Fire log The Idyllwild Fire Station responded to the following calls, Monday, Aug. 11, through Monday, Aug. 18. Idyllwild • Aug. 11 — No responses. • Aug. 12 — Three medical aids. • Aug. 12 — Rescue. • Aug. 13 — Medical aid. • Aug. 13 — Rescue. • Aug. 14 — Two medical…
Starting Oct. 1, the Mountain Communities Fire Safe Council will assume responsibility for the community brush collection sites in Poppet Flats and Pinyon. MCFSC approved the action at its Aug. 12 meeting. Gregg Bratcher, Cal Fire’s division chief forester on the mountain, indicated that the agency will help MCFSC secure grant funds to operate these…
Stacie Kelly, emergency services coordinator with the Riverside County Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Branch, spoke to attendees at the Aug. 14 Mountain Emergency Service Committee meeting about what her department offers the community. Her agency partners with the county’s Office of Emergency Services whenever a county emergency is declared. “We focus on the…
A motorcyclist was fatally injured in a traffic collision in Mountain Center Saturday afternoon. Graydon Tucker, 77, of Beaumont, was injured at 2:15 p.m. and transferred by Reach Air to the Desert Regional Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m. CHP Public Information Officer Darren Meyer said Tucker was traveling southbound on…
Four-year-old Jake the cat didn’t really like camping, but owner Chuck Williams discovered that too late. On Saturday, June 28, Williams and roommate John Richards had brought Jake to Thousand Trails Campground and RV Park in Pine Cove for a weekend of escaping the desert heat. “We had just joined,” Williams said. “This was our…
After only about a month, the number of confirmed oaks infested with goldspotted oak borers has surged 20 percent, to 48 from the 40 identified at July’s Mountain Area Safety Taskforce, according to Division Chief Gregg Bratcher, Cal Fire and Riverside County Fire Department forester. Just as alarming as the rapid spread of the pest…
Three individuals — two former reserve Idyllwild Fire firefighters and the father of one former limited-term firefighter and one current reserve — spoke at the Aug. 12 Idyllwild Fire Protection District meeting. Unlike local residents who praised the medical service they received this summer, these three were appalled at the district’s leadership, both at Chief…
Several years ago, perhaps in 2007, Casey Abrams and friends were lost and stranded off the South Ridge Trail. Idyllwild’s Lee Arnson, surveyor, and Les Walker, photographer and ceramicist, both of the Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit, rescued them that night. Abrams was in town this week because of Jazz in the Pines and stopped by…
Michael Darrenger Kellner, 21, of Idyllwild, who pleaded guilty to one count of a felony burglary charge on July 14, was sentenced on Aug. 4 to three years of formal probation and required to participate in a Salvation Army program. In addition, he will have to serve 253 days in the Riverside County jail. However…
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department made several felony arrests this paper reported in the past few months that the District Attorney’s office lowered when it filed the charges as misdemeanors in the Superior Court. Jason Michael Roney, 24, was released on $5,000 bail after a June 20, arrest on several felony charges in Idyllwild. Roney’s…
