Photo by John Drake
Photo by John Drake
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PHOTOS: Last week in Idyllwild: February 12, 2015
Photo by John Drake
Photo by John Drake
Sports: Town Hall Youth Basketball …
Photo by Becky Clark
Town Hall Sports Coordinator Richard Mozeleski gave these reports on Kids Basketball:
In the 7- to 9-year-old division, the American Legion Sea Dragons had a good week with a 2 wins and 1 loss record to move into second place. Their only loss for the week was an overtime thriller to the Cougars.
The Cougars won with clutch free throw shooting by Brody Posey, who made 4 of 4 shots from the charity stripe and also finished with 25 points. The Sea Dragons set up a last chance play with two seconds to play in the overtime period for Mecino Harrington to shoot a 3-pointer, but it narrowly missed, and the Cougars one 24-23.
However, the Sea Dragons came back the next night in a rematch with the Cougars and avenged their loss with a resounding 22-14 victory behind Nathan Dunnings 11 points, including an exciting 3-point shot from the top of the key. Teammate Mecino also kicked in 6 points of his own to help seal the victory.
In the same division earlier in the week, the CJ Fast Food Crocs got a hard-fought win over the division-leading Red Kettle Dragons with a 14-9 victory supported by the constantly attacking Ethan Sheppard, who put in 10 of the teams 14 points.
In the 9-11 year old division, Jo’An’s Heat continued their difficult-to-defend passing and fast-break attack on offense. Not normally seen at this level, the down-court passing on the break and precision half court passing, resulting in easy shots, has made this team difficult to defend, resulting in their 6-0 division lead.
The Rustic Theatre Alpacas are making a move of their own though. After a slow 0-3 start, they picked up two wins this week to move from last to second place in the division, with tough rebounding, defense and a balanced scoring attack.
Basketball Standings
Ages Team W L T
6-8
Red Kettle Dragons 4 2 0
American Legion Sea Dragons 2 2 0
Idyllwild Property Management Crocs 2 3 0
CJ Fast Food Cougars 2 3 0
9-11
Jo’An’s Heat 6 0 0
Rustic Theatre Alpacas 2 3 0
Rotary Storm 2 4 0
Leigh’s Purple Penguins 1 4 0
Dr Know It All: Diets and Cubes …
Dr Know It All can answer any question. He just happens to know everything. Dr Know It All selects a few questions each month. Readers may send the Doctor a question at the Town Crier ([email protected]).
Dear Dr Know It All:
I’ve tried every diet there is and I still can’t lose any weight. Do you have the answer?
-- Benedict
Certainly. In fact, I have several options and they always produce results.
First, try becoming deeply “depressed.” You can achieve this condition and dietary cure by taking advantage of any number of horrible life situations. Just focus and obsess on some extreme personal bummer: poverty, shingles, your lack of a love life, etc., etc. Work on it until you are thoroughly depressed with a seriously suppressed appetite. How long you follow this diet will depend on how much weight you need to lose.
Another option is to become ill and develop a healthy “fever.” You know, “Feed a cold, starve a fever.” The trick is to develop a fever from a moderate illness; definitely not small pox or rickets but something like a serious case of the flu or measles. Make sure it gives you a substantial fever, not just a bad cold. (If you only catch a cold you’ll have to “feed” it). Get just properly sick and the pounds will fly off.
Dear Dr Know It All:
It’s recently occurred to me that the world may not be round. Of course I notice that everywhere I look, the vista seems curved. When I look at the horizon line or lie on my back and look up at the sky, all the edges of my vision are circular.
Then it came to me. My eyeballs are round, too. So maybe it’s all just an optical illusion caused by the shape of my eyeballs. I might be seeing things all wrong and the world is actually flat. What do you think?
-- Twila
Not everyone knows this. We can keep this as our little secret until the word gets out. The world is indeed flat, but the trick is that it’s flat on all sides. We’re living on a cube. We don’t notice it when we get to the edges because of the cubular nature of the gravitation fields that modify themselves at each corner, influencing and bending our physical senses so that we don’t see or feel anything as we step over a sharp edge. From the Space Station, the Earth still looks round but that’s simply because the entire universe is also a cube. And so forth and so on.
