STORIES FROM THE PAST

50 years ago

Gary M. Peterson, executive director of Imperial County Economic Opportunity Commission, leaves Friday to become associate director on the Peace Corps in Peru. It is a three year contract.

Prior to assuming his new position about the first week in August, Peterson said he expects to be at Peace Corps headquarters in Washington, D.C., several weeks for briefings and orientation.

He will be accompanied b his wife, Nilza, a Native of Colombia, whom he married in 1963 while on a previous Peace Corps assignment from 1962 to 1964. The couple has two sons, Gerald, 3, and Glenn, 2.

40 years ago

Donna Carmen Ringrose, 30, was pronounced dead at the scene Sunday after the vehicle went out of control in the westbound lane of Interstate 8 about 3 p.m.

The CHP said it has been unable to determine the cause of the accident. “For some unknown reason she lost control of the car while traveling the fast lane, five miles east of the Highway 115 overpass,” a CHP said.

The woman’s car first left the roadway and went into the center divider where the victim apparently tried to regain control.

After managing to return the small foreign-made car to the pavement, the vehicle suddenly overturned ejecting the driver.

Investigating officers said the vehicle skidded some 40 feet off the northside of Interstate 8 leaving behind a trail of personal belongings.

30 years ago

Next week the Imperial Irrigation District is scheduled to sign a $54.3 million contract with Irby Construction Co. of Jackson, Miss., for construction of the planned 230-kilovolt Niland-Coachella-El Centro transmission line.

Along with the contract, the district Board of Directors has approved a construction schedule which calls for work to begin in November on the Coachella Valley portion of the project.

Construction along the Highline Canal is scheduled to begin in March 1988 and the entire project is supposed to be completed by December of next year.

During a telephone interview from Mississippi, Vance Mecon, an Irby Construction executive, described the company as a family-owned business that has specialized in various types of power line construction for 50 years.

When the motorcycles ran out of gas in a rugged valley in Baja, the man and the boy carefully hid them.

20 years ago

U.S. Attorney Alan D. Bersin announced Friday two indictments returned by a federal grand jury were unsealed after four Imperial County residents and a San Diego man were arrested on drug trafficking charges involving recruiting juveniles as young as 13 to participate in a drug smuggling scheme.

The charges relate to the smuggling of more than 30 kilograms of cocaine and 1,200 pounds of marijuana through the Calexico Port of Entry.

Bersin added one of the indictments relates to the recruitment of teen-age girls to transport marijuaa into the United States from Mexico. The indictment alleges the defendants persuaded and induced the teens to recruit their friends to participate in the scheme by assuring them that if they were apprehended the consequences would be minor.