dispensaries located in unincorporated Washoe County? Her answer was, there are two sources of money:

Source 1 is a direct allocation based on a formula based within state taxation, which varies according to the number of producers, testing labs, distribution groups and dispensaries across the state. Those funds are dropped into the General Fund. The amount is fairly low—less than $300,000 annually.

Source 2 is the Business License fees. These are assessed quarterly for a business license group. The funds are captured in the General Manager’s office in a “restricted fund.”

The policy by the Washoe Board of Commissioners is that the Washoe General Manager makes a recommendation to the Board for the use of those funds at the time of the annual budget.

Currently we “fund” some WCSO Deputies, a Washoe District One Attorney, and possibly a Public Defender. The amount collected looks to be about $330,000 per quarter this Fiscal Year. So that is more background as to what is going on with the marijuana money. Given the cannabis lounges are now on the table for discussion, we might want to keep an eye on where that money will go.

Ray Tulloch – Incline Village Resident, IVGID Audit Committee Member, IVGID Trustee Candidate

It’s a beautiful Friday morning, so let’s have a bit of levity. It sounds like whoever came up with that formula was actually sampling the product. [Laughter]

Diane Becker

I recall talking with Peter Todoroff that there was some amount of funding from our local cannabis retail establishment that was supposed to come to Incline Village. Does anyone remember or know about that?

Denise Davis

I know Peter was adamant about that. The original pitch for marijuana taxes was

“If a dispensary is in your community, you get those taxes.” Then the schools went to the state, and they got all the marijuana tax money. So what the county is getting is just permitting and other fees. The county is not getting any of the tax money. That’s the money that comes back to the county. Clearly, the county is not basing it on locality… because Commissioner Hill said it all goes into the General Fund account. So they are not keeping tabs on how much is coming from each location in the county, which seems to be typical of how they’re doing things with the General Fund. So that’s my understanding of what has happened. The original plan to give communities the marijuana tax money from their communities—that’s all going to the Washoe County School District.

Helen Neff – Incline Village Resident

How do we find out how much is going to the schools?

Denise Davis

I believe there is a report. I vaguely remember seeing a report. I can’t tell you right this instant where I saw it. If you send an email to our County Commissioner she can direct you to that information.

Helen Neff

So the tax money is going to the state for the schools. And the fees are going to the county. And nothing is coming to Incline Village.

Denise Davis

Not directly. The fees are funding our District Attorney and those other items. The

$330,000 quarterly goes into the General Fund for general county purposes.

Shirley Appel – Incline Village Resident, HOA President, Republic Womens Club President

Speaking of the cannabis lounge, do we know if this is something that is going to be in our village? Do we know approximately… is it going to be at the location where they sell the marijuana? Or is it going to be elsewhere?

Sara Schmitz

In reading what was on the agenda at their last meeting, my understanding is that staff is to come back to the commissioners with recommendations and raise those questions—whether it needs to be at a current retail facility or somewhere else. So that is something that is coming back to the commissioners from staff with their proposed ordinance.

The other thing, based on what Denise just said relative to the revenue, and to answer the question Shirley (inaudible 32:12), it would be a proposal for all of unincorporated Washoe County, which includes us. I think one thing we should have for community discussion is an understanding of—if this is something that would impact Incline Village—where does the tax revenue go? It will have an impact on our village—on driving safety etc. 

Carolyn Usinger

Ben Dosseff and I are here to talk about trash. Basically I’ve been picking up trash for the last 3 years. While that’s been wonderful for everybody else, it’s wrecked my car and we need to continue a full program on how to deal with trash. So what I put together is Envisioning No Trash At Tahoe. It involves three steps:

1 – Everyone picking up

I may have told you about it before, but if not, I’ll do it again. We’re going to provide “hero sticks” you can borrow from the Library, the Recreation Center, and the Visitors Center. They are combination walking sticks and “grabbers.” You can hike or walk through town with it as a walking stick, and make a “grabber” when you find trash. There will be a bag connected to it so you can put the trash in the bag. The idea is that “Everyone needs to pick up trash in Tahoe every day.” Not once a year, or once a quarter, or once a month; but whenever you see trash.

