ate: November 29, 2007
Contact: Cheva Heck, (530) 543-2608 or Rex Norman, (530) 543-2627
ANGORA FIRE AREA CLOSURE EXTENDED UNTIL JANUARY 31, 2008
Forest Service Removes Urban Lots from Closed Area
South Lake Tahoe Calif. USDA Forest Service officials of the Lake
Tahoe
Basin Management Unit have extended the public closure of most of the
Angora Fire area until January 31, 2008. The lack of snow cover to
date
leaves the area sensitive to disturbance and damage that may lead to
erosion. The extension does not apply to the urban lots managed by the
Forest Service.
The purpose of the closure is to allow for the emergency treatments,
particularly the hydromulch, to remain undisturbed until significant
snowfall reaches the area, and to maintain public safety in light of
post-fire hazards, particularly tree falls. The Forest Service treated
more
than 600 acres using aerial hydromulching. The mulch material can be
peeled
away easily by people hiking or biking on it, which then allows water
to
run beneath it or wind to flake it away, undermining the treatment's
ability to stabilize the soil.
The Angora Fire started on June 24, from an abandoned illegal campfire.
The fire was contained on July 2, declared controlled on July 20 and
declared out on November 15. The largest wildfire in the Lake Tahoe
Basin
in over a century, the Angora Fire scorched just under 3,100 acres, and
destroyed more than 250 homes.
Emergency treatments were immediately implemented to protect life and
property, as well as minimize environmental damage and water quality
impacts on Angora Creek and Lake Tahoe.
For more information, contact the Forest Supervisor’s Office at (530)
543-2694. The closure order, as well as a map of the area affected by
the
closure, will be posted on the Forest Service LTBMU website:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/ltbmu.
Friday, November 30, 2007
South Lake Tahoe survey
Community Questionnaire
The City held a public workshop on November 15, 2007, to kickoff the City's General Plan Update. Members of the public completed a questionnaire at that workshop which asked a series of questions related to the Preliminary Policy Guidance Package. Questions included confirming the City's existing and emerging policy principles, explaining what other principles should be included, and describing what information they would like the City and consultants to research and answer as they prepare the General Plan Background Report.
Fill out a Questionnaire ...http://www.jlmintier.com/slt/pdf/SLT_Survey.pdf
To submit your response, click on the link at the top of the page. You may also print out a hard copy and mail it to:
South Lake Tahoe General Plan
c/o Dan Amsden
1415 20th Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
The deadline for questionnaires to be submitted is December 7, 2007.
For more information about the Questionnaire please contact the Planning Division:
Phone (530) 542-6020
www.ci.south-lake-tahoe.ca.us/communitydevelopment/planning.html
The City held a public workshop on November 15, 2007, to kickoff the City's General Plan Update. Members of the public completed a questionnaire at that workshop which asked a series of questions related to the Preliminary Policy Guidance Package. Questions included confirming the City's existing and emerging policy principles, explaining what other principles should be included, and describing what information they would like the City and consultants to research and answer as they prepare the General Plan Background Report.
Fill out a Questionnaire ...http://www.jlmintier.com/slt/pdf/SLT_Survey.pdf
To submit your response, click on the link at the top of the page. You may also print out a hard copy and mail it to:
South Lake Tahoe General Plan
c/o Dan Amsden
1415 20th Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
The deadline for questionnaires to be submitted is December 7, 2007.
For more information about the Questionnaire please contact the Planning Division:
Phone (530) 542-6020
www.ci.south-lake-tahoe.ca.us/communitydevelopment/planning.html
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Gronwold sentencing postponed to December
unpublished tahoe mt. news nov story
By Kathryn Reed
Karsten Gronwold gets to call Sacramento home for a bit longer. His sentencing date has been pushed back to December.
After the 50-year-old reached a plea deal in his child porn case he finally resigned this fall from the Lake Tahoe Unified School District where he had been an elementary teacher since being hired in 1990.
He was arrested at his Meyers home that he shared with his wife and two children before the start of the 2006-07 school year. In a plea agreement reached in August he admitted guilt and agreed to an eight year sentence for one count of child pornography.
His stay behind bars could be extended if he is found guilty of one count of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child. The local district attorney’s office leveled that charge against Gronwold in late September.
