The Idyllwild Fire Protection District (IFPD) Board of Commissioners’ last meeting of the year Tuesday, Dec. 14, was short with very little discussion except under Resolution 524, approving signatures for IFPD’s new PNC bank account.

The traffic collisions in which IFPD vehicles were involved on Sept. 29 and Oct. 1 finally appeared in the Fire Chief Mark LaMont’s report of Dec. 9.

The Oct. 1 collision occurred at the intersection of Perris Boulevard and Ramona Expressway. IFPD Battalion Chief Robert Clark, 33, of Riverside was driving eastbound on Ramona Expressway in an IFPD-owned white 2018 Ram 3500 “approaching Perris Blvd with his emergency lights and sirens activated.”

James Robert Bower, 77, of Moreno Valley, was driving a blue 2020 Ford F-150 northbound on Perris Boulevard at a speed of about 45 mph when he collided into the IFPD truck driven by Clark. Bower was transported to a hospital with a fractured spine.

The IFPD vehicle was totaled. Clark was not injured.

The Sept. 29 incident involved minor damage to a parked IFPD fire engine when another vehicle collided into it.

The board met Oct. 19 but neither incident appeared in the chief’s report. Both vehicles were listed in excellent condition.

When asked why it wasn’t on the October meeting agenda, LaMont said the IFPD board president and officers were each individually informed immediately following each of the crashes.

But neither at the Oct. 19 nor Dec. 14 commissioners’ meetings did the board discuss either incident. At last week’s meeting, in fact, when the fire chief’s report came up on the agenda, no comments were made about anything in the report other than, “You’re doing a great job,” President Henry Sawicki said.

When asked again if Clark was returning to duty in Idyllwild during the Oct. 1 collision, why would he have his sirens/lights on that far away from Idyllwild? And also when asked if there was an incident occurring near him, and what were his usual hours that Oct. 1, LaMont responded, “Bob was returning with lights and siren on due to draw down. He was not responding to an incident ‘near him,’ and he did not have regular hours on Oct. 1st[;] he had duty coverage for that day.”

According to the California Office of Emergency Services, “Drawdown should be considered a measurement of the degree of resource exhaustion that an agency is experiencing at a given point in time.”

The board unanimously elected officers for 2022 with Sawicki president again; Dan Messina vice president; Rhonda Andrewson secretary; and Rachel Teeguarden clerk of the board.

Nelson Escovar was promoted to engineer in the meeting.