Authorities: South Lake New Year's went smoothly

STATELINE - South Shore law enforcement and the people it serves may have dodged a bullet over another New Year's weekend with fewer arrests and a lesser crowd than normal.

With most agencies reporting a quiet holiday for the turning of 2007, the Douglas County Sheriff's Department reported 18 people were arrested. The bookings - including disorderly conduct, battery and a driving under the influence charge - was far fewer than usual. Deputies only logged four arrests in the Carson Valley.

"Apparently, all of Douglas County was quiet," Sgt. Tom Mezzetta said Monday.

Crowd estimates fell short of the 60,000 to 80,000 most New Year's celebrations bring out at the Stateline casino corridor, where the authorities close Highway 50 at 9 p.m.

The highway reopened at 1 a.m., and although revelers took their time to clear the streets and left Clean Tahoe with 30 bags of trash, they did so without much incident.

Mezzetta added that besides the young, alcohol-consuming crowd, he noticed adults pushing baby carriages.

"Maybe this year was more mature. I'm just happy it worked out," he said.

An emergency-room worker at Barton Memorial Hospital described the scene there as relatively benign, in comparison to previous years.

Lake Valley Fire had sent its ambulance to cover the city only a few times during the evening into New Year's Day, an unusual scenario for the El Dorado County-area unit.

California Highway Patrol got through the evening of the three-day weekend with two non-injury crashes and a few DUI cases.

"It wasn't quiet but not busy," Sgt. Terry Lowther reported.

On Highway 50 on New Year's Day, no traffic backups were seen at midtown, with a mere slowing through Meyers.

Hotel room occupancy was also down perhaps because there is less snow than usual. Lakeside Inn and Casino and Americana Village had vacancies, which is uncommon this time of year.

Lakeside reservations clerk Veronica Contrera said she was surprised the casino hotel wasn't sold out because rooms were fully booked over last New Year's Eve weekend. Next weekend is sold out so she wouldn't rule out the lack of snow.

Ed McCarthy, who runs Americana Village, believed that "could very well be true," especially since "in theory, we have fewer hotels from redevelopment (closing down some) and should fill up others."

Patrick Kaler, executive director of the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority, said that despite the ski areas having snow, the perception of insufficient snow is out there - possibly because of the amount at lake level.

"We don't need snow at lake level (to ski)," he said, adding that some people could be waiting for a few snowfall dumps. "We haven't had big snow. But we'll get our turn."