Gronwold has the option to face the local charge while in prison or wait until he finishes serving the federal sentence.
“We have filed charges, there’s a warrant out for his arrest and he will be brought to court as expeditiously as the law allows,” said Lisa Sarafini, El Dorado County assistant district attorney.
By Kathryn Reed
Karsten Gronwold gets to call Sacramento home for a bit longer. His sentencing date has been pushed back to December.
After the 50-year-old reached a plea deal in his child porn case he finally resigned this fall from the Lake Tahoe Unified School District where he had been an elementary teacher since being hired in 1990.
He was arrested at his Meyers home that he shared with his wife and two children before the start of the 2006-07 school year. In a plea agreement reached in August he admitted guilt and agreed to an eight year sentence for one count of child pornography.
His stay behind bars could be extended if he is found guilty of one count of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child. The local district attorney’s office leveled that charge against Gronwold in late September.
Gronwold has the option to face the local charge while in prison or wait until he finishes serving the federal sentence.
“We have filed charges, there’s a warrant out for his arrest and he will be brought to court as expeditiously as the law allows,” said Lisa Sarafini, El Dorado County assistant district attorney.
Angora --November update
unpublished story submitted to tahoe mt. news for nov issue:
By Kathryn Reed
Even though El Dorado County Supervisor Norma Santiago is not thrilled with how everything has transpired since the Angora Fire, she is a resource for what to do when a catastrophe strikes.
Lt. Gov. John Garamendi summoned her to Southern California in late October-early November to enlighten the folks how to proceed when homes are lost, acreage is charred and lives upended by a wildfire.
To help victims of the Angora Fire, Santiago will be setting up a one-stop office for people wanting to rebuild.
“We had a multi-agency team for tree removal. I’m going to setup the same thing for the reconstruction process so architects, engineers, contractors all have a single point of contract,” Santiago said. “I’ve heard one too many times ‘I wish I had taken my money and bought in Minden or the county or city’.”
When it rained in mid-September, Carry Loomis watched water flow into her footing. She and her husband, Tom, and their 12-year-old child lost their home on Coyote Ridge Circle when an illegal campfire wiped out more than 250 houses June 24.
They are rebuilding, but it hasn’t been easy. Loomis is critical of the county.
“I feel like they didn’t expect people to turn around so fast and rebuild. Those of us who did ran into complications,” Loomis said. “It felt like roadblocks were thrown up arbitrarily.”
Santiago said much of the frustration on her end has to do with managers making decisions that will bring flexibility to the process, but people in the field operating by the old rules.
She took her cause to her colleagues in Placerville this month to have the Board of Supervisors OK hiring someone who understands the process and has customer service skills to head the temporary agency. Funding most likely will come from the California Disaster Assistance Act. Essentially it will be a branch of the county Building Department just for Angora.
It’s possible this offshoot will operate out of the old Job One building. Santiago said they may share office space with the Red Cross, which plans to work on long-term recovery for Angora survivors for the next three years.
Santiago is regularly in touch with the Community Disaster Relief Center based out of the Pine Cone Plaza.
“They are a conduit to services. They have case workers,” Santiago said. “They will try to find resource for these folks in terms of long-term recovery.”
Burn area issues
South Lake Tahoe City Manager Dave Jinkens has heard from the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board but not the U.S. Forest Service in regards to his concerns about runoff in the burn area affecting city residents, property and the Lake.
“Permittees are only responsible for flows generated within their respective jurisdictions. The City, therefore, cannot be held liable for runoff exceeding effluent limits that originates outside jurisdictional boundaries …,” Harold Singer, executive director of the water board, wrote to the city.
Jinkens hopes to meet with Forest Service officials soon to discuss his concerns about what is being done in the Gardner Mountain area as well as possibly recouping costs for the city’s efforts to stop winter runoff.
Terry Marceron, local Forest Service supervisor, was unavailable for comment because she was on vacation.
The September and October storms have not caused any runoff issues, according all agencies queried.
“Scientists were out to the hydromulch area after some of the fairly good rainfall. It wasn’t moving at all,” said Cheva Heck, Forest Service spokeswoman.
This month the city expects to wrap up its erosion control efforts in the Gardner Mountain area and at the foot of the hill leading to South Tahoe High School.
The Forest Service completed tree removal of its urban lots on Oct. 30.
