I have a vision — a vision for a prosperous and happy Idyllwild.
A place where all the locals, Pine Cove, Idyllwild and Mountain Center, closely work together on the Hill’s problems. A place where we all trust one another.
A place where the local heroes, our firemen who put their lives on the line for us, get bonuses, not nickel and dime pay cuts.
A place where all our limited resources, Mountain Communities Fire Safe Council, Marc and his crew in Pine Cove, Jerry and the Pine Cove 38, and our Idyllwild fireman are united in saving lives.
I have a vision, a vision of trust.
All the board members are chosen by general elections. (Mr. Capparelli should resign, he snuck back in with a vote by two board members after roundly being rejected by the people.)
Where Pine Cove and Idyllwild are working together again. (Thanks Chief [Mike] Sherman, you destroyed decades of bridge building. You stated, “You got a lot of criticism from the residents of Pine Cove, so you broke off ambulance service negotiations.” The whole idea was dumb. You destroyed decades of bridge building. You got rebuked by our supervisor and rejected by our leaders.)
A vision, where our brave boys have a chief, a chief they can trust. Not four chiefs in three years.
Our fire department already has two captains who know the area. They’ve each served us for over twenty years, why not pick one of them as chief?
Prosperity. A town that’s so close to money, so close to Palm Springs big money, L.A., Las Vegas and San Diego.
A vision of a downtown park, all along Strawberry Creek all the way to the highway. A park where children play, the old folks talk, and visitors come to see it and the quaint businesses.
A landmark park, along the creek, filled with giant trees, beautiful plants and shade, and visitors. Not more real estate. No to a huge community center financial drain.
The weekends are so filled with visitors that all the businesses and the property owners gladly pay for their heroes that put their lives on the line for them.
This commission permitted three sets of sloppy books, none that agreed. They should all resign, they should all take responsibility, they almost brought us to bankruptcy.
This board disgraced and fired former Fire Chief Norm Walker, our popular leader who united all our communities in fire-safety.
And Pine Cove was banished, because they didn’t want to hear criticism.
The only solution is trust building. And the commission and Chief Sherman have failed.
Every commission member that comes up for re-election gets defeated and will be rejected.
Trust building. We trust our firefighters, we don’t trust you.
Norm Cassen
Pine Cove
To bring this "vision" to a reality you'll need a new pair of glasses Norm.