MEYERS, Calif. — The Meyers Advisory Council on Tuesday, Sept. 27, discussed the future of the visitor’s center.

The visitor’s center is located near the intersection of U.S. Highway 50 and California State Route 89 and is owned by the USDA Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit.

Daniel Cressy, public services officer for LTBMU gave a presentation about the center to the council. 

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“Meyers Interagency Visitors Center is an underutilized opportunity,” Cressy began his presentation by saying. “I started working here in 2003 and I believe there were some services being offered at that time but I don’t remember it really ever being a happening place.”

The facility was built in 1992 as a partnership between the California Tahoe Conservancy, Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority and LTBMU but the partnership eventually fell apart. 

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“It feels, and arguably is, an abandoned facility,” Cressy said.

He continued to say he’s interested in exploring ways for the facility to serve the public. 

When it was in operation, Cressy said the primary use was as a bathroom stop, not as a place for visitors to learn information about the area. The forest service has had issues staffing the facility and there has been deferred maintenance that led the service shutting off utilities to the building. 

Cressy said he’s interested in entering into an agreement as an Interpretive Association Agreement, which would be similar to how the Tallac Visitors Center is run. He said there could also be opportunities for volunteers to take over management and the forest service even has special use permits available for possible commercial use of the property. Finally, he said it could be razed and the lot could be used as open space. 

Councilmember John Dayberry spoke with the Washoe Tribe, which said they’d be interested in collaborating on an art installation at the facility. 

The council was interested in exploring the costs of fixing it up before moving forward with a concrete plan. They asked the item to be brought back at the next meeting so they could discuss costs and potential partnerships. 

During the meeting, the council also discussed the Meyers Corridor arts and beautification initiative. Dayberry said he’d like to see a committee formed to discuss what could be represented by the art and who the partners could be. He also said he’d like non-native weed management along the US 50 corridor to be included in the discussion. 

While the council doesn’t have the budget for projects, Dayberry said there are many nonprofits and agencies who are able and willing to do these kinds of projects and the committee could be used to tap into those sources. 

The council also received an update on Paradise Park, which recently built one new pickleball court and refurbished another. They also announced that they are selling season parking passes for $35, all the money goes back into park improvement. 

The date of their next meeting has not yet been announced.