STORIES FROM THE PAST

50 years ago

The El Centro police said today that they were continuing their investigation of the shooting late Friday night of an 18-year-old girl and that no arrests have been made.

The 18-year-old girl was shot in the chest, on a sidewalk near her home.

The bullet reportedly went in the left side of her body and went out through a shoulder.

Police said that she still was in El Centro Community Hospital and facing further questioning.

Police said she and a 32-year-old man were “playing around” with a gun and it went off.

40 years ago

El Centro Mayor Rollie Wisbrock maintains there was no truth to rumors the council was considering pay cuts and layoffs to make up for revenue loss from Proposition 13.

The El Centro City Council at a special work study session Thursday reviewed the 103-page proposed budget for the coming year.

The council is expected to come up with a final budget next Wednesday in anticipation of the implementation of the Jarvis-Gann Amendment July 1.

Despite a cut-off from $1,180,962 in expenditures last year to $1,138,385, the only personnel cuts in the Police Department will be the elimination of three part-time school crossing guards.

30 years ago

A congressional committee today approved legislation that would allow the Metropolitan Water District to concrete line the All-American Canal, but Imperial Irrigation District representatives believe they have worked out a compromise that will make the project acceptable to the Valley.

The House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs approved the bill without the compromise but agreed to allow an amendment containing the compromise provisions to be offered at a later date, according to Thane Young, who works as a lobbyist for the IID.

Exact terms of the compromise are still being debated by the IID, MWD and Coachella Valley Water District, Young said.

“If this compromise agreement gets drafted as we agreed to yesterday, I think it goes about as far as we can go in protecting the district’s rights,” said IID attorney John Carter, who spent the last two days in Washington, D.C., ironing out the compromise.

20 years ago

Three Riverside County men wanted in connection with a shooting incident in Thermal were stopped by California Highway Patrol officers on Highway 86 west of Westmorland on Thursday.

Jose Ruiz, 28, and Julio Ruiz, 39, both of Indio, and Victor Avila, age unknown, of Coachella were stopped by the Highway Patrol at about 8:30 a.m. Thursday.

The Ruizes both had existing gunshot wounds when they were stopped, officials said.

The men were arrested on suspicion of the attempted murder of Lamberto Lopez, 35, of Thermal, said Riverside Sheriff’s Department Detective Mark Wasserman.

The shooting occurred earlier that morning at Lopez’s home.