Never a slow news week

One of the biggest challenges we have in covering this small town is that because we are unincorporated, our primary government is one hour away in Riverside. Therefore, we are run by many special districts that meet regularly, creating lots of need for coverage of the things that matter to people up here — water, fire, medical services, recreation, etc. That means we never have a slow news week.

Anyone who attends our open news meetings at Cafe Aroma on Wednesday mornings knows our story list each week runs about 7-8 pages long. Regular and special meetings are where we learn about what affects the community. We often are the only ones attending these meetings. Without that, these agencies and organizations would be tempted to shove things under the rug that could affect our quality of life.

How to deal with negative vs. positive news is certainly a challenge in a community that depends on tourism. I think if you look back at the front pages, you will find much good about Idyllwild, as Marshall talks about in his blog.

We have started many features supporting the positive aspects of Idyllwild in the paper: "Only in Idyllwild," "Outside Idyllwild," "Clubs," "Arts & Entertainment Calendar," etc., and are always open to new ideas. We've been getting lots of wildlife photos lately, and those are making their way to the published page regularly.

It's certainly a juggling act each week, and we like to hear comments. That's why we opened our news meeting to the public a few years back. It's been rewarding for those who attend and helps us tremendously in finding out what's important to cover.

We can't satisfy everyone. We just try to do our best.

Free speech/press?

I want to open up a dialogue: Should free speech and a free press, provided their actions are legal, be censored during such times as war and economic hardships?

I am facing a great deal of censorship lately because of the hard economic times. There seems to be a tremendous amount of fear out there right now. What are your thoughts?

A blog for you

If you're interested in having your own blog site on www.towncrier.com, respond to this post with your idea and I'll consider it.

"Out Loud" is silent this week

The trouble sometimes is that I get a boatload of letters to the editor and I want to give people the space to express themselves, which isn't always possible when advertising is down. Many people don't know that the amount of advertising determines the size of the paper each week.

It was a slow weekend because it was a scorcher! This past weekend was a bit too warm for many folk. Two softball games were canceled Saturday, even though one of the teams decided to practice anway. We had some friends out for Jack's birthday Saturday night and they spoke of the heat causing extreme lethargy and couch potato-itis.

And with limited A/C in this town, it was probably cooler for many off-the-Hill folk to stay in the valley than come up here and suffer.

Apparently, it wasn't hot enough to stop a few people from writing letters. Anyway, we'll see how next week goes with "Readers write."If it's busy again, I'll just keep blogging until it lets up.

County responds to bad egg

Our county supervisor's chief of staff, Verne Lauritzen, actually came to Idyllwild and looked into the restaurant situation I wrote about on this blog last week. He was very concerned and even stopped by the Town Crier after reading the post. Kudos to Verne for taking notice!

A really big tip!

I just spent 20 minutes on the phone this afternoon with my bank who called when they noted an unusual transaction on my debit card.

Turns out the tip I left at that restaurant on my $13 bill was punched in as my debit card number, which meant that I left a tip of more than $47,000. My card was frozen until the credit member services could reach me and verify that I wasn't interested in taking out a giant loan today.

Ow!

County lays a bad egg

I just had a very wonderful but disturbing lunch at a local restaurant. Riverside County Health Department took action that was nothing less than appalling. Two of their inspectors happened to be paying a visit to the restaurant — during lunchtime. During lunchtime!

The owner also is a chef, so several people who had ordered meals finally gave up and left. Others were angry that their meals were late or incomplete.

The inspectors spent 1-1/2 hours during lunchtime!

This restaurant lost business today. Merchants in this community are already hurting enough. The customers who left the restaurant upset were not tourists; they were locals — potential long-term customers.

What is the county thinking about?

Becky

Weather site

Hi all:
William Partlo, an Idyllwild part-timer, has a house on Wildwood near the American Legion Post 800. Several years ago, he installed an automated weather station and linked it to a real-time Web site at www.wildwoodweather.org.

This innovative resident has come up with a Web site that features real-time plots of temperature, humidity, wind speed, rainfall, barometric pressure, etc.

Those of you who are weather buffs might find this quite interesting.

Becky

Chamber restricting access

Let it speak for itself. Received at 9:40 a.m. Wednesday, July 15.

Becky

New settlement letter Re: copy of bk filing The new Chamber Board has adopted a policy to improve reporting of Chamber meetings. Please have your reporter e-mail me the questions which he intends to ask at the meeting at least 3 days prior to the meeting, so that I can confer with the Board members and have an appropriate answer ready at the meeting. Questions which were not so advanced will not be answered untill the following meeting.
Also, questions about the Chamber should be directed to me, and not other Board members. I will share those questions with the other Board members and reply accordingly. This new policy was also agreed by our new Board, and ensures improved reporting.

