Capt. Scot Collins, Hemet Station commander of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, was prepared from experience for policing the mountain communities during the Mountain Fire that began Monday, July 15, in Mountain Center. That experience and the plans the Mountain Area Safety Taskforce formulated helped direct evacuation, kept the community residences and businesses safe from…

  Richard Schnetzer will be the next Fern Valley Water District director. The board selected Schnetzer last week to fill the vacant seat due to Ron Korman’s June resignation. In September, the board established a committee to review the applications from Schnetzer and Chad Taylor. At Friday’s meeting, Wix told his colleagues, “I think we…