If there’s visible trash, it creates an incentive for others to leave trash. Studies show that if you see trash you are more likely to leave trash. So we need to keep our area completely clean. This has been implemented. I contacted IVGID and they said that’s fine and we’re all going to work on that. But we need the next steps.

2 – Next we need to make it easy to dispose of trash…so you don’t get a criminal record for disposing of trash. I’m a little sensitive about that. I have three different proposals. I’ve talked to IVGID about it and Madonna Dunbar. She wants to work on it with us. So I’m trying to define what “us” is. Basically it’s an app so they can dump trash without being fined. It’s a big “hero bag.” People can pay for it in advance. So if you have extra trash, you can put it in a bin.

3 – The third thing is we need to discourage trash in Tahoe, which is the educational component. We always talk about education, but it doesn’t exist. So I have a series of stickers I’ve developed and purchased myself. Because it’s like, “Come on guys; let’s get going.” But we need to distribute them. And I have a proposed program for businesses because businesses create trash. I have a “Care for Tahoe” game—an online game for the Visitor Center. And I want to test being actually able to ticket people based on cell phone camera shots.

So I want to become more proactive in all of these things and not just go along the road picking up trash. That’s not helping things in the long run. Ben has been talking about education forever.

Frankly, TRPA has claimed they don’t want to deal with trash, so it’s hard to get an area-wide initiative. But all of these things can be done basin-wide. No problem. The cost is low. So I’m interested in knowing what agencies and individuals want to work on this, because we have to stop trashing Tahoe.

Denise Davis

Carolyn, do you have a way for people to contact you?

Carolyn Usinger

I didn’t bring cards. But I can give you that information for the recap. You can go to Zerotrashtahoe.us. I’ve set up a website with a lot of this on it so people can see it. That’s the story. Are there any comments?

John Crockett

Kari put in the Chat Box that the pick-up supplies are now available at the Recreation Center.

Diane Becker

I have a suggestion. When you were talking about educating people, I mentioned that TRPA is going to be interviewing the next Executive Director on October 26. I think that would be a good place for you to raise the question to each of the four potential applicants, “What are you going to do about trash in Tahoe?” And describe your program. [inaudible]

Carolyn Usinger

When I heard about it, I said, “Oh that sounds like an interesting possibility for the future.” Because really—it is all of Tahoe. If one part of Tahoe is trashed, then tourists come to our part, and trash it. It needs to be an area-wide commitment that trash in Tahoe is a no-no. You don’t do that.

Helen Neff

Have you talked to Take Care Tahoe?

Carolyn Usinger

Not directly about this program.

Helen Neff

I would suggest doing that because they have an educational program.

Carolyn Usinger

The thing about Take Care Tahoe is they’re doing a whole variety of things, and trash gets lost in it. So I’ve talked to the Tahoe Fund about it. They asked me to put together a business component because Take Care Tahoe doesn’t deal with businesses. I have a bunch of things Madonna was saying, “Oh your name is pretty close to “Take Care Tahoe.” So I said I would like to work with Take Care and incorporate what I’m doing with them. But I haven’t got their permission to do that yet. So that’s what I’m working on with Madonna to figure out how to do that kind of thing because I don’t [inaudible].

Nancy Carlson – Incline Village Resident

I’m just wondering if there’s a way to contribute to a fund to purchase more of these sticks and bags. It’s a tremendous idea, and the more we have out there in the community, the more trash we’ll be able to pick up.

Carolyn Usinger

Yes, that’s what I’m doing on the website. And the actual sticks can be customized for hiking groups. You can put on your hiking group name, you can put on your name… so everyone can have their own thing… These grabbers are actually better for Tahoe than using a ski pole, which goes into the dirt and causes erosion. The grabber is flatter. So I’m trying to get the idea in Tahoe that everybody picks up trash. You may go hiking and not find anything. Yea!!!  But if you find a couple of things, pick them up.

John Crockett

Would you mind turning around and showing the stick to the folks on line?

Carolyn Usinger

So there’s the grabber, and at the top there’s a bag hooked to it. It’s a walking stick you can use around town or on a trail or wherever you are. Use it as a walker and when you see something, pick it up.

