Idyllwild News

During the business portion of the Idyllwild Fire Protection District meeting last week, the commission received the proposed fiscal year 2014-15 budget from its Finance Committee. Chair Commissioner Nancy Layton discussed the proposed budget and only Commissioner Rhonda Andrewson asked questions. Andrewson recommended increasing the funding for firefighters’ protective clothing. She also questioned whether there…

The Mountain Communities Fire Safe Council hosted another meeting last week to plan the 2014 Community Wildfire Protection Plan. The group’s goal is to have the new CWPP completed by this fall. Before it is finished, Mike Esnard, MCFSC president, plans at least one community meeting to discuss and garner public thoughts and recommendations. At…

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…

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…