Only in Idyllwild. Take a look at other smaller communities throughout the State (about 5,000). Almost all of them have one fire chief for life, not three in two years.

The local officials love their jobs and the people appreciate their work and support them. They rarely resign for “personal and family reasons,” as often happens in Idyllwild. They rarely are voted out of office, as almost always happens in Idyllwild.

Go to a few meetings in other towns. Strangers are always welcome (especially if they think you have some money to spend). There’s no timers, no paranoid board afraid of being sued.

Everyone is respected and their opinions are welcomed. Not necessarily an open forum, but a little give and take. After all, we’re all neighbors and need to face one another at the post office.

Recreation is a fun thing that brings the community together. In Idyllwild there are three sets of boards of directors (30 directors) that don’t work together, in addition to county management.

Idyllwild is a gem. It’s close to Palm Springs, close to Santa Monica, and close to San Diego. The locals are friendly, mostly well-educated, and culturally sophisticated.

Yet there’s crisis after crisis, the board members bicker, the voices from the community are not heard, the town is angry.

Small community. I’ve lived in them most of my life. People are scarce, and people are treated as persons.

I’ve never heard of a chamber of commerce in turmoil. And recreation would still be united and not under county management if our seniors were being listened to by ICRC. Dawn and crew need help from the successful people in the community, they should be welcomed at their meetings. ICRC didn’t even check the guy’s references (ice rink) and for months we’re stuck with an ugly downtown eyesore. And the skate park, the pros at the EDA took one look and said it was a loser.

Our fire department’s latest crisis is a joke. A small one station and three sets of books.

We can change things. Our newspaper can help, and so can our local officials. After all, we’re all neighbors.

More about Idyllwild recreation: Dawn, for years, has said she doesn’t have the money, the County is wrong. She just found it, ICRC is giving back our missing tax dollars.

From one side of his mouth, Capparelli says our fire department is broke, we must fire Chief Walker. From the other side of his mouth, he says Idyllwild can easily afford a multi-million dollar new community center with pool and world-class gym. Bill Sanborn promised in July and in September, the numbers.

“First of all, he would put a sharp pencil to it, tell us the costs and figure a way to afford it.” No more hype, no more promotions, just the numbers, and whether we can afford a new community center. Months and months ago, and we’re still waiting to hear how we’re supposed to pay for it.

Norm Cassen
Pine Cove