Idyllwild Town Crier

County Service Area (CSA) 36 is losing several valuable resources, including current chair Carol McClintic. McClintic, who has served as chair for less than a year, tendered her resignation, effective immediately, citing conflicts with increasing work demands. That leaves three members and two open seats on the committee whose duty it is to oversee operation of the county recreation...

Idyllwild native Brendan Steele teamed with Keegan Bradley, his close friend from Nationwide Tour days, to win the PGA Tour’s 2011 Franklin Templeton “Shark” Shootout at the Tiburón Golf Club in Naples, Fla., last week. The two PGA Tour rookies posted a 32-under-par score over the three days of competition on the par 72 course that consisted of a first...

Your letter last week was direct and to the point. “These crazy guys, just whiners sitting on the sideline, complainers, they would probably say …” Wow, can we elevate the conversation a bit, and deal with the important issues facing our community? Personal attacks and false assumptions are easy to make, let’s discuss the issues. Is a new community center...

I would second the suggestion by Pete Capparelli that the community center should be owned and operated by the public. As I have suggested for the past five years, an Idyllwild CSD (Community Services District) should be formed. Recreation and the community center are the perfect places to begin. I have been very disturbed that a private...

Sometimes it seems that our snow-prone Southern Californian mountain environs are too far removed from other snowed-in areas in more ways than just geography. I am told by northern tire experts that big lugged mud and snow tires are great in mud and snow but bad on hard pack or ice. And highway rut-causing steel-studded tires (only allowed on the...

The single largest expense for the Idyllwild Fire Protection District (IFPD) is the salary account. These newly increased salaries are inconsistent with a declining revenue base. Aside from dangerous and poor IFPD decision making moving the district to insolvency by February, revenue must align with expenses. Pay and staffing ratios are frozen by union contract and an intransigent association. That leaves...

After the Christmas tree lighting ceremonies in Idyllwild, I was thinking how lucky we are to live on this island in the middle of the sea of humanity known as Southern California. In some ways we have it better than most. If you’ve lived in a major city (or commute to one now), you know what I mean....