“The remaining work between now and November 30 will complete needed roads and trails repairs, eliminate remaining traces of fire suppression activities, and reinforce existing drainages to prevent erosion or run-off damage,” the agency said in a press release.
Bi-state fire commission
At the October bi-state fire commission the agreement between the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board and regional fire chiefs was discussed.
The agreement includes:
• Allowing trees 14-inches in diameter to be cut without a permit within the defensible space zone for fire protection.
• Fire agencies reviewing emergency vehicle access to properties early in the planning stages of development.
• Allowing 100 feet of defensible space around homes and 300 feet on steep slopes.
Still being discussed is the use of pine needles. TRPA likes them for erosion control. Fire officials see them as flammable material.
At the initial September meeting the 21 commissioners touched on having both governors seek a federal emergency declaration for the basin when it comes to fuel reduction. This idea was further discussed last month with a formal agreement to study the idea.
What a state of emergency would mean, funding for it and other issues are expected to be discussed at the next meeting.
It’s been estimated that $200 million is needed to complete the fuel reduction projects in the basin.
The Nov. 8-9 meetings were canceled because of the devastation down south. As of press time they had not been rescheduled.
The panel is mandated to issue a final report in March.
Board of Supes in Tahoe
On Oct. 23 the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors met at Lake Tahoe Community College, with an update on the Angora Fire near the top of the agenda.
Kathy Murphy, fuels specialist with the Forest Service, gave a PowerPoint presentation that showed before, during and after pictures of the nearly 3,100-acre inferno.
“If fire hazard reduction is the goal of treatment, then we need a more aggressive treatment on steep ground than flat,” Murphy told the crowd.
She showed pictures where thinned out areas in flat areas burned on the ground – what’s supposed to happen. Whereas the hillside going up to Angora Ridge is a total loss because the fire burned so hot and crowned even where fuels had been removed.
With the three components of fire being weather, topography and fuel, and the latter the only thing people have control over, removal of it needs to work in all areas, she stressed.
Murphy showed photos of houses ablaze but trees and bushes untouched. This was evidence of some houses being ignited by embers.
A crown fire raged in Angora Creek stream environmental zone.
“We saw very little evidence of riparian vegetation (there),” Murphy said of the densely forested area. “It’s choked with conifer trees.”
Other fire information
As of early this month, Cal Fire said fire season in Amador and El Dorado counties was ongoing.
“Due to the commitment of resources in Southern California and predicted warm and dry conditions it’s not likely there will be a permissive burn day for some time. Burn permits are required for all backyard burning,” an Oct. 24 release said.
The 45-day mail-in voting period in the Tahoe City area ended Oct. 24 with the approval of a tax that should produce $625,000 for North Tahoe Fire Protection District programs. Money will go toward wood chipping, fuels reduction, defensible space, upgrading communication systems, paying for fire suppression helicopters, planning neighborhood evacuation routes and upping fire personnel staff during critical times.
Homeowners will pay a minimum of $48 a year.
On Nov. 13, Scott Stephens of UC Berkeley will talk at Sierra Nevada College in Incline about the interactions of wildland fires and ecosystems. The 5:30-7 p.m. meeting costs $5.
By Kathryn Reed
Even though El Dorado County Supervisor Norma Santiago is not thrilled with how everything has transpired since the Angora Fire, she is a resource for what to do when a catastrophe strikes.
Lt. Gov. John Garamendi summoned her to Southern California in late October-early November to enlighten the folks how to proceed when homes are lost, acreage is charred and lives upended by a wildfire.
To help victims of the Angora Fire, Santiago will be setting up a one-stop office for people wanting to rebuild.
“We had a multi-agency team for tree removal. I’m going to setup the same thing for the reconstruction process so architects, engineers, contractors all have a single point of contract,” Santiago said. “I’ve heard one too many times ‘I wish I had taken my money and bought in Minden or the county or city’.”
When it rained in mid-September, Carry Loomis watched water flow into her footing. She and her husband, Tom, and their 12-year-old child lost their home on Coyote Ridge Circle when an illegal campfire wiped out more than 250 houses June 24.
They are rebuilding, but it hasn’t been easy. Loomis is critical of the county.
