In response to Composting in Our Mountain Hamlet in the August 2023 print edition.
Long-time composter
I was happy to read Amy Fagel’s article about composting in Tahoe and I appreciate the work Slow Food Tahoe Lake Tahoe does. I live in Kings Beach and before that I was a professional gardener for over 25 years. Composting had always been obligatory for me and I was frustrated when I moved here not to be able to do it. I eventually experimented by taking my green kitchen scraps and grinding them up in a food processor and mixing them up with coffee grounds and tea leaves. I then spread them around the yard. I was worried that I would be attracting bears and kept a lookout for months to see if that was happening. I’m happy to report that I’ve been spreading my homemade quick compost in the yard for six months now and haven’t seen any bears attracted to it. Voilà! Much green waste has been diverted from the landfill and my soil is being nourished.
~ Julia Powers, Kings Beach, via website
In response to Community Division Over the ‘Improvement’ of Incline’s General Improvement District in the August 2023 print edition.
IVIGD trustees need training
IVGID needs to require trustees to receive training on their new role as elected officials. Trustees have no business telling line employees how to do their jobs. If they feel that the line staff is not following district policy, that conversation should be between the trustee and GM. It sounds like Schmitz and Dent believe that they’re acting in the best interests of the district and community, but their ham-fisted actions as trustees (Schmitz “didn’t know” that unanimity was required for the grant from the Duffield Foundation? Seriously? Distracted much?) and micromanaging district staff have resulted in discord and diminished morale. A recall vote will determine who has greater credibility with voters, Schmitz and Dent or Winquest, and may get the district back on track.
~ Pete Bansen, Reno, via website
In response to No ‘Thank You’? You’re Welcome in the August 2023 print edition.
Manners are important
100%! Manners. They go miles. Thanks.
~ Marianne M. Porter, Truckee, via Facebook
Politeness is necessary
I love this. Am I old? This is a question I ask myself all the time as a teacher. Manners were always important when I was growing up and we are super strict about this at home. I have a kid with no filter. She’s brutally honest. We work on diplomacy and manners every day. It’s constant. As a teacher I am shocked by the behavior of some kids. Politeness goes a very long way. Again, maybe I’m old. You nailed it.
~ Carrie Haines, Truckee, via Facebook
In response to Tahoe Prosperity Center’s False Narrative in the August 2023 print edition.
Bowing down to money
So fun that the Ink started as a very functional paper for all of us and now it just centralizes and bows down to all the money flowing into our communities. Mayumi – I asked you a long time ago to do some investigating regarding the price fixing going on among the fuel providers in Truckee and North Shore of Tahoe. To date you have done nothing. Shameful. I’m too old to wait. Keep publishing the crap that makes money happy. I wish you well.
~ Jeff Davis, Newcastle, via Instagram
^ Editors’ note: Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Jeff. To clarify — the article you’re referring to is an opinion piece. The opinion pages are intended for people to voice their views. What we bow down to is community discourse. Further, Moonshine has looked into the question of fuel price fixing in several stories you can find online at moonshineink.com:
- The Petroleum Predicament
- Why Is Gas So Much Cheaper at the Truckee River RV Park on Hirschdale Road?
- Why are Gas Prices So High; Are Impact Fees Curbing Development?
Money over community
Completely agree 100%. Lake Tahoe is not only being destroyed by self-interested organizations like Tahoe Prosperity, TRPA, that care about money over the community at any cost! The Resort Association has changed its name to “community” something, as if they have any alignment with the community that lives here. What a joke. These groups continue to push for more tourism, support ridiculous STRs in our neighborhoods so they can house their precious tourists, changes to regulations meant to protect Lake Tahoe, and development projects that really need more thought.
Tahoe has become a dangerous place to live because of the massive number of people and risk of wildfire, and now also organizations like the so-called prosperity center.
~ Cheri Sugal, Kings Beach, via Facebook
Remember why TRPA was created
Seems like the average Tahoe resident wasn’t here in the 1960s to experience the threat of massive development on Lake Tahoe, so massive it led to the creation of a unique bi-state agency to regulate it. The preservation of the gift of Lake Tahoe is being forgotten for the mantra of endless development.
~ Rick Cooper, Reno, via Facebook
In response to What Is Something You’ve Done Before, But Would Never Do Again – And Why? in the August print edition.
Blue-collar locals matter, too
I find the responses to this edition’s Do Tell segment very superficial and sophomoric, and, in general, it seems that you guys often pick the most stereotypical ski/mountain life/stoner/passion bums to answer these things. How does one become involved in this segment? There are hard-working, blue-collar people in this area who are proud of what they do and help prop everything up and support all the services for all of the bums to take advantage of as they engage in their circuitous hunt for the next thrill and take for granted their cake existence in such an awesome place, while dismissing such trivialities as working an office job, or serving, or riding the bus, or riding a motorcycle with no helmet and a surfboard as regrettable things that shall never cross their existence again (privilege, much?). I think these blue-collar people — myself included — could give more substantial, meaningful answers to the various questions posed and to the overall content contained within the Ink. Perhaps none of us try and so that is why we aren’t heard. Well, here I am to try.
~ Thomas Parris, Truckee, via letter
In response to Is It Too Expensive to Build? in the August 2023 print edition.
Construction is costly
Speaking as part of the local building industry, we have absolutely felt the impacts!
~ Mark Smith, Incline Village, via Facebook
Great article
Great article about the current construction environment. Nice work getting input from multiple sources.
~ Chris Creedon, Truckee, via Instagram
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