What has SOS-Donner Lake been up to this past year? I will try to summarize for you now.

     Fortunately, we haven’t had any direct confrontations with the California State Lands Commission (SLC), so we haven’t had to retain any legal counsel. An attorney had reviewed our past history; however, he said that he was too busy to deal with our problem at this time. He gave us the name of another attorney, in Sacramento, but I haven’t communicated with him yet. I have also talked to a new lakefront Owner and they have suggested another attorney; so, we have a few to talk to. Also, another owner has a son who is apparently a new attorney and is willing to help out while he’s still learning.

     This past summer we attended several meetings regarding the Truckee River Operating Agreement (TROA). The Public Comment period has ended and they are supposed to be preparing their responses to everyone’s comments. As of this date, we have not heard a thing.

     At the same time, the Town of Truckee has had their workshops regarding the new Development Code for the Town. Don Casler and I have attended many of those meetings. We think that we have managed to help lakefront owners by removing many of the restrictions they had proposed for boat docks and the removal of brush, etc. between the water and the 20’ setback (they didn’t want to allow ANY vegetation to be removed!). We are still trying to get the Town to not recognize the State’s, nor ANY government agency’s jurisdiction, unless they can prove they really have such jurisdiction. Don Casler has diligently worked with the Truckee Donner Chamber of Commerce, along with local Attorney, Ruth Frishman, so that the Chamber’s Board of Directors have passed a Resolution asking the Town Council NOT to recognize the State’s claim for jurisdiction regarding boat docks. We don’t know how far that will go, but that should be racked up in the next few months.

     You may remember that we had a co-meeting with an organization "People for the USA", in October, with the California Department of Fish and Game and the Department of Water Resources regarding their position with TROA. Although there were only four of us "members of the public", we were able to get a good feel for what they wanted to accomplish. To summarize real quickly, they are definitely NOT interested in giving Nevada any more water, or RIGHTS to our water, than they already have. Unfortunately, the damage has already been done by Congress in years past (not much chance of changing that right now!!!!). Attached are a couple of sheets and a background to the TROA EIR/EIS process, which were handed out at that meeting which I also have on our web page {[troa.GIF] [troa1.JPG] [troa2.JPG]}.

     Charlie attended a meeting of the "Truckee River Operations Forum", in Reno, on February 17.  The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Office hosted the meeting.  This is where the "players" in TROA discuss where the water is coming from and how it will get to where they want it to go each year.  There were 12 people in attendance; some from the California Bureau of Reclamation (Kathleen Eagan - representing the Town of Truckee) and many Nevada interests.  The Agenda was short and the meeting was over quickly; but the attached "Water Master's Daily Worksheet" was explained.  Bottom line: There's a lot of snow in the mountains ... dah!  It looks like it will be an "unprecedented fifth year in a row of above-normal precipitation".

     We will be calling a meeting so that SOS-Donner Lake can officially organize and get a workable Board of Directors. We are looking for a meeting in mid-May, here in Truckee. Then, maybe we can get additional participation by Donner Lake Front Owners, so it’s not just two "real estate brokers" who might be perceived as having a conflict of interest.

     For those of you who have contributed the past year to our "war chest" we are including a summary of our financial situation, along with a list of contributors – if you don’t see your neighbor’s name on the list, please try to persuade them to help you/us out financially. Until we see that we are having to gear up for a specific fight with any of the agencies, which decide to exert additional controls on our private property rights, we are asking each property owner to contribute a minimum of $150 per parcel for 1999. We expect, in the near future, to begin hiring professionals and experts to aid us in our fights.

     We will try to keep you informed of changes in any of the above, by posting them to our web page: http://www.donner-lake.com/sos-dl.htm.

     I want to thank California Land Title Company, in Truckee, for supplying our mailing labels; CLT has been a good friend to SOS-DL over the years. I also wish to thank Ireland San Filippo, LLP., for their help in setting up our organization with the IRS.

Charles White
Acting Committee Chairman

E-mail: sos@donner-lake.com{Please include: APN with ALL correspondence & check.}

Please mail your checks to: SOS-Donner Lake
P.O. Box 2233, Truckee, CA 96160-2233

P.S.  If you missed our Newsletter from last year, please go to:
     http://www.donner-lake.com/sosltr1.htm