STORIES FROM THE PAST
50 years ago
A young French engineer is winging his way back to Charleville, France today, courtesy of Uncle Sam, who caused him to miss his plane in San Francisco, Nov. 11.
Unfortunately Jean Marie Pirard, 25, will not be able to come back for quite awhile because he leaves behind him a suspended sentence for possession of marijuana. It was imposed Friday by Judge Victor A. Gillespie, with one year’s probation, provided the Frenchman pay $105 to the county for the costs of trying him, and provided the sheriff’s office turn him over to the immigration authorities.
Pirard was arrested at the Calexico Port of Entry on Nov. 11 as he passed through en route back to France via San Francisco. He had worked 10 months on a dam in Quebec, spent two seeing Mexico, and had been given two marijuana cigarettes in Veracruz by an American youth for whom he did some translating.
He put them in his pocket and forgot about them. He seemed genuinely astonished to find possession of marijuana was a crime under U.S. law.
40 years ago
After Jan. 1 food stamps will only be sold at the county Welfare Department in El Centro instead of at banks throughout the Valley.
The change will affect more than 3,000 individuals who are currently on the food stamp program.
Under the new set up, the stamps will have to be purchased in person or by mail from the Welfare Department in the County Services Building, 940 Main St., El Centro.
The change became necessary when the eight local banks that issued the food stamps terminated their contracts with the county to provide the service. After selling the stamps since the program’s inception eight years ago, management of the banks said it had become too time consuming and bothersome to continue.
The Board of Supervisors reluctantly agreed to have the Welfare Department sell the stamps after learning that no other business was willing to administer the program.
30 years ago
Plagued by lawsuits and multi-million-dollar fines, International Technology Corp. announced Monday it is putting its six hazardous waste dumps in California up for sale.
But a company official says the firm continues to be committed to operating its Westmorland hazardous waste facility and is going to the Board of Supervisors today in its effort to expand its operating permit.
The six dumps, which earned the company $35 million during the first six months of this fiscal year, were placed on the market Monday and the company hopes to sell them within the year, said John Schofield, IT senior vice president for marketing.
Two of the sites, located in Bakersfield and in Imperial County, are still operating. Four others, located in Benicia in Solano County, Martinez in Contra Costa County, Benson Ridge in Lake County and Montezuma in the Central Valley, are all closed. The company sent layoff notices Monday to 150 employees associated with the four Northern California sites.
20 years ago
SALTON SEA BEACH — For Donald Resch, the moonlit nights here aren’t what they used to be here.
“A lot of people like to take moonlit walks, but are afraid to because of the elements that come out of the cracks at night,” said Resch, 74.
The “elements” to which Resch refers are the pushers and the users, the dealers and the doers in this small Northend retirement community on the banks of the Salton Sea. Dealing with the “elements” is something new to the community and to Resch, but it’s something he, and now the community, thinks is vital.
“It’s getting pretty bad up here,” Resch said, adding he recalls a time when drugs were not the threat they are now. “Boy, it’s mushroomed.”