Ken Carlson

Almost all the news, almost free …

Mortgage and rent payment help available in town; two felony arrests; RMRU gets national award; new Chamber is restricting public access & more! Get it on newsstands tomorrow!

Highway 60 Expected To Open Soon

All east- and westbound lanes of Highway 60 are closed from Gilman Springs Road to Interstate 10 because of the Rabbit Fire.

However, the eastbound lane is expected to open in about one hour, according to Caltrans, and the westbound lane is expected to open in about two hours.

Rabbit Fire 60% Contained

The Rabbit Fire is 60% contained and at about 85 acres, as of 4:35 p.m. Full containment is expected at about 6 p.m. Highway 60 will remain closed and then re-evaluated over the next couple of hours. No injuries have been reported.

Rabbit Fire Closes Highway 60

The Rabbit Fire gets its name from its location near Jack Rabbit Trail. Both lanes of Highway 60 are closed because powerlines are down. The fire, reported to be 5 acres when CalFire/Riverside County firefighters arrived on scene, is traveling at a moderate rate on both sides of the highway. It is now at about 35 to 40 acres and is mainly burning along the north side of the highway.

Highway 60 Closed Because of Wildfire

All east- and westbound lanes of Highway 60 are closed from Gillman Springs Road to Interstate 10 because of a brush fire as of 4:20 p.m. The duration of the closure is unknown.

Elm Fire 10:15 a.m. update

The Elm Fire in Cabazon is 100-percent contained. Full control is expected by 6 p.m. today. Three engines and four fire crews are handling mop-up and patrolling containment lines.

Cabazon-area fire update

Elm Fire Update 9:15 p.m., July 7, 2009

The Elm Fire is holding at 270 acres. Tonight there is minimal forward rate of spread, according to Capt. Julie Hutchison, Riverside County Fire Department and California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE).

Tomorrow firefighters expect full crews on the fire line and to achieve some containment.

A vehicle caused the fire, Hutchison reported. A 23-year-old Beaumont male was riding his motorcycle in the area, lost control and the exhaust ignited the vegetation.

“He was cited for causing a fire negligently, pursuant to Health and Safety Code 13001,” Hutchison said. “He had been warned several weeks ago about riding a motorcycle in this area. It conflicts with the county ordinance.”

His motorcycle has been impounded and CAL FIRE will use civil actions to attempt to recover the costs of fighting the Elm Fire, Hutchison said.

Elm Fire 6 p.m. update

The Elm Fire in Cabazon south of Interstate 10 is at about 150 acres with 0-percent containment. Steep, rough terrain, high temperatures and low humidity are the challenges to firefighters. Resources from CalFire/Riverside County Fire, Morongo Fire Department and the U.S. Forest Service include 22 engines, six helicopters, one air attack, 265 firefighters, four air tankers, 12 fire crews, three water tenders and two bulldozers.

Elm Fire update

The fire is now at 110 acres and is burning in steep, rough terrain on the south side of Interstate 10 in Cabazon.

Elm Fire 4:28 p.m. update

Resources on Elm Fire now at 11 engines, five helicopters, one air attack, 200 firefighters, four air tankers, 10 fire crews, three water tenders and two bulldozers.

Elm Fire 4:15 p.m. update

Resources on the Elm Fire in Cabazon include seven engines, two helicopters, one air attack, 175 firefighters, four air tankers and 10 fire crews.

Elm Fire 3:50 p.m. update

The Elm Fire is reported to be at 10 acres and burning in steep, rugged terrain. No structures are being threatened and no evacuations have been ordered.

Elm Fire

U.S. Forest Service and CalFire/Riverside County firefighters are fighting the Elm Fire, a wildland fire reported about 3:30 p.m. today near the intersection of Ida Avenue and Elm Street in Cabazon. The fire was reported to be about 2 acres, burning midslope against the wind, but with a potential of becoming 2,000-plus acres. A cause has not been determined.

Of bugs and beasts …

Summer unofficially arrives in Idyllwild with heat waves and outdoor events, from the parade to barbecues and concerts. Another clue of summer’s arrival occurs when my mosquito magnet husband Jack gets out his special “mosquito coils” and carries them along wherever we go.

I introduced him to this strange little mosquito deterrent years ago and he swears by it — a green coil that you light at one end to burn as you would incense.

My father burned them on the dashboard of our car at the drive-in movie theater in Florida, where I think the humidity in the air probably drowned those bugs before they could make a safe landing on any of us kids.

Whatever ingredient lies in a coil seems to be effective for Jack. But considering that we burned them in the 1960s, it’s probably something toxic. It lacks the sweet smell of incense, but I like the scent anyway. The unmistakable aroma cannot be called pleasant, but conjures up pleasant memories of summertime in the bug-free outdoors.