Joe Farrell – Incline Village Resident, Pulse Point Board Member

My hat is off to you for what you’re doing. It’s just tremendous. I do have a few suggestions you may already have done this, but there are a lot of local organizations in town—AAUW, my wife’s part of a women’s golf club, there are two men’s golf clubs, the Incliners, the schools – there’s just a lot of local organizations.

Carolyn Usinger

I want to make the same presentation to all of them.

Joe Farrell

And my last question is, “How can we convince TRPA to make this regional?”  You brought it up in your education stuff. Is there any way that we can write letters or send emails to TRPA to really make this a Tahoe-regional endeavor? It drives me crazy to see all the trash people left this summer.

Carolyn Usinger

I don’t know the people there, I’m not a people connector. Other people know who everybody is. I’m just trying to pick up trash.

Ray Tulloch

Thank you for all your efforts. This is not a glamorous job. But it’s a very important grass-roots job. And I think sometimes in this community you forget that. You have to think of the grassroots, not just all the high-level stuff. Thank you so much for what you do. If I am elected to the IVGID Board of Trustees, I’ll certainly do my best to see how to better integrate these programs and provide support. However, I would make one suggestion. I think it’s excellent what you’ve done, but I’d revisit this sticker. The two words that stick out say “Trash” and “Tahoe.”

Carolyn Usinger

That’s part of why I want to talk to a bigger group of people, because I don’t see things like that. I just saw the triangle of “less,” “less,” “less,” “less.” It hasn’t been distributed, other than on the back of my car.

Ray Tulloch

Yes. Some people may take it as an instruction.

Carolyn Usinger

You’re absolutely right.

Ray Tulloch

Thank you so much for what you do.

Ben Dosseff – Incline Village Resident

I’m looking at trash a bit differently, more on education. In the Spring of 2017-2018, I was at Incline Beach, and there I saw acres and acres of trash floating in the lake like you see in the ocean, all floating together, falling apart, deteriorating, turning into micro-plastics. Then I was there in the spring and I saw Sara Schmitz on her paddleboard. She was out there with a little net, and I said, “Hey, what are you doing?”  She said, “I’m picking up trash.” She and I are the only ones I know who saw those acres and acres of trash in our lake. That alarmed me. I didn’t know what to think about it.

Then several months later on the evening news, they were talking about trash in the ocean. They said, “How does the trash get in the ocean?” ”How does all that trash get in there?” And they gave a “for instance.” John in Wyoming throws a plastic cup out the car window. It blows into a stream and then into a river that takes it to the ocean. So how our lake is being polluted is from the 63 streams we have around the lake, and then all the trash we have on the land. Trash and plastic blows into the lake, they deteriorate, and the plastic turns into micro-plastics. So at the recent report on the State of the Lake at TERC this year, they did micro-plastic studies twice on our lake, and the second study showed there’s just as much micro-plastics in our lake as in San Francisco.

That’s where the problem is. The whole United States needs to know Lake Tahoe is polluted. And they need to know if something isn’t done, the lake will be totally polluted one day. And there won’t be anybody coming to the lake anymore because of that. All

the businesses will go away. I know a lot of people are concerned. “Don’t talk bad about the lake because we need to support our businesses.” Well the businesses won’t be here once the lake is gone. So the lake is #1. Number 2 is the land.  We don’t want this beautiful land to look like San Francisco or Los Angeles. And we don’t want our lake polluted.

So just a couple of quick stories:

A couple of years ago I’m on the East shore, and I’m walking around and taking photos of all the trash on the beach, on the trails. Three people walk up—two guys and a girl. They said, “What are you taking pictures of?” I said, “I’m taking photos of trash.”  I told them just what I told you about our lake being polluted, and what I’ve seen. They were from Oklahoma. They said, “You know it’s really pretty here.” I told them our lake is listed in the 10 most beautiful lakes in the world. They said, “We saw a lot of trash on the trail today, but we’re here for a couple more days. We’ll come back tomorrow with trash bags and pick it up.” So there’s an education.

