SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — Flatstick Pub, an indoor mini golf course that also serves alcohol and food, is teaming up with Clean Tahoe in October.
Each Sunday of October, Flatstick will donate $1 for every beer and $1 for every round of mini golf purchased from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. to the nonprofit that is dedicated to improving the visual environment of the South Shore of the Lake Tahoe Basin through proper litter and trash management and public education.
Flatstick Pub is supporting Clean Tahoe every Sunday in October. Provided
Locally-owned and family-operated, Flatstick Pub is seeking to enliven and empower their community by hosting Sunday FundDay once a week every month with the intention of raising $200,000 for local nonprofit organizations in 2022.
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — South Lake Tahoe City Council on Tuesday finalized adoption of a single-use plastic water bottle ban for city facilities and permitted, temporary activities and special events that will go into effect in the spring.
The ban will expand to sales citywide on April 22, 2024, allowing businesses additional time to prepare for this shift, officials said. The ban will prohibit the sale of single-use plastic water bottles less than one gallon with an exception for emergency situations designated by City Manager Joe Irvin.
Single-use plastics are a significant source of waste and pollution due to the sheer volume of these products produced and used by consumers and the long amount of time they exist in the environment after their short, useful life ends, the city said in a press release. Discarded plastics are particularly damaging to water quality as they do not break down or decompose. Instead, they eventually break apart into microplastics that end up washed downstream into waterbodies.
Through the course of an ongoing study, the University of California Davis’s Tahoe Environmental Resource Center recently found plastic in almost every sample taken from beaches around the Lake. Because no wastewater is discharged to Lake Tahoe, most of the microplastic waste appears to be coming from plastic litter, especially plastic bottles and bags.
Visitors and businesses can contribute to the stewardship of Lake Tahoe by drinking local tap water or purchasing more sustainable single-use options. The Tahoe Water Suppliers Association, a consortium of local municipal water agencies, and TERC, developed the ‘Drink Tahoe Tap’ campaign to encourage people to embrace the award-winning tap water and ditch the single use plastic water bottles. Even Raley’s, one of the area supermarkets, has been a committed partner displaying ‘Drink Tahoe Tap’ water bottles in the front of their stores.
“We aim to find ways to support an already roust ‘Drink Tahoe Tap’ marketing campaign and look forward to working with our business community to help them embrace this opportunity to participate in the stewardship of Lake Tahoe,” said Sara Letton, the city’s sustainability coordinator. “The community really stepped up to overwhelmingly support this at the first City Council presentation, but we also heard loud and clear from our business community that they are looking for some support as the ban is implemented.”
In response, the city plans to install water bottle refill stations at strategic locations throughout the community over the next couple of years and will work with local partners on outreach and education to drive behavior change toward refilling with tap water.
While it’s true that beverage bottles are highly recyclable, consuming single-use plastics just to feed the recycling stream is not a model sustainability practice. Alternatives to single-use plastic water bottles are readily available in the market, including 100% recyclable aluminum single-use water bottles.
“Most people might remember the adage ‘reduce, reuse, recycle.’ Consider that a prioritized list of actions,” Letton continued. “When it comes to sustainability, ‘reduce’ is always the most sustainable choice. Introducing visitors to South Lake Tahoe’s award-winning tap water is one of the many excellent experiences the City hopes to provide its residents and guests.”
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — Continuing its mission of advancing local healthcare through philanthropy, the Barton Health Foundation is hosting the Barton Health Foundation Golf Classic on Monday, Oct. 17, at Edgewood Tahoe, to raise funds to improve breast cancer diagnosis and treatment.
All funds raised will go toward the advancement of Barton’s 3D breast screening program, which will soon include contrast enhanced mammography, a technique that uses an intravenous contrast agent that shows new or unusual blood flow patterns that develop when cancers grow, along with 3D-guided biopsy, a minimally invasive procedure to gather tissue samples from a breast abnormality.
“This technology is truly state-of-the-art and takes breast imaging to a new level, demonstrating the most extensive mammographic offering in the Tahoe Basin,” said Dr. Kinsey Pillsbury, fellowship-trained mammographer and radiologist with Barton Medical Imaging.
“With these advancements to our 3D mammography program, we will be able to better understand abnormalities and prepare for surgical removal, making the procedure faster and more comfortable for patients.”
3D mammograms improve cancer detection rates, reduce the need for additional testing and multiple visits, have the ability to detect more invasive cancers, reduce false positives, and improve cancer detection especially in people with dense breasts, resulting in life-saving diagnosis and treatment.
Procedures using Contrast Enhanced Mammography and 3D-Guided Biopsy are expected to be available to the community through Barton Medical Imaging later this year. Patients are encouraged to speak with their care provider about their risk for certain cancers and the screenings available.
“We look forward to joining together as a community to raise money for important innovations in technology that advance healthcare technology in our community,” said Chris Kiser, executive director of the Barton Health Foundation. “Our Golf Classic offers community members the opportunity to make a positive impact on local healthcare through their personal philanthropy. We look forward to a fun-filled day of golf.”
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — Van Sickle Bi-State Park will be temporarily closed this week as Heavenly Mountain Resort shifts from summer operations to preparing the gondola for the winter season.
The park that straddles both California and Nevada will be closed from Wednesday, Oct. 5, with Friday, Oct. 7 the anticipated end date.
Heavenly’s gondola preparation work requires access to gondola towers and cables that are located within the park. As a result, the park will be closed to vehicle and guest access.
Once this work is complete, the California Tahoe Conservancy and Nevada State Parks will reopen the 725-acre park.
