Early this morning, Wednesday, Jan. 6, the National Weather Service in San Diego issued a revised winter storm warning for the mountains of Riverside County, which will be in effect until 4 a.m. Friday, Jan. 8. The NWS forecasts a pair of pacific storms will bring additional periods of heavy snowfall this afternoon through Thursday…
Candidates for local special districts could begin filing papers for candidacy this week. The first official day was Monday, May 4, for the Aug. 25 elections involving Fern Valley, Idyllwild and Pine Cove water districts, and Idyllwild Fire Protection District. The terms of three members of the IWD board expire this year. The other…
Wednesday, March 18, the Town Crier reported that, after a Tuesday meeting with National Weather Service officials here in Idyllwild, the Town Crier had agreed to purchase automatically reporting Davis Pro weather station equipment to become the official Idyllwild NOAA/NWS COOP station in place of Idyllwild Fire. On Friday, March 20, Noel Isla, COOP program…
The Idyllwild Fire Protection District is the proud owner of two new ambulances, which were purchased last Wednesday through a General Services Administration auction and picked up Friday. Both were acquired for slightly less than $45,000 each. Although Fire Chief Patrick Reitz and the district’s Finance Committee have discussed replacing the district’s two ambulances, an…
Early in the morning of Friday, Jan. 30, a man and his son escaped a burning house in Idyllwild. While the entrance is on Marion View Drive, its location is about equally between Marion View and S. Circle drives. The fire caused power lines to fall on Marion View Drive, which was closed for several…
The Idyllwild Fire Protection District’s Finance Committee has completed its initial report on refinancing existing loans and possibly seeking new borrowings to purchase equipment. Committee Alternate Calvin Gogerty told the committee Tuesday that there were substantial savings available if the district’s three financial instruments were refinanced. Currently, IFPD is paying about $84,000 annually for Brush…
The Fire District has scheduled three meetings Tuesday evening. The last, at 8 p.m., Tuesday Aug. 26, will be to review and approve both the Commission’s response to the June Grand Jury Report and a joint response from the Commission and its Finance Committee. The first meeting, at 5:15 p.m., is a resumption of the…
Revenue for fiscal 2014-15 is looking much more favorable for the Idyllwild Fire Protection District. At the July 21 Finance Committee meeting, Chair and Commissioner Nancy Layton announced that the July estimates have increased $156,000 since the original May estimate was released. IFPD’s revenue estimate for this fiscal year is now $2.32 million, up from…
At last week’s Idyllwild Fire Protection District meeting, Commission President Jerry Buchanan established a committee, composed of Vice President Larry Donahoo, Fire Chief Patrick Reitz and himself, to draft a response to the most recent Riverside County Grand Jury Report. The commission spent two closed sessions (including July 9) reviewing employee matters addressed in the…
A Grand Jury report, with the Idyllwild Fire Protection District as the subject, was issued Thursday, June 19. This is the second report focused on IFPD from the 2013-14 Grand Jury and the fifth since 2008. This report investigated three topics — the behavior of the Department’s Administrative Captain, Mark LaMont, nonfeasance of the Fire…
