Christmas season, looking forwards to a happy new year. We’re glad we settled in Pine Cove.

The Pine Cove Property Owners Association deserves some credit. Always a source for neighborhood communication, they’ve worked out vendor discounts on essentials like propane. The association works to keep Pine Cove clean, hauling thrown-out appliances, picking up trash from the road-sides. They even help when dog barking becomes too great of a nuisance.

And Pine Cove Water District, Jerry and the board manage to constantly deliver at a reasonable price. We’ve lived in several affluent communities where water supply and quality was in question, so we don’t underestimate its value. A well maintained system, fiscal soundness, great job.

The young men from the water company, any one of them you could trust with the key to your house. The office staff is professional and neighborly. Often, day or night, good weather or bad, Jerry and his small truck can be seen driving the back roads, checking the lines.

Idyllwild politics, however, have often puzzled me. Located in the midst of a high-risk fire zone, the fire commission is filled with infighting. For the last two elections, over a period of several years, every single commissioner that has run for re-election has been rejected and voted out of office (think about that).

Some say, that if radical changes aren’t made, the Idyllwild Fire Department will completely run out of money in the next few months. Chief Walker was just let go, meaning three chiefs in two years. Our fire-fighters need our support, not blows to their morale.

Recreation in Idyllwild is just as strange. There are over 20 recreational directors (I’ve lost count) sitting on boards, dictating policy and making grandiose plans. Meanwhile, all our tax recreational dollars were yanked away from all local control (thanks to mistakes and mismanagement by the Idyllwild Community Recreation Council), and is now being managed by the County. Strange are local politics.

Special mention to the Pine Cove Property Owners Association, to Pine Cove Water, and to all the residents (neighbors and friends) for keeping Pine Cove separate, apart, and far away from, Idyllwild local politics

Norm and Sharon Cassen
Pine Cove

1 COMMENT

  1. Hey Norm and Sharon, good letter with some much needed positive comments regarding PC, however, one correction in your delivery….your letter states you live in PC, so just a FYI, your fire protection in PC is provided by Cal Fire/County and not IFPD. There aren't any financial or political hot potatoes in PC regarding fire protection are there…maybe idyllwild can learn from what PC has with fire protection and "issues"….there aren't none! You call 911 and a fire engine shows up and does their job!

    I agree, keep Idyllwild's "politics" in Idyllwild and away from the outlaying area's that aren't yet infected with issues that simply just don't need to be!!!!