past tense
Town Crier Business Manager Marilyn Weare (left) presented a $100 check to Lisa Martin (right) while Shirley and Irv Severtsen of Idyllwild Gift Shop looked on in December 1974. Lisa deposited her winning coupon for the paper’s annual Snow Guessing Contest at the gift shop. Marilyn died at age 92 last week. File photo

 

65 years ago - 1950

Final widening of Circle Drive was being completed to permit two-way traffic in the winter.

 

60 years ago - 1955

Teenage bowling was started at Idyll Hof in the village for youth ages 12 to 15.

 

50 years ago - 1965

Some home prices listed in the Town Crier’s classifieds: A 2-bedroom furnished cabin for $12,500; a 2-bedroom with garage, horse corral and large, wooded lot for $13,500; and a 4-bedroom with large lot for $28,000.

 

45 years ago - 1970

The County Board of Supervisors gave approval for a proposed 3,700-lot tract in Garner Valley.

 

40 years ago - 1975

Edna Price, the community’s beloved nurse and author of “Burro Bill and Me,” died from injuries received in an traffic collision.

 

35 years ago - 1980

Due to heavy rains, the water level at Lake Hemet was believed to have been the highest ever experienced since the dam was built in 1895. Campground personnel successfully hauled 16 threatened trailers out of the rising waters.

 

30 years ago - 1985

More than 700 people attended each day of the two-day Ethiopian Festival held at Idyllwild School. The event raised more than $4,000 for Operation California’s airlift of famine relief supplies to Ethiopia.

 

25 years ago - 1990

Blizzard conditions made it impossible to fish, but the Lake Hemet campground became a haven for stranded motorists. About 40 percent of the spaces were occupied by travelers waiting out the storm, according to Cheri Dunkin, gatekeeper.

 

20 years ago - 1995

More than 300 chicken dinners were prepared and served by employees of Jan’s Red Kettle and  Idyllwild School seventh-grade students. The event raised $1,800 for end-of-the-year trips to Astrocamp and Catalina Island.

 

15 years ago - 2000

Idyllwild Charter High School, which had been threatened with extinction, got a new lease on life when the Pine Cove Water District board unanimously approved a new excess liability insurance policy.

 

10 years ago - 2005

A group of teens from Idyllwild Bible Church fasted and did volunteer work at the Idyllwild HELP Center during the 30-Hour Famine, part of an international hunger-fighting program by World Vision.

 

5 years ago - 2010

Recreation Director Bob Lewis’ proposed recreation budget for fiscal 2010-11 cut $46,460 from the previous year’s budget of $237,220. The 20-percent trimming was consistent with county direction to keep budgets in line with previous years.

 

1 year ago - 2014

A Banning man was arraigned on 13 felony counts connected to nine arson fires in Riverside and San Bernardino counties between 2011 and 2013, the Riverside County District Attorney’s office announced. Six of the fires were in the San Jacinto Mountains.