STORIES FROM THE PAST
50 years ago
Another suit for crop damage blamed on “negligent spraying” of Ramer Lake Waterfowl Reserve hit the state Fish and Game Department yesterday.
Brawley cotton grower Michael D. Ayala asks $27,855 for crop loss on 138 acres adjacent to the lake. He says it was due to the chemical 2-4-D, a defoliant, sprayed on the lake as a weed control measure, May 25, 1966.
The Superior Court complaint filed by attorney William Byrd contends that the weather conditions and manner of spraying caused the chemical to drift on to the plaintiff’s cotton crop.
Ayala estimates the decrease in yield will continue into 1968 and 1969 and will amount to 250 pounds of cotton per acre for each year.
40 years ago
The Board of Supervisors took $3,600 of revenue sharing funds from the Calexico Community Action Council Tuesday after learning the agency purchased a pickup truck funded with public funds.
The supervisors contend that CCAC violated its contract with the county for the revenue sharing fund by using the money to buy the $6,000 truck.
CCAC, developer of a proposed $23 million industrial park adjacent to Calexico, has been the center of a growing controversy since it purchased the pickup for use in the site’s landscaping project that is partially funded with county Revenue Sharing money.
The purchase created considerable speculation about how a non-profit organization with serious cash flow problems could raise the money for the $6,000 acquisition.
30 years ago
PINE VALLEY — The Calipatria Hornets defeated the Mountain Empire Redskins on their home court to win the Mountain Empire Basketball Tournament here, Saturday.
Calipatria (6-2) beat the Redskins in a tight battle, 64-63 in the title game. Earlier in the tournament, the Hornets beat Francis Parker, 75-52 in the semifinals.
Mountain Empire defeated Holtville in the semis, 55-50. Holtville was slated to play Parker for third place, but the game was not played.
Vincent Memorial lost twice on the tournament’s final day. The Scots fell to Julian, 44-40 and to Lutheran, 67-51.
Calipatria star Robert Romero was voted the Most Valuable Player of the tourney. Romero scored 100 points in the three games Calipatria played in Pine Valley, including 31 in the title game.
20 years ago
There have certainly been nights in Len Schnittker’s officiating career that have gone better than others.
Yet as loudly some crowds have moaned and groaned and coaches have complained about one call or another, the 33-year officiating veteran has never questioned his commitment to his vocation.
“I have never honestly in my life thought I shouldn’t be doing what I was doing,” said Schnittker, a former Brawley High teacher and football, basketball and baseball coach. “It’s a way to stay close to the game and I figured with all athletics has done for me, this is my way of giving something back.”
Whether it was his standout high school sports career in Cunningham, Kan., or the six years he spent in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ farm system as a pitching prospect, athletics has always been there for Schnittker.
And since moving to the Imperial Valley in 1965, Schnittker has been there for local athletes — regardless of how much yelling and screaming he has had to endure in the process.