Forest Service soliciting public comments for off-highway grants
The San Bernardino National Forest will be seeking public input for its upcoming California Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Division grants that will be submitted on March 2.
California state regulations require public input prior to the preliminary application deadline in this fund-allocation process. The agreements support off-highway vehicle management activities on the national forest, including operations and maintenance, law enforcement, development, planning, restoration, and education and safety.
The State of California Department of Parks and Recreation and the San Bernardino National Forest have maintained a partnership for more than 29 years, with funding assistance for well-managed OHV recreation on national forest lands. In 2014, SBNF received more than $600,000 in grant funds to provide the public with OHV recreation opportunities.
SBNF officials request the public to provide suggestions for grants that will help improve the OHV program. Two meetings were to be held, one was Tuesday and the second is from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11, at the Sizzler Restaurant, 1461 S. Rimpula Ave., Corona.
If you are unable to attend the meetings, or have any questions, the Forest Service would like to receive your input to this application. Email is the preferred means of sending comments to the agency. Comments may be sent to [email protected] by Feb. 20 with the words “OHV Grant Application” in the subject line.
If you are unable to send comments electronically, you may send them to OHV Grant Application, Attn:
Deveree Kopp,
USFS Big Bear Ranger Station,
P.O. Box 290,
Fawnskin, CA 92333.
If you have questions about this application, write or call Deveree Kopp at 909-382-2831 or [email protected].
Traffic crash on South Circle
A Saturday night traffic collision resulted in one injury but California Highway Patrol Officer Jeff O’Steen, speaking from the Beaumont office, had only the first page of the report and was not able to give much detail.
Involved in the crash on South Circle Drive near Tahquitz Drive at 6:20 p.m. were Sean Davis, 23, of Idyllwild, driving a 1993 Ford Crown Victoria, and Matthew Wheeler, 29, also of Idyllwild, driving a 1997 Chevy Silverado pickup. One person was injured, but who and to what extent was not on the report.
Drought more likely than relief in 2015
Despite the rainstorms in November and December, 2015 appears to be becoming the fourth-consecutive drought year. However, the National Weather Service is still forecasting above-average rainfall for Southern California between February and April.
Through the end of January, rainfall on the Hill is substantially below the long-term average rain through January of 14.2 inches. The Idyllwild Fire Station has reported 11.86 inches through January; the Forest Service’s Keenwild Ranger Station has received only 6.7 inches and George Tate of Pine Cove reports 12.7 inches. All of these data points are below the average, which includes 5 inches just in January.
At the end of January, the state’s Department of Water Resources reported the snowpack was only 25 percent of its historical average. An exceedingly dry January resulted in the water equivalent dropping 50 percent.
“The absence of precipitation in January, normally California’s wettest month, has combined with warmer-than-average temperatures to produce a dismally meager snowpack for a drought-stricken state,” according to DWR. “… manual snow survey makes it likely that California’s drought will run through a fourth-consecutive year.”
Cal Fire’s Predictive Services unit was more direct in its description of the past month’s weather. “… little meaningful precipitation to important water sheds across the state.”
January was unusually dry this year. According to NWS, it was the fifth-driest January in Big Bear, Riverside and Palm Springs since keeping records began in the mid-1800s.
Although Northern California experienced major rainstorms last weekend, January was a record. For the first time, no rain was recorded in San Francisco during the month.
“Most long-term precipitation guidance continues to be bullish with regards to precipitation the rest of this winter in early spring,” Cal Fire stated. “Take most of the models at face value, it would seem a return to wetter weather conditions is likely before too long.”
However on Thursday, Feb. 5, NWS lowered the probability of an El Niño pattern forming this spring to 50 to 60 percent. As spring arrives, the major indicators for its development weaken, according to weather officials.
But some rain will do little to diminish the threat of fires this year. In 2014, the third year of the drought, the U.S. Forest Service acknowledged that its fire season was primarily concentrated on the West Coast.
This warning from the Predictive Services Unit has already been issued: “In the absence of wind, there may be enough moisture in the live fuels in brush and shrub to keep rates of spread manageable this spring, but by the beginning of June, large-fire potential may begin to climb back to above normal. The areas with higher-than-normal potential in June may be inland areas above and away from the marine layer.”