“I feel like they didn’t expect people to turn around so fast and rebuild. Those of us who did ran into complications,” Loomis said. “It felt like roadblocks were thrown up arbitrarily.”
Santiago said much of the frustration on her end has to do with managers making decisions that will bring flexibility to the process, but people in the field operating by the old rules.
She took her cause to her colleagues in Placerville this month to have the Board of Supervisors OK hiring someone who understands the process and has customer service skills to head the temporary agency. Funding most likely will come from the California Disaster Assistance Act. Essentially it will be a branch of the county Building Department just for Angora.
It’s possible this offshoot will operate out of the old Job One building. Santiago said they may share office space with the Red Cross, which plans to work on long-term recovery for Angora survivors for the next three years.
Santiago is regularly in touch with the Community Disaster Relief Center based out of the Pine Cone Plaza.
“They are a conduit to services. They have case workers,” Santiago said. “They will try to find resource for these folks in terms of long-term recovery.”
Burn area issues
South Lake Tahoe City Manager Dave Jinkens has heard from the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board but not the U.S. Forest Service in regards to his concerns about runoff in the burn area affecting city residents, property and the Lake.
“Permittees are only responsible for flows generated within their respective jurisdictions. The City, therefore, cannot be held liable for runoff exceeding effluent limits that originates outside jurisdictional boundaries …,” Harold Singer, executive director of the water board, wrote to the city.
Jinkens hopes to meet with Forest Service officials soon to discuss his concerns about what is being done in the Gardner Mountain area as well as possibly recouping costs for the city’s efforts to stop winter runoff.
Terry Marceron, local Forest Service supervisor, was unavailable for comment because she was on vacation.
The September and October storms have not caused any runoff issues, according all agencies queried.
“Scientists were out to the hydromulch area after some of the fairly good rainfall. It wasn’t moving at all,” said Cheva Heck, Forest Service spokeswoman.
This month the city expects to wrap up its erosion control efforts in the Gardner Mountain area and at the foot of the hill leading to South Tahoe High School.
The Forest Service completed tree removal of its urban lots on Oct. 30.
“The remaining work between now and November 30 will complete needed roads and trails repairs, eliminate remaining traces of fire suppression activities, and reinforce existing drainages to prevent erosion or run-off damage,” the agency said in a press release.
Bi-state fire commission
At the October bi-state fire commission the agreement between the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board and regional fire chiefs was discussed.
The agreement includes:
• Allowing trees 14-inches in diameter to be cut without a permit within the defensible space zone for fire protection.
• Fire agencies reviewing emergency vehicle access to properties early in the planning stages of development.
• Allowing 100 feet of defensible space around homes and 300 feet on steep slopes.
Still being discussed is the use of pine needles. TRPA likes them for erosion control. Fire officials see them as flammable material.
At the initial September meeting the 21 commissioners touched on having both governors seek a federal emergency declaration for the basin when it comes to fuel reduction. This idea was further discussed last month with a formal agreement to study the idea.
What a state of emergency would mean, funding for it and other issues are expected to be discussed at the next meeting.
It’s been estimated that $200 million is needed to complete the fuel reduction projects in the basin.
The Nov. 8-9 meetings were canceled because of the devastation down south. As of press time they had not been rescheduled.
The panel is mandated to issue a final report in March.
Board of Supes in Tahoe
On Oct. 23 the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors met at Lake Tahoe Community College, with an update on the Angora Fire near the top of the agenda.
Kathy Murphy, fuels specialist with the Forest Service, gave a PowerPoint presentation that showed before, during and after pictures of the nearly 3,100-acre inferno.
“If fire hazard reduction is the goal of treatment, then we need a more aggressive treatment on steep ground than flat,” Murphy told the crowd.
She showed pictures where thinned out areas in flat areas burned on the ground – what’s supposed to happen. Whereas the hillside going up to Angora Ridge is a total loss because the fire burned so hot and crowned even where fuels had been removed.
With the three components of fire being weather, topography and fuel, and the latter the only thing people have control over, removal of it needs to work in all areas, she stressed.
Murphy showed photos of houses ablaze but trees and bushes untouched. This was evidence of some houses being ignited by embers.
A crown fire raged in Angora Creek stream environmental zone.
“We saw very little evidence of riparian vegetation (there),” Murphy said of the densely forested area. “It’s choked with conifer trees.”
