The Idyllwild Fire Protection District (IFPD) Commission unanimously approved the Acting Fire Chief Mark LaMont’s contract officially making him fire chief at the July 23 meeting. However, the Town Crier was told by Henry Sawicki by phone that the vote happened during open session. The item is not listed in the open session portion of…

Two local Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit members — Les Walker and Donny Goetz — received the Mountain Rescue Association’s highest award for any search and rescue team member. On the night of Oct. 21, 2012, Walker and Goetz, who have climbed together for years, along with fellow RMRU members Lee Arnson and Helene Lohr, saved…

According to California Highway Patrol Officer Mike Murawski, Freddie Meza, 30, of Murrieta was driving north on Highway 243 near mile marker 19 at 4:35 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 8, when he lost the brakes in his semi truck carrying concrete from a demolished building in Pine Cove. Meza plowed the truck into an embankment to stop the vehicle. Neither Meza nor his passenger, Hernan Orozco, 26, of San Bernardino, were injured in the solo traffic collision.

Young Idyllwild nonprofit is taking pledges in effort to buy Town Hall, since the 1940s a community center for town activities, is for sale by the Johnson family – the family who was instrumental in deeding the land and organizing the construction of the longtime village meeting place. The late Gerald E. Johnson envisioned a…