Town of Truckee Emphasizes Only ‘Essential’ Travel is Allowed in the Area Memorial Day Weekend

Donner Lake. Photo by Yannick Van der Auwera

As numerous counties in Northern California begin to reopen and the heavily trafficked Memorial Day weekend looms over residents, the Town of Truckee wants to remind everyone that only “essential” travel is allowed in the area.

While many other towns and counties are beginning to open non-essential businesses during California’s Phase 2 of Covid reopening, Truckee is taking a much more cautious approach. With the prominent vacation homes and limited healthcare facilities in the area, the town that typically relies on the business of tourism is asking people to stay home for a little longer, even if you own a home in the area.

Here is the full statement from the Town of Truckee:

With Memorial Day weekend just a few days away, the Town and several of our community partners have started to receive inquiries from those who own homes in the Truckee/Tahoe region that want to know if they are allowed to travel to the area to check-on or stay in their properties.

The answer is that people need to think as much about whether they SHOULD travel as whether they CAN travel. Our town leaders have continued to emphasize the importance of personal responsibility in each individual’s actions, and this is no different.

There are no legal consequences for those who arrive at their homes, if the travel to that home is for “essential” purposes. If the purpose of traveling was to have a nice visit to Truckee/Tahoe, the Governor and the Nevada County and Placer County health officers would likely view such travel as being against the spirit of the order. Currently, travel is allowed for “business” purposes related to an “essential” business. Nothing in Governor Newsom’s Resilience Roadmap plan for reopening allows for traveling to another home for leisure or recreational purposes. A good rule of thumb is, if you have to ask if your visit is business related, it is likely not an essential reason. Travel SHOULD be for essential or business purposes only.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the lake in South Lake Tahoe, they are allowing nonresidents with vacation homes to visit, but are still handing out $1,000 fines to non-essential visitors.

The Tahoe area will certainly suffer economically from the lack of tourism money coming in for Memorial Day weekend, but they’d rather take on that burden instead of a health fiasco.

Active NorCal

Telling the Stories of Northern California

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