Three weeks ago, I’m on Highway 28 on the East Shore Trail, where dozens of cars unload their gear to go to Hidden Beach. Right there, there is all kinds of trash. They’re pulling in, they’re pulling out. They’re dropping trash. They’re accidently dropping or throwing trash. This guy pulls up by himself in a car, and he just wants to look at the view there, even though you’re not supposed to be parking there because there’s a “No Parking” sign. So I say to him, I’m educating, “Look at all this trash here. I said, “Our lake’s polluted, the lake will be totally polluted one day.” The next thing, he gets in his car and pulls out a bag and he starts picking up trash in that area. He’s from San Francisco.

So there are two good outcomes of education. So how do you educate the 20 million people coming here every year? There are no signs. There may be two signs in all Lake Tahoe Basin. There need to be signs letting them know that Lake Tahoe is being polluted. Please pick up when you see trash.”  Because the majority—99% of the people coming here don’t know we have a trash problem. You’ll see trash everywhere. I believe that these good people—99% of the good people who come to Tahoe are good people. And if they know we have a problem here, they will pick trash up.  But we have to let them know we have a problem. You have to let them know our lake is polluted. And you have to let them know we don’t want Tahoe to look like San Francisco and Los Angeles. That’s where my pitch is—educating the millions of people coming here.

Now there are a lot of accidental droppings. Most people don’t think about it. But who’s going to pick it up? Let’s say nobody intentionally drops anything. But now you’ve got all these accidental droppings. Who’s going to pick them up? There’s nobody. There are no paid employees… Well I take that back, there’s a company called Clean Tahoe that has 4 employees up here doing what they can do. But they can’t cover thousands of acres. That’s why we need everybody— when they see trash…  Everybody doesn’t have to get one of these “hero sticks.” If you’re out for a walk and you see a piece of trash, just pick it up. That goes a long way. And then if people want to do extra, they come get these picker-uppers.

Denise Davis

Heather Segale from TERC has posted a note in the Chat.

Heather Segale – UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center

 Do you want me to speak? [Yes] Those places where you see a large amount of trash are these large circular gyres that push the litter into various locations. After a wind event these gyres get set up and all that litter can end up on specific beaches. Hidden Beach happens to be one of those places where a lot of litter can be pushed in. We can go collect piles of litter after a big wind event. We are finding micro-plastics in all of our samples. At the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC) we have an exhibit. I put the link that tells you about the research and our education program in the Chat Box: https://tahoe.ucdavis.edu/microplastics. I also want to say there is a “Take Care” ambassador program that gets young people and educates visitors at high traffic trailheads. So funding that program to allow for more young people to be those ambassadors is a great way to educate the public.

But we have to be really careful. And one of the things you said Carolyn— and I love what  you’re doing—but one of the things you said is,“Tahoe is a high-litter location.” And you have to be really careful to use the best social science and community-based social-marketing messaging that doesn’t normalize the bad behavior of littering, because that makes it “okay” for people. So there’s a lot of research about the language that you use. It’s better to be direct. “Do Not Litter” is better than “Tahoe is littered.” When you say Tahoe has high litter, then it makes it okay. It makes it normal for people to litter. So I just want to add those quick comments.

Ben Dosseff

What it really comes down to—when you’re educating— is you have to ask people to pick up trash. That’s where the solution to the problem is. You have to ask people to pick up. That’s where it’s at. You have to let them know we have a problem; and to solve the problem, you pick up. That’s where the solution is.

Denise Davis

Thanks, Ben. And I have been in contact with Heather and she will come talk to us about this either next meeting or the following. I’ll have to confirm that.

Steve Dolan – Incline Village Resident, Friends of Third Creek Director

There are people cleaning up in Incline. I know that IVGID has a special crew that cleans up litter every day. I just wanted to clear that up. But now if I may I’d like to go to the environmental side. Before, you heard me talk about Beaver Bob. We haven’t sighted him recently. But he’s there because he’s raised his dam a foot since June. He’s working hard. He and his family may just be hiding out. They are nocturnal. I wanted to announce that as of a couple of days ago, the kokanee have officially arrived in Incline.

