STORIES FROM THE PAST
50 years ago
Central Union High School District administrators learned for the first time this morning that their petition asking that the Imperial School unification plan be reconsidered has been denied. The action was taken by the state Board of Education July 13 in San Francisco. School officials said they had not been informed the petition had been placed on the July 13 agenda and had been scouring the mail for acknowledgement that it had been received. None was sent, according to Dr. Jens Hutchens.
A brief letter informing them of the denial, without explanation, was received July 20. Hutchens and several board members were out of town, however, and he learned of the action only today. Olin Gresham, superintendent of schools, said he knew of no Valley representatives present at the session. The petition asked that the state board reconsider its approval of the Imperial Unified School District unification plan.
The plans include in Imperial the disputed Westside School District, which was in CUHS before being annexed. The board approved the inclusion in Imperial June 8 after several rejections on the basis of Westside.
40 years ago
The first steps were taken towards the creation of a permanent Imperial Valley blood donor program Tuesday, with administrators from the El Centro Community, Pioneers and Calexico hospitals agreeing to cooperate on all future blood drives and in the hiring of a blood drive director. The actions were taken as the result of a July 27 letter from the Arizona Blood Services, which threatened to either cut blood service to the Valley or drastically hike its price unless local donations were increased.
The meeting to discuss the problem was attended by the three hospital administrators and six other medical professionals from around the county.
20 years ago
The $250-million merger announced Monday between U.S. Filter Corp. and Bass family-owned Western Farms has local water watchers buzzing. They wonder if Western Farms will leave the Imperial Valley and are not sure what to make of Palm Desert-based U.S. Filter, the global water and waste water treatment firm that will become the largest owner of Imperial Valley farmland.
Imperial Irrigation District board President Don Cox, a critic of the Bass’ Imperial Valley presence, said he thinks the billionaire Texans lost interest in trying to profit from an IID-San Diego water transfer. “They saw how difficult it would be to make an ongoing profit in the dimensions they were expecting. They found somebody who would give them a quick profit, probably three times their investment,” Cox said.