Questions for the mayor
Dear Mayor Max:
I have several questions for you, but I understand that you are more of a listener than a conversationalist. I will try to put it into requests:
Please contact SCE to find out when they plan on being done hiring all of their outside contractors (electricians, tree cutters, “arborists,” drone and helicopter operators, herbicide sprayers, traffic control, and all of the many other consultants) and finish the job.
I truly hope they do not plan to be here permanently. Idyllwild roads cannot handle much more of this, and neither can most residents. I need to know so I can plan accordingly for the exorbitant electric bills that are sure to be coming from all this waste.
Also, until your office funds a Poop Patrol, please let all of your friends know they should carry out their poop bags and not leave them on the side of the road or trail. That would really be a great help in trying to restore Idyllwild’s natural beauty.
Finally, please let the Town Crier know if you are up for re-election this year. I cannot find that information at the Riverside County Election Commission.
Dave Hunt
Fourth Generation Idyllwild Hillbilly
Mayor Max’s response
Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from Mayor Max’s response as it exceeded the word limitation.Dear Dave:
Having lived in the Idyllwild area now for about 11 years (Phyllis Mueller talking here), it has been my experience that road and tree maintenance goes on periodically as needed all year long every year. This is done to protect us from all kinds of hazards, like fire all year long, snow and ice on tree branches that can break electrical lines in the winter, etc. Getting trees trimmed from electrical lines is an ongoing need. Trying to thwart the spread of the bark beetle is another (to mention only two).
I am always amazed that such great care is provided to Idyllwild. For example, I find it amazing that when a storm is coming, snow plows wait on the side of the road for the snow to start, and then they will plow all night and right through the entire storm timeframe. I am always thinking, “Why do they care about us at all? Aren’t the more populated areas more important?” I could go on and on, but I am so appreciative of all the efforts that go on to help our community that I included it as a theme in this month’s July 2022 Mayor Max calendar:
On issues like poop pickup, trash pickup, driving too fast on residential roads, etc., these are issues that will require constant reminders to the locals and visitors forever. But all of us who live here can help by making up for the shortfalls of others. There will always be shortfalls of others.
What I do is pick up trash and poop when I see it. I don’t do this 24 hours a day, but I am always addressing it. I picked up half a magazine I saw on the parking lot in front of Wooley’s yesterday, and I threw it away in the trash bag in my car.
When I lived in Pine Cove by Thousand Trails, after a snow day, I would go on a walk with a large white trash bag and pick up trash visitors left behind after they went sledding there with their children.
This does not bother me at all to help in this way. I take tremendous pride in myself that I don’t see anything as someone else’s problem. I know I can help. I try never to complain.
I consider complaining to be negative energy. I like to communicate only positive energy. Positive energy leads towards life, increased survival potential and well-being for all of us.
I am happy to communicate positive ways to encourage people to help, but I will find fun and positive ways to communicate that. I have done this many times.
We are constantly writing and publishing helpful but uplifting public service announcements, and I would say we have done hundreds of these on all kinds of topics, these and others. For example, it is time for us to remind people that the pavement is now too hot for their dog’s feet, not to leave children or animals in hot cars unattended, etc.
In the third voted election in Idyllwild, Mayor Max was appointed Mayor for Life. Mayor Max the Second has now been mayor for nine years, and Max’s uncle, Mayor Max the First, was the mayor before that. We are very active in running a real mayor’s office for Idyllwild.
Mayor Max is downtown at 4 p.m. Monday to Friday and on weekends at 2 p.m. When he is out in the public, his official office address is Wooley’s, and I received permission from Pam Allen in 2012 to make it so, and so it is.
Mayor Max & Phyllis Mueller
Idyllwild
Feed the hummingbirds
Dear editor:
I have been feeding hummers for seven summers and last year my deck attracted over 159 on a daily basis. There are scant wildflowers anymore so hummers seem to appreciate our help.
Recipe: 1/4 cup sugar to 1 cup granulated sugar. Change every few days in heat.
Sugar water is based in science. I also have dozens of hummingbird mint plants in the ground, and pots and hummers adore these perrennials.
Nature does need us. If all life on Earth is of creatures with spines — humans plus our pets, steer, cows, chickens, etc. — that is 94% of all life on Earth, then only 6% is what actual wild creatures can claim as they’re own. Human greed must stop.
Robert Reese
Idyllwild