They’re best seen on the lakeshore side behind the Hyatt on Incline Creek. They are there now; I’ve seen them.

The Seven Springs work by the US Forest Service is completed for this season. They’re still planning on next season. Friends of 3rd Creek provided as many people as they would allow to help harvest seeds a couple of weeks ago. That was a fun event. We got a lot of work done for them. The bridge at Seven Springs meadow—which is what the US Forest Service was working on—is completed, so you can now walk across the Seven Springs tributary confluence without getting into the springs. It’s a nice new little bridge there.

Aaron Vanderpool – Incline Village Resident

Good morning. I appreciate everything that was said about the plastic and trash. And I want to remind everyone about the connection between that and our drinking water.

There’s still much research that needs to be done about micro-plastics. It’s a complicated process. But there are definitely micro-plastics and it’s a growing problem. I just also want to bring up that a concerning thing to me is that it’s cheaper in a lot of restoration and renovation projects to use plastic culvert piping and erosion control. And I think that should start to be part of conversation about these projects, because over time that plastic ends up in our drinking water.

Joe Farrell

I just want to know if there’s been any effort with Bay Area communities like San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose to publicize the trash issue before those visitors come up here.

Carolyn Usinger

My understanding is that Take Care Tahoe does have a billboard on Highway 80

that talks about trash. That’s all I’ve heard.

Kristina Hill

I’d just like to mention relative to micro-plastics that every pier being constructed or reconstructed around the lake is probably using plastic planks. And I know from working on piers for the 40 years I’ve been here—you drill a hole and the little pieces of plastic fall out and go right in the lake. I don’t know why everyone is worried about micro-plastics. What about macro-plastics?  These are big pieces of plastic going right into the lake. The TREK decking is plastic. And all the piers are becoming TREK decks. And that goes right in the lake. I wish Heather would acknowledge that – as well as other people who are working on micro-plastics.

Shirley Appel

That should be a TRPA thing.

Diane Becker

I just heard that we have another meeting at IVGID on October 20 to discuss the Recreation Center Expansion project. I would ask why we continue to have meetings on something where it is so clear from the documents that none of the trustees knew prior to the vote on September 14th that there was a mandate that every trustee had to agree that it was okay to eliminate the multipurpose gym. All trustees voted unanimously in support of the project. And it’s totally okay that the Duffield Foundation decides whatever it decides to do in terms of going forward with the project. For us to keep having these divisive meetings I think is a really bad idea. People are coming in with completely inaccurate information based on something circulated by at least one of the trustees prior to the September 28th meeting. I really urge that we not continue to have the trustees and the community subjected to a meeting on a subject where there has been so much misinformation and now there is such division in positions.

John Crockett

I have two quick announcements for you. We have two programs coming up on Tuesday. Tahoe Talks on Tuesday at 6pm will focus on homelessness in the Tahoe Basin presented by Kathy Pulley from the North Tahoe Truckee Homeless Services, Amber Howell from Washoe County Human Services, and Commissioner Alexis Hill. And on Tuesday the 18th we have our next Tech Talk. This is about Web 3.0. You may have heard about the metaverse, blockchain, very squishy terms that offer lots of possibilities and lots of hazards as well. We have Sita Lloyd from Blockchains, LLC down in Sparks.  You may have heard of them. They were trying to form an autonomous zone in Story County run on blockchain. Very interesting and lots to discuss. 

Denise Davis

I want to remind everyone that Thursday October 13th at 6pm at the Chateau is our IVGID Candidate Forum.

Ray Tulloch

Good morning everyone. It’s a beautiful October morning. Those of us who are long- time residents know that September and October are some of the best months here in Tahoe. It’s a wonderful day. But unfortunately there’s still a black flag hanging over the community Recreation Center. I’m not going into the details of that. I’ll leave that to others. There seem to be lots of experts in the community who have never been at any of the meetings but still seem to know all the facts.

I’m most disappointed in the dysfunctional nature of the board. There appears to be selective leaking of information to friends, to supporters, no clear communication, and breaking Open Meeting Laws by not providing the same information to all trustees. Some trustees seem to be more interested in scoring political points against rivals on their way out rather than actually understanding what the community is looking for, or how we can actually recover the situation in the community. I find that very disappointing.

