
Photo by Halie Wilson
Santa’s Mail Box is back
By Wilson, Johnny & Halie

The Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema returns for its sixth time next month. From opening day, Tuesday, Jan. 6, through the awards ceremony, the evening of Sunday, Jan. 11, festival participants once again will be offered a panoply of dozens of films — from features through documentaries and shorts. Idyllwild 2015, now the sixth rendition…
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) has settled its state-court lawsuit against Tarek Al-Shawaff and his local employees, James and Donna Nowlin. The settlement was entered into and the lawsuit then dismissed as to those parties on Sept. 4, 2018. Although the Town Crier requested information from Ross Hirsch, deputy attorney…
Chris Kramer, formerly the first vice president of the Mountain Communities Fire Safe Council, was chosen as its new president at the Jan. 13 meeting. Former President Michael Esnard told the board he and his wife planned to move in the spring and he would step down as president, but will remain on the board…
At 5 p.m. Saturday, July 19, a groundbreaking celebration will mark the official start of construction for Idyllwild Arts Foundation’s new $6.5 million concert hall. The 298-seat facility will become the centerpiece of IAF’s 200-acre, mountaintop campus and is named in honor of Idyllwild Arts’ first president, William M. Lowman. The construction process is estimated…
Capt. Lyndon “Ray” Wood returned in December 2013 as the new head of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Hemet Station, the station where he started his law enforcement career in 1990. “In the short term, I want to assess our resources,” Wood said. “I want to better utilize the resources I have and continue to do…
The underground storage tank cleanup site at the Pine Cove Market was to have been closed by now. In late October, the county Department of Environmental Health was to issue a notice requesting comments on its plan to close the case. Unfortunately, the announcement was never posted properly and the process had to be restarted….