Road closures impacting mountain commuters and businesses

The road closures and repairs on the 243 continue to cause problems for mountain commuters and residents in Idyllwild.

Long-time local residents and business owners say the situation has become dire up in their beloved town.

“It’s been horrible. And there are so many families up here just trying to get by day to day,” said Kristen Bachmann, owner of ‘Tommy’s Kitchen’ in Idyllwild.

“The situation is pretty dire up here for sure,” said Idyllwild resident Brian Parnell.

One business has been forced to close permanently and residents fear the road closures will lead to more shops and restaurants going out of business now that Caltrans estimates the roadwork will not be completed for another four months.

Residents say another huge problem is the lengthened commute-time for workers.

“Instead of 40 miles I’m doing 130 miles a day. Yeah it’s quite a bit more expensive to go back and forth,” said Jim Adams, a commuter to Idyllwild.

Bachmann’s son has battled brain cancer for eight years. She says it takes them hours to get to his appointments he needs every two weeks.

“He had an MRI two weeks ago and instead of that being an hour and 40 minutes it took us two and a half hours,” Bachmann said.

Adams says many people are now forced to book hotels, Air B&Bs or stay will relatives now that their commute has been extended due to closures.

“There’s no public high school up here. So for the high school kids, it takes an extra three hours of their bus ride” Parnell said.

Locals in Idyllwild are selling “Idyllwild Strong” bracelets to help raise funds for those impacted. You can purchase a bracelet and support the community here.

To acknowledge the impact the closures have had on Idyllwild, Caltrans released a statement encouraging people to visit Idyllwild using the 74, which remains open from Palm Desert:

“Caltrans The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) would like to remind the public that restaurants, businesses, lodging, Airbnb’s and most other activities are available and open in Idyllwild and Mountain Center. These communities are still accessible from State Route 79 (SR-79) through Temecula or State Route 74 (SR-74) through Palm Desert. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook @caltrans8. You may also go to http://idyllwildvisitorscenter.com/ for more information on activites.”