Obituary: Daniel H. Rubin
Obituary
Daniel H. Rubin
1950-2015
Daniel H. Rubin was born Oct. 16, 1950, in Nottingham, England, and died January 2015. He immigrated at 6 years old.
A beneficiary of his mom, Winnie’s, “Brit Wit” and his own brand of sparkling personality, he was involved in theater at Hollywood High School.
Introduced to Idyllwild in the 1960s, he fell in love with the natural beauty and was living on the Hill by the early 1970s. His mom came up here a little later and stayed the rest of her life.
Besides the rock & roll and folk music genres his generation grew up with, he had an encyclopedic knowledge of American blues and was well-versed in jazz as well.
Danny walked nearly everywhere he went mostly because the shell of an automobile would separate him from the nature he loved so well. Forest critters seemed to know and love him in return, coming up to him to be fed by his hand.
Danny was loved by nearly all who knew him because of his drive to make others smile and laugh (and to think about things in new and different perspectives). Such also was his relation to people that he would give his full attention to their story. It seems everyone can tell of a time that he made some profound influence on their lives even for just a few moments.
The Japanese have a perspective that suggests we have two levels of dying. The first is when your body dies and the second is when the last person who remembers you personally passes on. Danny’s warmth and caring spirit touched so many people in his life, both young and old, that his second passing may be a very long time coming.
In lieu of flowers or donations, please remember to be kind to each other. Memorial services are pending for spring.
Steele steady at Torrey Sunday
It wasn’t one of his better tournaments this year, scoring wise, but Brendan Steele kept composure and patience throughout. Sunday the Idyllwild native was two over par on the day, giving him a 1-over-par 69-72-74-74 — 289 for the tournament and finishing him in a tie for 45th.
He did record four birdies Sunday, including this one at the par 4 14th hole. (See photo.) Note the claw grip he is employing with the short stick.
His putting was not way off; he needed only 1.727 puts per green and gained 2.708 strokes on the rest of the field; he stood 19th in the tournament field in both those categories. But through eight tournaments this year, Steele’s proximity to hole stat has been high — 36 feet, 5 inches, which ranks 104th on the tour. This suggests that too often his approaches have left him with birdie putts that are too long to be dropped with any consistency.
Steele has been working with Rich Smith, his swing coach, and lately has incorporated one of Smith’s swing keys into his pre-shot routine on full swings. He says this swing key is designed to help him keep his butt down and his shoulders rotating under and through, something many amateurs would do well to emulate. (A video of Steele's pre-shot routine -- with the swing key -- is posted below.)
Steele is taking this week off, but currently is expected to tee it up next week at the Riviera Country Club in the Northern Trust Open in Pacific Palisades.
A man, his son, a fire and an uncertain future
“The smoke woke me up,” said Andrew Luke of the early morning of Friday, Jan. 30. “I walked out onto the deck off the upstairs bedroom and I could see the glow of the fire and could hear it below, the backdraft.”
It was 2 o’clock in the morning and Luke screamed for help. He described going back into the bedroom, now all smoke-filled, to find his 2-year-old son, Wyatt. “I couldn’t see anything. It was pitch black.” He said he could feel the panic rising because he could not see where his son was. Then he heard Wyatt’s voice.
Luke said he moved to the voice, scooped Wyatt up in his arms, went out the bedroom slider to the second floor deck and jumped to the ground below, all the while holding Wyatt tightly.
Luckily, Luke had his mother’s car parked on the street. Barefoot, he buckled Wyatt in the car, and drove to his mother’s house on Tollgate and called 911. Leaving Wyatt with his Mom he returned to the house to warn his landlords who lived next door, to make sure they got out of their house in case the fire spread. He arrived back just as engine companies from Idyllwild Fire, Riverside County Fire stations 23 (Pine Cove) and 53 (Garner Valley) and Volunteer Company 621 were pulling in. Although firefighters battled through the night to save the house, it was a complete loss. Both Luke and his son were transported to Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage for evaluation and treatment for smoke inhalation.
“So many things we lost,” said Luke. “Pictures, personal items, my son’s Christmas presents and his soft blanket he loved.”
Luke, a carpenter and handyman by trade, lost all but his most hardened metal tools.