And other trustees who piously talk about needing civility of conversation and signing a code of conduct, are meantime sending out basically hate emails to rouse a mob. Is that really how we want to run our community? Is that transparency and honesty among trustees? I don’t believe it is.

I have continued to run with a commitment to openness, honesty, and transparency. No secret backdoor deals anywhere. When some candidates only listen to their own echo chamber, rather than listening to all of the community, they get a one-sided view. I’ve made a commitment to listen to all of the community, and have done so throughout my campaign.

What can we learn from what’s happened?  I think something that’s very clear is there’s a strong demand for expanding and improving the Recreation Center. It’s been in the Master Plan for 3 years, yet the board has done absolutely nothing to put it on the agenda.

If I’m elected, I’ll make a commitment to accelerate the plans for a Recreation Center expansion that matches community needs. We do have a decent amount of money in the Community Services Fund. It’s not as if we are totally dependent on others. It’s obviously disappointing to lose the contribution of the Duffield Foundation’s generous offer, whatever was on the table. And we can argue separately about that.

I think the key thing for the community is to move forward. Expand the Recreation Center according to community wishes and hopefully in accord with the Community Master Plan. I give you my commitment as a candidate to try to move forward on that, and not to spend time pointing fingers. Thank you.

Sara Schmitz

I want to extend an offer to everyone who is here that if you would like to ask questions of me regarding anything related to what happened with the Recreation Center expansion, I’m glad to chat with anyone outside if you want to move our meeting outside to give this space back to the library. I’m happy to do that. I’m here to serve the community. And I’d like to talk about—as Mr. Tulloch just referenced—I’d like to talk about the ideas as we go forward. So if you’re interested in talking after this meeting, I will make myself available. Thank you.

Denise Davis

All right. Thank you everybody. It was great to see everybody today. We had some great conversations. As I said, I’ve been in contact with Heather Segale about coming to speak to us. So everybody stay safe. We’ll see you here in 2 weeks.

OUR URLS:

IVCB Community Forum

 ivcbcommunityforum@gmail.com

IVCB Community and Business Association (IVCBA)

ivcba.org

IV/CB Community 1st

ivcbcommunity1st.org

USEFUL URLS:

“City of Incline Village” website

https://www.cityofinclinevillage.com/

Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)

Academy begins Oct 13

https://www.washoecert.org/upcominginfo

IVGID Board of Trustees (BOT)

Next meeting – Oct 12

https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/uploads/pdf-ivgid/1012.pdf

Nevada Department of Roads

SR 431 and SR 28 road construction information

https://inclinehighways.com/

North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District website

https://nltfpd.org/

Tahoe Fund

Lake Tahoe Resident Survey

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LakeTahoeResident

Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Advisory Planning Commission (APC)

 Field trip – Oct 12

https://www.trpa.gov/advisory-planning-commission-field-trip-october-12-2022/

Tahoe Regional Planning Agency “Lake Tahoe Transportation Action Plan”

(Includes 7-7-7 Funding Plan)

https://www.trpa.gov/wp-content/uploads/documents/Transportation_ActionPlan_FINAL.pdf

Tahoe Regional Planning Agency ‘Tahoe In Brief’ report

(Includes upcoming meeting dates)

https://www.trpa.gov/wp-content/uploads/Agenda-Item-VI.A.1-Tahoe-In-Brief-GB-Monthly-Update-August-2022.pdf

Tahoe Transportation District (TTD)

Tahoe Transportation District (TTD) Incline Village Mobility Hub Committee

https://www.inclinevillagemobilityhub.org/

Next meeting Sept 26

Travel North Tahoe Nevada (Previously IVCB Visitor Bureau)

Washoe County Lake Tahoe Destination Stewardship Plan

Incline workshop Oct 25

https://stewardshiptahoe.org/

Washoe County Board of County Commissioners (BCC)

Oct 11 meeting agenda

https://www.washoecounty.gov/bcc/board_committees/2022/files/agendas/2022-10-11/BCC%20-%2010.11.22.pdf