Not altogether bug-free. The coil seems only to work against mosquitoes. Bees and flies just ignore it.

I can’t imagine what creatures in the wild live with day in and day out — fighting off the aggravation of all sorts of flying and crawling insects. A week of camping outdoors and we humans long for a shower and a nice clean bed.

Makes you wonder how the Idyllbeast survived all these centuries. Oh yeah, I forgot; the Idyllbeast is a myth.

I wore my Buddy hat — the one spun and knitted from my dog’s fur — at David Jerome’s Idyllbeast Festival last Saturday to win the Gramma Idyllbeast honor. Just the desire to win apparently fulfilled the requirement — no dancing, speaking or even going without a bath. I just showed up at Café Aroma and announced a desire to win.

My prize included a furry tiara, a furry scepter (see pic), and David singing and playing his guitar for me.

Elaine Bacher received the Great-gramma Idyllbeast award.

A couple of highlights of the festival, if you dared not attend, involved hidden “Beaster” eggs containing prizes supposedly the Idyllbeast laid about the deck, which raises the question of whether the Idyllbeast is wrongly classified as a mammal. Rumors arose that maybe a marsupial haunts our forest.

And David’s abused rendition of “Edelweiss”: “Idyllbeast, Idyllbeast, every morning you greet me, small and white, clean and bright, you look happy to meet me …” Oh, dear.

And then the motion picture poster, “I Married an Idyllbeast.” “He was a man about town but a beast around the house.”

I seriously don’t think David slept much over the past few weeks. I think he needs his own blog site, and we’re about to give him one.

Which reminds me. You're reading “Wild Idys” Blog site, where News Editor J.P. Crumrine and Staff Reporter Marshall Smith are already blogging. “Frank and Conor’s Bad Advice in the Morning” launches next with many, many more to come.

Becky Clark, Editor

Idyllbeast sightings at Café Aroma

Tall, dark, hairy, shy, likes music
By Marshall Smith
Staff Reporter
David Jerome has beast on the mind. Idyllbeast to be precise. He is hoping that the reported 98th annual Idyllbeast Festival, to be held at Café Aroma on Saturday July 4th from 9 a.m. till 4 p.m. may lure the curious, but famously shy, hairy apelike bipedal hominoid to the bistro environs. More to the point, he is hoping the holiday music and wafting garlic aromas prove irresistible to a creature that hikers have reported smells of garlic and cinnamon and has been heard doing a mean Aretha Franklin imitation – or so he’s heard.
Jerome reports backcountry hikers occasionally report encounters with things they can’t explain. Of course, Jerome acknowledges, that is also true in town, but that’s a different story. Jerome has heard reports that some Native Americans have an oral history recounting a Bigfoot-like creature in the high San Jacintos. To local tribes, the 7 to 9 foot tall ape/man creature was just another spirit brother who liked to join in at any tribal ceremony that featured dancing. Apparently the creature kept to himself and seldom entered the settlement except when ceremonial drums and chanting started. The beast reportedly never sang or chanted, but danced enthusiastically.
When whites started settling the mountain, the beast retreated. Whites feared the beast and tried to drive him away when sighted. Once television become ubiquitous, Hill residents began reporting hairy faces at their windows, transfixed by television images, especially when Aretha Franklin sang.
Jerome thinks Idyllbeast, as locals have named it, wants to participate in modern Idyllwild ceremonies just as he did with Native Americans. “Music is a universal language,” said Jerome. “The beast just wants to be loved, and music may be its way in.” Idyllbeast cousin Bigfoot is known for “strong vocalizations,” according to a report of a Montana sighting by Andrea Lutz, KPAX, Missoula.
Jerome hasn’t seen the beast, but he has seen its footprints. A sighting of beast footprints just in front of the Café bolsters Jerome’s hopes of luring the beast to Café Aroma on the fourth. Jerome, himself a musician, is growing more hair in order to make the beast feel less out of place if he shows up. “I’m letting my beard grow for it,” he said enthusiastically. “We’re also awarding fur crowns to attending women who represent the furry flower of Idyllwild femininity.” Jerome is hoping that the more hair in evidence at the beastacle, the less the beast will feel different, out of place, and unwelcome.
“It’s time for welcoming Idyllbeast,” said Jerome. Sure he or, as Jerome puts it, “Heidibeast” might be different from us, but deep down we and the beast share more than separates us – a love of music and garlic, both staples at Aroma.
For further Idyllbeast festival information, contact Café Aroma at 659-5212 or idyllbeastresearchcenter@yahoo.com.
Marshall Smith can be reached at marshall@towncrier.com

Welcome Message

This is our welcome message.