Hurricane Norbert, which formed last week and evolved from a tropical storm into a hurricane on Sept. 3, moved north from Mexico and Baja along the California coast. As Norbert weakened, it drew significant moisture into the atmosphere and over the local mountains. The storm’s intensity varied through the local area and region. Sunday afternoon,…
Gov. Jerry Brown and State Attorney General Kamala Harris have appealed the Superior Court ruling that the state laws on teacher tenure and seniority are unconstitutional. In the one-page appeal, Harris provided three reasons. The first was the state Constitution requires a higher court, either the Court of Appeals or the state Supreme Court, to…
Seventy-six is an attractive number, especially in the United States. It brings up the Declaration of Independence (1776), or perhaps the 76 trombones Professor Harold Hill wanted the town folk to imagine in “The Music Man.” But for us at the Fire Safe Council, 76 refers to the current number of houses that have been…
Last month, Gov. Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 2609 that local Assemblyman Brian Nestande authored, allowing home brewing associations, such as the American Homebrewers Association and the California Homebrewers Association, to hold a maximum of two conventions per year. Legislation in 2013 inadvertently prohibited the annual home-brewers festival from accepting donations of beer for resale…
Saunders Meadow has supported educational programs for the past 70 years, but its varied history reaches back far earlier than the 1940s. Thanks in part to recent research by my Idyllwild Area Historical Society colleague, Dr. Robert Reyes, a more complete story is emerging. Space will allow me to sketch only a general outline….
People often ask us why we report on so many government meetings when most small-town newspapers do not. It’s pretty easy to explain though not so easy to perform the task since so many boards govern various special districts and such on the Hill. Four water districts, Fern Valley, Idyllwild, Pine Cove and then Lake…
Editor: The members of the Mountain Community Patrol, Idyllwild, are a group of senior volunteers ranging in age from 65 to 81-plus. As volunteers for the Riverside County Sheriff, we all are vetted for background security, are fingerprinted and fulfill the requirements for Red Cross emergency medical training. For the past 20 years, our annual…
Editor: Four times in July 2014 I desperately needed to use the EMT services of IFPD due to anaphylactic shock. If IFDP did not exist, I would not exist. I have read over the years the Town Crier’s incessant negative news reporting of the alleged mismanagement, misconduct, abusive behavior by IFPD management. We do have…
The Idyllwild Fire Protection District’s Finance Committee has completed its initial report on refinancing existing loans and possibly seeking new borrowings to purchase equipment. Committee Alternate Calvin Gogerty told the committee Tuesday that there were substantial savings available if the district’s three financial instruments were refinanced. Currently, IFPD is paying about $84,000 annually for Brush…
Without additional funds to offset the cost of fighting wildfires, the U.S. Forest Service will again have to use funds originally for other forest management purposes. Last month, Secretary of the Agriculture Tom Vilsack released a report showing the growth of firefighting costs in the past 20 years and plummeting funds available for other Forest…
