Although the National Weather Service announced last week that it forecasted a 70-percent chance that an El Niño pattern will continue in summer 2015, the U.S. Forest Service Predictive Services unit added that an unfavorable warmer-than-normal water temperatures developed off shore during the winter, which is indicative of a “a Modoki (Japanese for similar, but…

Highway 74 was temporarily closed in both directions Monday morning, April 7. A landslide was detected in the area where Caltrans has been working for the past several weeks just east of the Cranston Forest Service Station near Valle Vista. As of Monday afternoon, no further closures of the highway were planned, said Chief Terri…

The Riverside County Assessor’s office reports that Idyllwild property values have grown 4.15 percent for the tax year 2013-14. Last year, the Idyllwild area property value increase was only 1 percent following three consecutive years of declines. Countywide, 2013-14’s increase of 3.95 percent is the first year of property growth since 2008-09. Throughout the unincorporated…

At the third meeting of the Idyllwild Fire Protection District Finance Committee, the members learned about the complicated processes of collecting fees for emergency medical service and for fighting fires outside the district. Chief Patrick Reitz explained that final ambulance payment depends on whether the individual has insurance and who the insurer is. Medicare and…

The Riverside County Board of Supervisors has approved some major changes to its Ordinance 927.2, “Regulating Short Term Rentals” (STRs). Some of those changes include caps or limits on the number of STRs in Idyllwild (and Pine Cove) and the Wine Country. Also, there will be a minimum distance required between future new STRs. The…