STORIES FROM THE PAST
50 years ago
Something — most likely a practice bomb — landed in an alfalfa field near the intersection of Highway 111 and Jasper Road at noon yesterday.
Whatever it was dug a neat round hole about six feet deep in the soft earth about 100 yards from two homes.
Effie Conn, who lives in one of the homes, said that she heard a “whooshing” sound and then a “thump.” She said that she ignored the noise. “You hear so many different noises from the planes around here,” she added.
A few minutes later, however, Anselmo Necochea and his brother, Lionel, who had been plowing a nearby field, came to her home and reported that they had seen a smoking object fall into the field. The sheriff’s office was notified, and they in turn notified the Naval Air Facility.
“There was an awful lot of commotion all day yesterday,” Mrs. Conn explained, “and the Navy people said that it was probably a practice bomb dropped accidentally from a plane stationed in Yuma.
40 years ago
Administrative weaknesses are seriously hampering the performance of the county Health Services Agency, according to a consultant’s audit on the agency that was released last week.
This report comes just six months after the 1976-1977 grand jury’s final report sharply criticized Joseph Wahl and his administration of the Health Department after uncovering irregularities in the management of the contracted ambulance program.
In its report, the grand jury stated, “It is essential that the department be investigated, cleaned up, if and where necessary, structured to work efficiently and effectively, and to be competent caretakers of the public’s tax dollars.”
The Board of Supervisors joined the grand jury in contracting the consulting firm of Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Inc., of San Francisco to do a management audit of the controversial agency.
30 years ago
SAN FRANCISCO — A strong temblor that jolted Southern California on Nov. 23 spurred a midnight vigil by emergency officials and scientists who say they feared a long-dread catastrophic quake might have been imminent.
“State and national officials and local experts discussed it that night and decided there wasn’t enough evidence for a (public) warning,” U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucile Jones said Wednesday, adding that because a great quake didn’t happen, “obviously we were right.”
But for nearly 12 hours after a 6.2-magnitude quake centered near Westmorland rocked the Imperial Valley at 5:54 p.m. Nov. 23, scientists were concerned a quake measuring eight on the Richter scale soon might rupture the nearby San Andreas Fault, she said during the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting.
Aftershocks were concentrated along a northeast-trending fault zone “within a few kilometers of a point that we considered to be a likely starting point for the great earthquake,” Jones added. “We were worried it might move closer’ to that point at the southeast end of the San Andreas at Bombay Beach on the Salton Sea.
20 years ago
Brawley resident and 1995 Cattle Call Queen Sara Mamer did the Imperial Valley proud Saturday when she was named a finalist in the 1998 Miss Rodeo America Pageant in Las Vegas.
Mamer, 20, who was also Miss Rodeo California for 1997, placed in the top 10 at the national pageant, which ran from Nov. 30 through Saturday.
“I had a really good time. I went with the wheel prospect to do my best and I think I did my best,” Mamer said. “You can’t be disappointed with being in the top 10 out of 35 girls in the United States. I was really happy with what I did.
“I think I was more excited that all the people from the Valley that supported me went to Vegas to watch me compete,” she said.