Tuesday night, we not only inched, but leapt a vital step toward building the Idyllwild Community Center because of Supervisor Chuck Washington.
This is much like when the former Supervisor Jeff Stone took a decades-old movement to expand our local library and pushed it forward so we now enjoy not just more space, but modern anemities, including a much-used community room.
That old Cornet store on which we depended was a great place to chat while getting your fabric cut, or while looking over the household goods and sales. Attempts made to replace it failed. Now, other stores and online sites fill those needs. We needed a better library.
In that space now stands a beautiful and loved icon, an enjoyment for all ages. One where we meet each other to read, knit and learn together. Where children delight in an expansive area, exploring the universe through books and interactive activies.
Where the Friends of the Idyllwild Library gained more room to raise funds to enhance its beneficiary. Where the library now offers more books and digital entertainment because it has the room. This has improved the quality of our lives and our community.
And now ICC is expected to receive a paramount boost toward improving the quality of our community in ways we can’t imagine. Through a loan from the county to CSA 36, our center may become a reality sooner than we anticipated.
Thanks to the Butterfields, first of all, who dreamed big and gave even bigger to our community 10 years ago in September 2006 and now to Supervisor Washington, who broke through red tape to “Build It,” Idyllwild’s growing needs may soon be met, possibly by next summer.
Becky Clark, Editor