County ponies up $450,000 to fund Lake Link through June

The remainder of $600,000 to fund a micro-transit system at Lake Tahoe was approved by Douglas County commissioners 3-2 last week.

Commissioners approved $450,000 for Lake Link through the end of the fiscal year on the condition none of the money goes to fund a newly formed joint powers authority between South Lake Tahoe and El Dorado County.

The county commission serves as the board of the Tahoe Douglas Transportation District, which is funded from a 1-percent room tax.

That district is different from the Tahoe Transportation District, which is a separate entity that operates Blue Go.

Lake Link is operated by the South Shore Transportation Management Association.

“It’s a little bit confusing to members of the general public when we start dealing with the acronym soup that is Lake Tahoe,” Assistant County Manager Scott Morgan said.

The micro-transit system known as Lake Link was a requirement from the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency for approval of the Tahoe Blue Event Center.

According to its website, Lake Link is an on-demand app-based service that goes from Round Hill and up Kingsbury deep into South Lake Tahoe.

Under an agreement with the Tahoe Douglas Visitors Authority, which operates the center, half the money collected in lodging tax would fund micro-transit. That amounts to $670,000 a year that must be spent on transportation at Lake Tahoe under state law. Commissioners approved transferring $150,000 to the system on Sept. 19.

The joint powers agreement approved by the California entities is designed to jointly tackle transportation issues.

“Right now we all kind of scratch our heads seeing a micro-transit van right behind a Blue Go Bus going up and down Highway 50,” Morgan said. “Their attempt is to make this system more efficient and expand services.”

However, despite receiving Douglas County interest in participating in the agreement, El Dorado and South Lake Tahoe approved moving forward, which means the operators of the micro-transit are in the agreement, but Douglas is not.

“There is a marriage between Blue Go and micro-transit through the JPA changing the structure of the services,” Morgan said. “It has been identified that Blue Go will be the fixed route system operating on Tahoe Boulevard or Highway 50 and micro transit would be the first or last mile between stops.”

Vice chairwoman Sharla Hales said if the commissioners don’t see a change in the process, they could decide to do something different in their budget hearings next spring.

“We’ve told them very clearly that we are not in favor of any of our money or resources going to the JPA of which we are not a part,” she said. “Progress is being made, and I do feel that if we don't support this that Lake Link would be done and that would be a step backwards.”

The South Shore Transit Joint Powers Authority is expected to conduct its first meeting in January.