While the Riverside County Board of Supervisors was pleased with the early report of budget conditions for the next five years, it also realized that tough decisions still will be required in the following months. County Executive Officer George Johnson told the supervisors last week he wanted to give them an early indication of the…
By Marshall Smith Correspondent Proposition 72, on the June ballot as a constitutional amendment, proposes to exclude rain-water capture systems added after Jan. 1, 2019, from property-tax assessments as new construction. The California Constitution permits the Legislature to exempt some construction on existing property from property tax reassessment requirements. California voters have a history of…
By Marshall Smith Correspondent Proposition 68, titled the “Parks, Environment and Water Bond,” would allow the state to sell $4.1 billion in general obligation bonds to pay for improvements in water and park infrastructure — specifically for creating and rehabilitating state and local parks, natural resources protection projects and climate-adaptation projects. It appropriates money from…
In order to speed up the review of applications for permits to carry concealed weapons, Riverside County Sheriff Stan Sniff has directed staff to use some surplus funds to hire more trained part-time staffing, according to an RC Sheriff’s press release. These people will be selected from available retirees to temporarily increase the size of…
Serves in work release Brian Standish, 50, of Idyllwild, who pleaded guilty to the felony charge of grand theft greater than $950 on March 6, was sentenced to the Riverside County Sheriff jail system for 180 days. He was given credit for serving 48 days already. The remaining 132 days may be served in a…
Voter information guides have been mailed to about 964,000 Riverside County voters before the consolidated primary election on June 5. Important deadlines for the June 5 election: • May 7: First day of early voting in the Registrar of Voters office and first day the registrar is allowed to mail vote-by-mail ballots to voters. •…
Idyllwild also has some homeless Last week, Riverside County’s Department of Public Social Services released the results of its 2018 winter homeless survey. In January 2018, the survey identified 2,310 homeless county residents, 96 fewer individuals, or about 4 percent less, than identified in January 2017. The count identifies both individuals seen on the street…
Air quality in Riverside County is abysmal, and nearly the same for the rest of Southern California, according to the latest “State of The Air” from the American Lung Association in California. Riverside County, along with most of its neighbors, earned an “F” for both ozone days and particle days. Orange County was the exception…
Joy Sliver, the major Democratic candidate for the 28th State Senate seat, came to Idyllwild last week. Attending the Idyllwild Indivisibles’ April 19 meeting at Town Hall, Silver described her path to candidacy challenging incumbent Sen. Jeff Stone, and several of her positions and goals if elected. “I’ve evolved from an advocate to an activist…
Substantially less than original plan While the National Park Service will be increasing park entrance fees and vehicle passes beginning June 1, the increase is substantially less than originally proposed in October 2017. The massive public response, more than 100,000 comments, to the proposed increases at 17 highly visited parks appears to have been heard…
