Martha Pearson and her staff opened the Mountain Center Cafe early at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday as a source of meals for local people, fire-stranded visitors and firefighters from all over. Although the Mountain Fire began Monday afternoon in Mountain Center, no structures or businesses in that community were physically damaged. According to Pearson, the fire…

Before the Idyllwild Water District meeting ended last week, General Manager Tom Lynch gave the directors a report with the monthly flow from each well used between July 2015 through July 2016. This was in response to Director Steve Kunkle’s questioning. He was absent from this meeting. Earlier in the meeting, Lynch reported on the…

The Hemet Unified School District (HUSD) budget for FY 2019/20 was approved on June 16 and is projected to run the district $8.8 million into the red. The $303.7-million budget is an $18-million increase from last year’s $285.7 million budget. The largest increase, $9.2 million, is for the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) and another…