Other fire information
As of early this month, Cal Fire said fire season in Amador and El Dorado counties was ongoing.
“Due to the commitment of resources in Southern California and predicted warm and dry conditions it’s not likely there will be a permissive burn day for some time. Burn permits are required for all backyard burning,” an Oct. 24 release said.
The 45-day mail-in voting period in the Tahoe City area ended Oct. 24 with the approval of a tax that should produce $625,000 for North Tahoe Fire Protection District programs. Money will go toward wood chipping, fuels reduction, defensible space, upgrading communication systems, paying for fire suppression helicopters, planning neighborhood evacuation routes and upping fire personnel staff during critical times.
Homeowners will pay a minimum of $48 a year.
On Nov. 13, Scott Stephens of UC Berkeley will talk at Sierra Nevada College in Incline about the interactions of wildland fires and ecosystems. The 5:30-7 p.m. meeting costs $5.
Angora -- John moves back to burn area
unedited nov tahoe mt. news story
Editor’s note: This is a monthly article about one of the hundreds of people who lost their homes in the Angora Fire.
By Kathryn Reed
Boxes of All Clad cookware fill the kitchen island. A Kitchen Aid mixer is on the granite countertop. Bottle by bottle the refrigerator is stocked.
It’s Halloween. In some ways, John Mauriello is like a kid in a candy store. In other ways he exhibits signs of stress. Moving does that to a person.
He’s home – sort of. Well, he’s more at home than he has been since June 24.
“I’m tired. I’m old. I shouldn’t be doing this,” Mauriello said has he unpacked boxes.
He turns 69 on Nov. 25. He has no birthday plans. He says his life is a bit boring right now. He gives it a G-rating.
This won’t be his last move. He wants to own something – something more than a dirt lot.
Mauriello is one of the first Angora Fire survivors to move back to the burn area after having lost everything in the summer catastrophe.
“For some reason I feel I want to go back to the neighborhood. The primary reason is the bond people have is incredible,” Mauriello said Oct. 15. “This is the one case where everyone has everything in common. It’s like a magnet pulling me back.”
A few friends helped him unload his belongings Oct. 31. It was Jeff Joslyn’s house who Mauriello first evacuated to. When Gardner Mountain residents packed up, they both ended up at Gary Schank’s house in the Keys.
Mauriello’s sound board from his grand piano is the last item to be carted off the truck. It’s in the back of this 2,500-square-foot house on Snow Mountain Drive. It’s a sculpture of sorts. It’s a strong tie to what was.
“Those guys saved my butt,” Mauriello said of Joslyn, Schank and Mark Anthenien, who was not there on moving day. “I was an emotional basket case.”
His best friend, Robert Stiles, has moved out here from Texas. His is another shoulder for Mauriello to lean on as the 68-year-old figures out where he goes from here.
A new reality
“You asked me does it feel like home. I had to think about it. My response is it’s a beautiful place, a nice place to hang your hat,” Mauriello said Nov. 5. “But home to me is yours, you own it. This place is better than mine that burned down, but it’s not home.”
It was probably always going to be impossible for Mauriello to forget about life before the illegal campfire erupted into a 3,100-plus acre blaze that took more than 250 houses. Now it will be even more difficult.
Clanging hammers, the dut-dut-dut of nail guns, excavators moving dirt, contractors framing, 18-wheelers coming and going – his neighborhood is a construction zone. Houses throughout the area are in various stages of rising from the ashes.
From his deck, Echo Point punctuates the blue sky that is dotted with puffy white clouds. Angora Ridge is a stark reminder of the devastation. Charred tree stumps dot the landscape.
Across the street is a National Forest lot with the bulk of the trees still erect. Even though a few are singed, the plot looks out of place when most all the other pines have been razed.
Now what?
Mauriello is on a bit of a spending spree. His bedroom set arrives this month. Ideally, a grand piano will as well. Earlier this month he was negotiating with the people he’d bought his first one from.
He’s the type of guy who wants the best deal even though the insurance company will reimburse him. He says he’s spending money like it’s his, not someone else’s.
The first week of November he was tracked down at Lowe’s looking for throw rugs to put in front of the gas fireplace and for the front entry.
