Stateline gathering a smooth start to 2007

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 smaller crowd than normal.

With most agencies reporting a quiet holiday for the start of 2007, the Douglas County Sheriff's Office reported 18 people were arrested. The assortment of bookings, which included disorderly conduct, battery and a driving under the influence charge, was far fewer than the usual revelry outcome. And deputies only logged four arrests in 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. to allow for the public street display. 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 to contend with, they did so without much incident.

Mezzetta added that beyond 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 staffer 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 managed to get through the evening over a three-day weekend with two non-injury crashes and a few cases of driving under the influence.

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

Even the traffic on Highway 50 on New Year's Day told the story of fewer people in town. In most years, the traffic backs up through town in which a walker could move faster than four wheels. This year, no backups were seen at midtown with a mere slowing through Meyers.

Hotel room occupancy may have added to the story of a far less busy South Shore for one of its biggest weekends due to perhaps less snow than usual by this time. Lodging establishments like 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. And the following weekend is sold out. She wouldn't rule out the lack of snow to ski and board on as a reason.

And 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 to ride on the perception of insufficient snow is out there from the looks at lake level.

"We don't need snow at lake level," 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."

Until then, Kaler admitted to being pleased Lake Tahoe was ranked by Google in its top five destinations for non-skiing activities.