Washoe County Board and Commission Job Openings

https://www.washoecounty.gov/citizens/board_opportunities.php

Washoe County Generator Flyer

https://www.washoecounty.gov/CABS/IVCB_CAB/2022/files/generator-handout1.pdf

Washoe County IV/CB Citizens Advisory Board (CAB)

Meeting – Nov 7

https://www.washoecounty.gov/CABS/IVCB_CAB/index.php

To apply for CAB Alternate position:

https://washoe-nv.granicus.com/boards/forms/494/apply/2790217?code=31c55737-3152-45dd-8530-927cce5084ec

Washoe County Planning – Building and Development Applications in District 1

https://www.washoecounty.gov/csd/planning_and_development/applications/apps_commish_district_one.php

Washoe County Transportation Plan for Incline Village

Public meeting – Nov 16

https://tahoe-transportation-plan-washoe.hub.arcgis.com/

Washoe County Sheriff Office (WCSO)

Non-emergency Dispatch  775-785-9276

Washoe County Voting and Election Day Voting Locations

https://www.washoecounty.gov/voters/files/2022_General_Voter_Centers.pdf

CHAT LOG

09:01:28     From  kathie julian   to   Washoe County Libraries(Direct Message) : HARD TO HEAR DENISE

09:04:34     From  Beth & Jon Davidson : Good morning from Seattle

09:05:30     From  kathie julian : Rotary Club – Tahoe Incline will be collecting jars of peanut butter for Pet Network at the Puppy Plunge event.  Look for our table.  No jelly, just plain peanut butter.  It’s in high demand by the facility.  Thanks

09:12:03     From  Washoe County Libraries : send your Trustee Candidate Forum questions to ivcbcommunityforum@gmail.com by Oct 9

09:27:31     From  kathie julian : Board of Adjustment matter, Variance Case #: WPVAR22-0004 (Rushing Variance) at 27 Somers Loop in Crystal Bay was postponed for discussion until next BoA Meeting on Thurs, 3 Nov. Go to https://www.washoecounty.gov/csd/planning_and_development/board_commission/board_of_adjustment/index.php for information.

09:31:19     From  IVGID Communications : Puppy Plunge: https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/events/puppy-plunge

09:31:51     From  IVGID Communications : Trail Of Treats: https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/events/trail-of-treats-and-terror-2

09:32:06     From  Washoe County Libraries : Thank you Kari, looking forward to both!

09:32:40     From  IVGID Communications : Golf course updates: https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/news/fall-course-maintenance-schedule

09:33:27     From  IVGID Communications : IVGID BOT information located here: https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/ivgid/board-of-trustees/meetings-and-agendas

09:33:41     From  IVGID Communications   to   Washoe County Libraries(Direct Message) : You are awesome John!!

09:34:46     From  IVGID Communications : Fall IVGID Quarterly: https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/news/ivgid-quarterly-fall-2022

09:35:41     From  IVGID Communications : Trash pick up supplies are available now at the Recreation Center!

09:39:12     From  Doug Flaherty : Who can we contribute money to in order to assist with this great program.

09:43:09     From  IVGID Communications : Thank you Carolyn and Ben! You two are amazing!

09:48:28     From  Heather Segale : There are large gyres on Lake Tahoe that move floating litter and pushes it into various locations. Learn more at the UC Davis Tahoe Science Center or at https://tahoe.ucdavis.edu/microplastics

09:48:58     From  Washoe County Libraries : Thanks Heather!  We’ll repeat your announcement.

Participants
Aaron Vanderpool
Andrew Whyman
Ben Dosseff
Beth and Jon Davidson
Carolyn Usinger
David Simon
Denise Davis
Diane Becker
Doug Flaherty
Edie Farrell
Heather Segale
Helen Neff
Joe Farrell
John Crockett
Judith Simon
Judy Miller
Kathie Julian
Kristina Hill
Margaret Martini
Miranda Jacobson
Nancy Carlson
Pam Straley
Patrick Schmitz
Randy
Ray Tulloch
Ronda Tycer
Ryan Sommers
Sara Schmitz
Shirley Appel
Steve Dolan
Steve Price
Todd Lowe

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