He rescinded his offer on the Christmas Valley house, but still has his lot on the market. If the contract runs out with the listing agent before it sells, he doesn’t know what he’ll do.
“I was at my lot (on Mount Olympic Circle). It wasn’t bad with those trees cut down. The views are spectacular,” Mauriello said last month. “You could see Heavenly, Spooner Summit, Twin Peaks.”
With the blackened conifers hauled away, the neighborhood looks different, even better than right after the fire. That plays into Mauriello’s indecision.
Financially, to buy a place he would be happy to call home, the retiree needs to sell the lot. Even though the thought of rebuilding has been overwhelming at times and led him to list the property, he is not 100 percent sure he wants to let it go.
Time. He’s counting on it to provide answers.
He went before the county Board of Supervisors when they met at Lake Tahoe Community College last month. Mauriello didn’t use his full three minutes to express his frustration with having his insurance company pay to remove his trees before the county decided to do it throughout the region.
In the corridor beyond the ears of the supervisors, another Angora survivor told Mauriello how she had done the same thing. They both had wanted to do the right thing and in turn feel screwed.
It means just that much less cash for them to use for landscaping if and when they rebuild.
For now, Mauriello is content to settle into the house that barely got touched by the fire, to begin rebuilding in other ways. Despite the many unknowns that lay before him, Mauriello knows he has plenty of things to be thankful for this season.
Editor’s note: This is a monthly article about one of the hundreds of people who lost their homes in the Angora Fire.
By Kathryn Reed
Boxes of All Clad cookware fill the kitchen island. A Kitchen Aid mixer is on the granite countertop. Bottle by bottle the refrigerator is stocked.
It’s Halloween. In some ways, John Mauriello is like a kid in a candy store. In other ways he exhibits signs of stress. Moving does that to a person.
He’s home – sort of. Well, he’s more at home than he has been since June 24.
“I’m tired. I’m old. I shouldn’t be doing this,” Mauriello said has he unpacked boxes.
He turns 69 on Nov. 25. He has no birthday plans. He says his life is a bit boring right now. He gives it a G-rating.
This won’t be his last move. He wants to own something – something more than a dirt lot.
Mauriello is one of the first Angora Fire survivors to move back to the burn area after having lost everything in the summer catastrophe.
“For some reason I feel I want to go back to the neighborhood. The primary reason is the bond people have is incredible,” Mauriello said Oct. 15. “This is the one case where everyone has everything in common. It’s like a magnet pulling me back.”
A few friends helped him unload his belongings Oct. 31. It was Jeff Joslyn’s house who Mauriello first evacuated to. When Gardner Mountain residents packed up, they both ended up at Gary Schank’s house in the Keys.
Mauriello’s sound board from his grand piano is the last item to be carted off the truck. It’s in the back of this 2,500-square-foot house on Snow Mountain Drive. It’s a sculpture of sorts. It’s a strong tie to what was.
“Those guys saved my butt,” Mauriello said of Joslyn, Schank and Mark Anthenien, who was not there on moving day. “I was an emotional basket case.”
His best friend, Robert Stiles, has moved out here from Texas. His is another shoulder for Mauriello to lean on as the 68-year-old figures out where he goes from here.
A new reality
“You asked me does it feel like home. I had to think about it. My response is it’s a beautiful place, a nice place to hang your hat,” Mauriello said Nov. 5. “But home to me is yours, you own it. This place is better than mine that burned down, but it’s not home.”
It was probably always going to be impossible for Mauriello to forget about life before the illegal campfire erupted into a 3,100-plus acre blaze that took more than 250 houses. Now it will be even more difficult.
Clanging hammers, the dut-dut-dut of nail guns, excavators moving dirt, contractors framing, 18-wheelers coming and going – his neighborhood is a construction zone. Houses throughout the area are in various stages of rising from the ashes.
From his deck, Echo Point punctuates the blue sky that is dotted with puffy white clouds. Angora Ridge is a stark reminder of the devastation. Charred tree stumps dot the landscape.
Across the street is a National Forest lot with the bulk of the trees still erect. Even though a few are singed, the plot looks out of place when most all the other pines have been razed.
Now what?
Mauriello is on a bit of a spending spree. His bedroom set arrives this month. Ideally, a grand piano will as well. Earlier this month he was negotiating with the people he’d bought his first one from.
