Stories from the past
50 years ago
James (The Weasel) Fratianno, his wife, Jewel, and his trucking firm were fined a total of $18,028 in federal District Court in San Diego yesterday.
The pair were charged with defrauding truck drivers of $24,000 in 1966 during construction of the stretch of freeway south of El Centro.
Fratianno and his wife were placed on three years’ probation after the defendant — who was once listed in a state report as the West Coast executioner for the Mafia — pleaded with District Court Judge Edward J. Schwartz that “I don’t want my wife to go to jail. I don’t think there is anyone alive who has tried more honestly to make a fair living. I tried to make an honest living, but the police and the government won’t let me. We did not do this intentionally.”
U.S. Attorney Edwin L. Miller Jr. had asked the court to jail Fratianno for the maximum of 10 years.
“We feel society should be protected from Jimmie Fratianno,” Miller said.
40 years ago
The Bureau of Reclamation plans to close out its geothermal study program at the East Mesa anomaly test site on the East Mesa because the underground reservoir beneath the site is inadequate to produce enough desalted water to significantly increase the flow of the Colorado River.
“The study which began in 1968 has shown that it is physically possible to produce fresh water and electrical energy from the hot geothermal brines found from 6,000 to 8,000 feet below the surface,” said Reclamation’s Regional Director, Manuel Lopez, Jr.
“But extensive deep well tests indicate the East Mesa geothermal reservoir lacks the capacity and permeability needed to economically produce the amount of water needed in the river.
“Since the primary goal of the geothermal feasibility study has been to augment the flow of the Colorado, we are closing out our studies on the East Mesa and will concentrate them elsewhere.”
30 years ago
CALEXICO — Emerson Electric Co. is negotiating to buy property in this city’s industrial park to build a twin plant that could start employing 50 persons by next March and 150 by 1991, the Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors learned Thursday.
Manuel Rubio, of Mexicali’s El Vigia Industrial Park told the Chamber that Emerson plans to build a 26,250-square-foot building on the lot it is negotiating to purchase at the corner of Campillo and Rockwood Avenue, behind the Kmart Store.
The building would be used to manufacture components parts for uninterruptible power systems for computers and electronic motors.
The assembly work would be done at a twin plant in Mexicali, with the finished products to be sent back to the Calexico plant for testing, marketing and distribution.
20 years ago
El Centro’s Conrad Harrison Youth Center should reopen sometime next week, thanks to the goodwill of an as-yet-unnamed local resident who contacted the city Tuesday offering to sell the needed air-conditioning units at cost and install the units for free.
The youth center was closed last week after failing air-conditioning units and high temperatures in the gym aroused fears for the safety of those exercising in the gym.
The closure was met with a protest on the part of El Centro children and teenagers.
The units began malfunctioning periodically in January, and the city has already spent $6,000 trying to repair them. Upon closing the gym, city officials contacted five contractors regarding the replacement and repair of the four air-conditioning units but were not satisfied with the resulting three proposals. The proposals did not assure the air condition would remain in good working order and the repairs would be done in a slower time frame than desired.
City Council members and the audience expressed gratitude and surprise at the offer to replace the three 10-ton air condition units and a 15-ton unit.