STORIES FROM THE PAST

50 years ago

Judge George R. Kirk this morning granted a preliminary injunction restraining County Clerk Harry M. Free and County Superintendent of Schools Olin R. Gresham from proceeding with an election to unify the Westside School District with El Centro School District.

The judge set April 24 at 10 a.m. for hearing on the action brought by Imperial Unified School District to have the proposed May 23 election permanently enjoined.

For the plaintiffs, attorney Orland B. Foote argued that an effect of the proposed May 23 election could be to remove the Westside School District from the Imperial Unified School District with which it was united by a Jan. 1965, election of Westside voters.

He contended that election was valid.

40 years ago

Navy officials have condemned the leak of a report summary to this newspaper earlier this week. The report detailed alternatives under consideration by a joint service committee regarding the future of Imperial Valley parachute testing.

“It is most regrettable a rough draft, not necessarily in its final fort, was passed on to the newspaper for publication,” Navy Capt. Robert Chew says.

Chew, commander of the National Parachute Test Range, said information it contained “can be misconstrued, because what finally becomes a smooth copy may not be the same.”

30 years ago

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted in favor of an anti-smoking resolution and even County Counsel Thomas Fries is not sure how it’s going to work.

The resolution leaves it up to county department heads to divvy up the space between smokers and non-smokers. Smoking will be allowed in private offices if the occupant of that private office is a smoker — and no non-smoker objects.

For Fries that part will be easy. He smokes and he has a private office. “I suppose if somebody comes into my office and objects to my cigar I could tell them to get the hell out of my office,” he said. But he is not totally sure about that.