He’s the type of guy who wants the best deal even though the insurance company will reimburse him. He says he’s spending money like it’s his, not someone else’s.
The first week of November he was tracked down at Lowe’s looking for throw rugs to put in front of the gas fireplace and for the front entry.
He rescinded his offer on the Christmas Valley house, but still has his lot on the market. If the contract runs out with the listing agent before it sells, he doesn’t know what he’ll do.
“I was at my lot (on Mount Olympic Circle). It wasn’t bad with those trees cut down. The views are spectacular,” Mauriello said last month. “You could see Heavenly, Spooner Summit, Twin Peaks.”
With the blackened conifers hauled away, the neighborhood looks different, even better than right after the fire. That plays into Mauriello’s indecision.
Financially, to buy a place he would be happy to call home, the retiree needs to sell the lot. Even though the thought of rebuilding has been overwhelming at times and led him to list the property, he is not 100 percent sure he wants to let it go.
Time. He’s counting on it to provide answers.
He went before the county Board of Supervisors when they met at Lake Tahoe Community College last month. Mauriello didn’t use his full three minutes to express his frustration with having his insurance company pay to remove his trees before the county decided to do it throughout the region.
In the corridor beyond the ears of the supervisors, another Angora survivor told Mauriello how she had done the same thing. They both had wanted to do the right thing and in turn feel screwed.
It means just that much less cash for them to use for landscaping if and when they rebuild.
For now, Mauriello is content to settle into the house that barely got touched by the fire, to begin rebuilding in other ways. Despite the many unknowns that lay before him, Mauriello knows he has plenty of things to be thankful for this season.
Biomass at STHS up in the air
unedited nov tahoe mt news story:
By Kathryn Reed
Ridding forests of hazardous fuels and creating less reliance on natural gas are what a biomass boiler at South Tahoe High School could do. The problem is the fine particles it would produce could create air pollution and health problems.
That’s the quandary officials are finding themselves in as they decide if installing a biomass boiler at the school is feasible environmentally, economically and health-wise.
The outcome of a Nov. 5 meeting was supposed to be a final decision – build it or don’t. Instead, reps from the school district, consultants for the district, U.S. Forest Service, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, El Dorado County Air Quality Management District, the county supervisor and Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign members will reconvene next month.
“By the end of the meeting most people’s attitude was to see if there is a way to make this project work in the current codes of the respective agencies,” said Steve Morales, facilities director for Lake Tahoe Unified School District. “The difficulty remains that it’s on a school site. We need to make sure it’s a health risk-free project.”
It would be the first biomass boiler on a California school campus. The location, size, structure it’s housed in and moisture content of the slash all play into the decision.
At this month’s meeting the group decided to run a health risk analysis on emissions from a biomass boiler, initiate a California Environmental Quality Act study and begin the TRPA permitting process.
The idea is that slash piles from the area would be hauled to the school, it would be burned in a boiler and the steam created would provide heat to the school.
Morales estimates the district could save about $125,000 a year on natural gas bills with the boiler.
However, the remaining $290,000 of the $330,000 federal grant is not enough to build the system. Morales said it could cost $1.2 million to install the boiler. But the district could break even in about 10 years.
The initial expenditures have been for consultant and engineer studies and some permitting. Plus, there’s the expense of transporting the wood to the school
“We definitely support researching more development of biomass opportunities in Lake Tahoe,” said Julie Regan, TRPA spokeswoman. “There are too many burn piles for the amount of burn days we have available at Lake Tahoe because of the weather. We have a great opportunity to enhance the economic development through reusing wood material in arts and crafts.”
She pointed to areas along the North Coast and in the Pacific Northwest where artists turn scrap wood into art and suggested there is a market for the same thing here.
An irony is that burning slash piles clearly pollutes the air and drops particles into the lake. But it does thin the forest and reduces the threat of a wildfire while also making the forest healthier. A biomass facility can have the same negative impacts, but produces energy. A co-generation plant can produce electricity.
But biomass facilities are expensive to build and come with a ton of regulations. And once the forest is thinned, the annual supply of slash for the plant is minimal.
That’s one reason Mark Johnson of Golden Sierra Power in South Lake Tahoe has proposed a mobile biomass system. His company is all about renewable energy.