“I’m so overcome by the amount of help we’ve received so far,” said Luke, noting the cash donations, a Red Cross gift card for $450 that Rick Foster and Nancy Layton brought by. “They came by a couple times,” said Luke, “bringing blankets that the quilters [Mountain Quilters of Idyllwild] had made and some care packages.”
Luke’s mother, Kelly Hopper, is coordinating donations. Tools (see list) can be dropped at her house, 53675 Tollgate, and donations can be sent to Luke at P.O. Box 401, Idyllwild 92549 or c/o of Kaarin Elizabeth, memo “For Andrew Luke,” at P.O. Box 3153, Idyllwild. Luke and Wyatt are currently staying with Luke’s mother.
Friend Kaarin Elizabeth, who created a social media campaign to help Luke and Wyatt, had hoped to raise $1,500 for the family. To date, about $500 has been raised.
Luke can’t work without his tools. Below is a list of the most important tools he needs in order to work:
- 18v cordless drill w/charger
- sawzall corded or cordless
- 18v cordless impact driver w/charger
- air compressor and hoses
- jigsaw
- worm-drive Skilsaw
- nail guns
- chopsaw
- orbital palm sander
- various hand tools such as crescents, channelocks, pipe wrenches, pipe cutters, hammer, speed square, level etc.
“I am typically a Milwaukee [tool brand] guy and most of the tools that were lost in the fire were Milwaukee, but right now I need to be able to work so anything anyone has to offer would be more than appreciated,” said Luke. He also mentioned that he and Wyatt are in need of a place to stay, preferably a one-bedroom in the $600 per month range. “We can’t stay at Mom’s forever,” said Luke.
If you have questions or need more information, Luke can be reached on his cell phone, 951-531-6553 or at 951-659-5909.
Lawler Lodge to be designated county historical site
Photo courtesy of County Resources Bureau Chief Keith Herron
Lawler Lodge, a few miles north of Idyllwild, has been recommended for designation as a Riverside County historical landmark.
In November, Keith Herron, resources bureau chief and county historic preservation officer, made the presentation to the County Historical Commission, who recommended the designation to the Board of Supervisors. It was on the board’s agenda for Tuesday, Feb. 10.
In 1916, Oscar Lawler, a Los Angeles attorney, and his wife Hilda, bought 80 acres in Dark Canyon along the North Fork of the San Jacinto River. The house, modeled on Yosemite Lodge, was finished in 1919.
Over the years, Lawler, who became one of the first entertainment lawyers, brought many clients, among them Will Rogers, to the mountain retreat.
In July 1954, after his wife had died, Lawler deeded the structure and its surrounding 80 acres to Riverside County “[to be] used as a mountain campground and place of recreation for organized and supervised groups of normal boys and girls of school age …”
“Hilda became quite active in charitable work for the welfare of children, and that’s what inspired Oscar to donate the lodge as a youth camp,” wrote Robert Smith of the Idyllwild Area Historical Society.
As a county property, periodic maintenance and repairs are needed; but Herron feels these need to be consistent with its historical nature.
“As part of our capital expenditures, there were work items and, naturally, we wanted to treat it and approach it as a historical building,” Herron said, “but to take the preservation approach and nominate it as historical county landmark.”
The lodge is a typical rustic retreat for urban dwellers in early 20th century built as a summer house,” Herron added. “It’s very unique with log construction and other native material. There are not a whole lot left.”
Lawler, who was born in Iowa in 1875, moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1888. He apprenticed with Henry O’Melveny and successfully passed the bar exam in 1896. After a decade of private practice, he was appointed the U.S. district attorney of Southern California in 1906. Three years later, he was appointed assistant attorney general for the Department of Interior and temporarily moved to Washington, D.C. Eventually, he returned to Southern California and private practice.
However, his Wilshire Boulevard home was bombed and burned in 1919. Lawler suffered severe burns, but he, Hilda and their 5-year-old son escaped. Later, it was determined the bomber was the lover of a woman whose husband was successfully represented by Lawler. Lawler died in January 1966.
A countywide survey of possible historical resources in the early 1980s omitted Idyllwild, so there is no record on which to compare the Lawler Lodge to other similar properties. The Emerson Boy Scout Camp is the only county historical landmark in Idyllwild or Pine Cove. Lake Hemet and the dam are the other Hill buildings designated as landmarks.