STORIES FROM THE PAST
50 years ago
The office of state Attorney General Thomas C. Lynch filed a civil suit in Imperial County Superior Court yesterday afternoon in an effort to have new trustees named for the Imperial Valley Memorial Park, and to hold the present trustees responsible for losses in the endowment care fund.
Possible criminal action against the trustees may also be brought by the Imperial County district attorney, but such action is pending a complete examination of the moribund cemetery’s books. A complete account of the books is one of the things asked for in the suit filed yesterday.
Meanwhile, the office of Assemblyman Victor V. Veysey announced that a meeting will be held in the assemblyman’s Brawley office at 10 a.m. tomorrow of the nine-man steering committee named by cemetery plot holders last week. There is no agenda for the meeting, but it is expected to lay plans for an immediate resumption of care at the cemetery, as well as to look into ways and means for plot holders to get back the money they had paid from perpetual care.
40 years ago
NEW YORK (AP) — Robert Meyer, a top Agriculture Department official with substantial land holdings in California’s Imperial Valley, has sought special treatment for the area in federal water resources, the New York Times said today.
The newspaper said Meyer, assistant secretary of agriculture for marketing, admitted in a telephone interview that he had approached members of Congress, White House officials and other members of the Carter administration.
Agriculture Secretary Bob Bergland said today he gave an aide permission to discuss with other government officials the problems of breaking up large landholdings in the rich, irrigated farming area of Imperial Valley under the intended enforcement of the 160-acre limitation.
But Bergland said in an interview that he cautioned a former resident of the Valley, to “proceed as individual,’ or private citizen, and not to become involved in Carter administration policy aimed at enforcing the 1902 law.
30 years ago
CALEXICO — Less than three months after opening a farm worker legalization office here, the Immigration and Naturalization Service has conducted its first series of arrests in connection with alleged sale of falsified documents to aliens applying for legalization.
Some two dozen people have been taken into custody following an investigation involving the alleged sale of fraudulent documents to Mexican nationals applying for legalization under the Special Agricultural Workers (SAW) provisions of the immigration law.