He said he was supposed to go before the bi-state fire commission this month to talk about his ideas, but the meeting was canceled. The December agenda was not out as of press time.
The Forest Service is a proponent of biomass, but realizes the debris and the end-user need to be fairly close to make it work. Spokesman Rex Norman said about one-third of the wildland interface is accessible by road.
“Building new roads would be contrary to water quality,” Norman said. “That’s not to say any of these things is insurmountable. There may be ways material could be brought out where there are not any roads, through a conveyor system or light on land vehicle systems.”
The basin has plenty of wood to supply any biomass boiler – 60,000 acres still need to be treated. About 13,000 acres have been treated by modern standards.
“Private industry is the one who is going to have to find end uses and networks and transportation systems to make it possible,” Norman said of biomass technology. “It will help in the long term, but if you wait to use that as a major solution, we will probably be waiting 20 years and there are going to be fires here.”
By Kathryn Reed
Ridding forests of hazardous fuels and creating less reliance on natural gas are what a biomass boiler at South Tahoe High School could do. The problem is the fine particles it would produce could create air pollution and health problems.
That’s the quandary officials are finding themselves in as they decide if installing a biomass boiler at the school is feasible environmentally, economically and health-wise.
The outcome of a Nov. 5 meeting was supposed to be a final decision – build it or don’t. Instead, reps from the school district, consultants for the district, U.S. Forest Service, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, El Dorado County Air Quality Management District, the county supervisor and Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign members will reconvene next month.
“By the end of the meeting most people’s attitude was to see if there is a way to make this project work in the current codes of the respective agencies,” said Steve Morales, facilities director for Lake Tahoe Unified School District. “The difficulty remains that it’s on a school site. We need to make sure it’s a health risk-free project.”
It would be the first biomass boiler on a California school campus. The location, size, structure it’s housed in and moisture content of the slash all play into the decision.
At this month’s meeting the group decided to run a health risk analysis on emissions from a biomass boiler, initiate a California Environmental Quality Act study and begin the TRPA permitting process.
The idea is that slash piles from the area would be hauled to the school, it would be burned in a boiler and the steam created would provide heat to the school.
Morales estimates the district could save about $125,000 a year on natural gas bills with the boiler.
However, the remaining $290,000 of the $330,000 federal grant is not enough to build the system. Morales said it could cost $1.2 million to install the boiler. But the district could break even in about 10 years.
The initial expenditures have been for consultant and engineer studies and some permitting. Plus, there’s the expense of transporting the wood to the school
“We definitely support researching more development of biomass opportunities in Lake Tahoe,” said Julie Regan, TRPA spokeswoman. “There are too many burn piles for the amount of burn days we have available at Lake Tahoe because of the weather. We have a great opportunity to enhance the economic development through reusing wood material in arts and crafts.”
She pointed to areas along the North Coast and in the Pacific Northwest where artists turn scrap wood into art and suggested there is a market for the same thing here.
An irony is that burning slash piles clearly pollutes the air and drops particles into the lake. But it does thin the forest and reduces the threat of a wildfire while also making the forest healthier. A biomass facility can have the same negative impacts, but produces energy. A co-generation plant can produce electricity.
But biomass facilities are expensive to build and come with a ton of regulations. And once the forest is thinned, the annual supply of slash for the plant is minimal.
That’s one reason Mark Johnson of Golden Sierra Power in South Lake Tahoe has proposed a mobile biomass system. His company is all about renewable energy.
He said he was supposed to go before the bi-state fire commission this month to talk about his ideas, but the meeting was canceled. The December agenda was not out as of press time.
The Forest Service is a proponent of biomass, but realizes the debris and the end-user need to be fairly close to make it work. Spokesman Rex Norman said about one-third of the wildland interface is accessible by road.
“Building new roads would be contrary to water quality,” Norman said. “That’s not to say any of these things is insurmountable. There may be ways material could be brought out where there are not any roads, through a conveyor system or light on land vehicle systems.”
The basin has plenty of wood to supply any biomass boiler – 60,000 acres still need to be treated. About 13,000 acres have been treated by modern standards.
“Private industry is the one who is going to have to find end uses and networks and transportation systems to make it possible,” Norman said of biomass technology. “It will help in the long term, but if you wait to use that as a major solution, we will probably be waiting 20 years and there are going to be fires here.”
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