“If [the Goldspotted oak borer problem] doesn’t get taken care of, it will devastate the oaks on the Hill,” said Chris Kramer, president of the Mountain Communities Fire Safe Council, as he opened the community meeting Saturday at the Nature Center. The MCFSC invited experts from the University of California, Riverside, Cal Fire and the…
A head-on collision at about 6:50 p.m. Saturday, April 18, resulted in a fatality that closed Highway 74 in both directions near Bull Canyon Road (40 feet west of mile marker 73.75) to just above Palm Desert. The closure lasted until 11:01 p.m. according to California Highway Patrol Public Information Officer Darren Meyer. Teresa Gonzalez,…
Idyllwild Water District remains in Stage 2 water emergency, General Manager Tom Lynch told the directors during the April 15 meeting. But IWD is hovering very close to its trigger points for moving to Stage 3 status. While the groundwater level of the downtown wells is at the criterion of 20-foot depth, the depth of…
On Saturday, the State Water Resources Control Board released proposed regulations for implementing Gov. Jerry Brown’s 25-percent conservation standard mandated by his April 7 Executive Order. Urban water districts will be required to reduce current consumption by between 8 to 36 percent compared to 2013 per-capita usage. Smaller water suppliers (serving fewer than 3,000 connections),…
Fern Valley Water District is now in the most extreme water shortage emergency — Stage 3. Implementation rules will be disseminated over the next few weeks. The district has been in a Stage 1 condition since June 2014. The principal reason for moving quickly to a Stage 3 and skipping Stage 2 was Gov. Jerry…
Adrian Adams of the law firm Adams Kessler accepted the responsibility of serving as interim administrator for the Art Alliance of Idyllwild on Tuesday, April 14. By majority motion, the former board voted to dissolve in special meetings held on Friday, April 10 and Saturday, April 11, with resignations effective Wednesday, April 15. Adams had…
Fern Valley Water District is now in water shortage emergency Stage 3; implementation rules will be disseminated over the next few weeks. The district has been in a Stage 1 condition since June 2014. At the April 17 meeting, General Manager Steve Erler told the district’s board of directors he intended to impose greater conservation…
Although the National Weather Service announced last week that it forecasted a 70-percent chance that an El Niño pattern will continue in summer 2015, the U.S. Forest Service Predictive Services unit added that an unfavorable warmer-than-normal water temperatures developed off shore during the winter, which is indicative of a “a Modoki (Japanese for similar, but…
The head of Riverside County’s Emergency Medical Services Agency, Bruce Barton, spoke at last week’s County Service Area 38 (Pine Cove) meeting. He explained and answered questions about how the county’s new ambulance contract with American Medical Response will affect Pine Cove residents. He was emphatic that beginning July 1, AMR will be the primary…
Sunday afternoon, Idylllwild Fire Department responded to a 911 emergency call about a fire in Idyllwild near Circle View Drive. “It was a 20-by-40 vegetation fire; no structures were threatened. The cause was undetermined,” said Fire Chief Patrick Reitz. “An early report to 911, coupled with rapid response and quick extinguishment, limited the potential for…
