The State - News from Sept. 8, 1985

The owner-operator of the Tahoe Queen tour boat has been fined $40,000 for repeatedly carrying more passengers than the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency permits. The agency said the fine is the largest it has imposed in its 15-year history. The 144-foot vessel was designed to carry up to 500 people, but the agency permits only 250 because of environmental concerns. The boat owner, Herman Joseph Thiemann of South Lake Tahoe, was fined $10,000 last year for similar violations. His lawyer, Kenneth C. Rollston, told the governing board of the two-state agency that the 250-passenger limit was surpassed because it was causing him to lose money. “It was an act of economic desperation,” Rollston said.