STORIES FROM THE PAST
50 years ago
Brawley is in the running for 1969 Babe Ruth World Series.
The enthusiastic Imperial Valley support that resulted in the unqualified success of the Pacific Southwest Regional Tournament in Brawley in August has tossed the community smack in the middle of a trio of cities bidding for the coveted event.
Edward C. Wiest, president of the Imperial Valley League, disclosed at a city council meeting Monday night that officials from Babe Ruth’s International and Executive board will visit Brawley sometime at the end of this month.
Wiest said it will be an “inspection tour” and that Brawley should know by either the end of October or the beginning of November whether it will host the series next August.
40 years ago
The district attorney’s office has filed criminal charges against a Los Angeles man on suspicion of trying to kidnap two young girls from a tourist campground near Palo Verde on Saturday and threatening to kill the mother of one of the victims for interfering with the abduction.
John Lemos Jr., 40, a foreman for a Hawthhorne aerodynamics plating firm, was arraigned on the multicount felony complaint Wednesday in El Centro Municipal Court.
Judge William Lehnhardt set bail at $5,000 and ordered Lemos to appear Sept. 20 for a preliminary hearing on charges of attempted kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon.
Sheriff’s deputies said Lemos was arrested at Mitchells’ Camp over the Labor Day weekend after two girls, from Redlands, reported a man had tried to kidnap them.
The girls said they were seated inside a camper when the man approached, pointed a shotgun at them and threatened to kill them if they refused to leave the campground with him.
The girls said they were staying at the campground with relatives, who were dove hunting along the Colorado River. Dianna Lee Figgons, 35, the mother of one of the victims, told deputies she had spotted the man standing near the camper pointing a shotgun.
When she approached, the man turned the gun on Mrs. Figgons and told her he would blow her head off if she interfered. She managed to talk the man into letting the girls leave the camper and join her.
The man then “calmed down and reportedly told Mrs. Figgons that some people thought he was crazy but he was just having fun.
The man then reportedly walked a short distance away, fired three shots in the air and left the campground on foot.
30 years ago
In the shadow of an uncompleted renovation program, El Centro youngsters attended classes in auditoriums, trailers and even the school board meeting room, but school district officials proclaimed Tuesday a “smooth opening” for the new school year.
In addition, administrators for the elementary district and school staff spent the day juggling students from one school to another as they struggled with El Centro’s growing enrollment. By day’s end, there were 4,820 students enrolled in the district’s nine schools, up 187 from the first day of school a year ago. An additional 161 students were still waiting to be assigned to classes.
But despite these distractions, Assistant Superintendent Everett Taylor told the school board, “It was a smooth opening particularly in light of the reconstruction effort that’s underway at four of the schools.”