STORIES FROM THE PAST
50 years ago
The Imperial Valley College Board of Trustees voted Wednesday night to accept a property gift from Howard P. Meyer and the Meyer Foundation in El Centro for the purpose of establishing an off-campus center.
The Meyer gift is one of the few that has been made through the IVC Foundation, a little known organization founded to accept and disperse gifts to the school for educational uses.
The center will be the first off-campus complex for the school. Specific purposes for the Meyer site will be determined in the future, trustees decided, after studies and tests show how it can be used to best advantage.
40 years ago
Two men were arrested in Arizona in connection with a pharmacy holdup Thursday in Phoenix, driving a car that was stolen in Brawley earlier this week after a burglary of the Fred Klicka home.
One of the suspects was wounded by Arizona Department of Public Safety officers after a 10-mile chase near Casa Grande, 60 miles south of Phoenix.
Brawley police today were awaiting photos of the suspects. They are investigating the possibility of a connection between the Brawley break-in and the Arizona incident.
Mrs. Virginia Klicka, of Brawley returned home Tuesday and came face to face with a burglar in the process of ransacking the home. The suspect fled after confronting Mrs. Klicka.
Shortly afterward, Jim Austin, a nearby resident reported his 1969 Buick Riviera missing from in front of his home.
According to Phoenix police detective Cliff Shugart, the vehicle was used as the getaway car in the armed robbery of the Phoenix pharmacy Thursday afternoon.
Shugart said the two men entered the business and held the place up with what they now believe was a toy pistol. The two got away with narcotics.
30 years ago
As expected, the state Water Resources Control Board on Wednesday ratified an order forcing the Imperial Irrigation District to conserve water, but the district managed to fight off attempts to make the ruling more severe.
During a hearing in Sacramento, the state board rejected suggestions from both the Metropolitan Water District and the Coachella Valley Water District to substantially alter the proposed order released two weeks ago.
IID President Tony Gallegos called the board’s action a victory.
“What did we win, tonight? We won the right for the state board to order us to do something, but at the same time we were able to fight off Metropolitan and Coachella from anything they wanted to add to the report,” said IID President Tony Gallegos.
20 years ago
CALIPATRIA — In the two weeks since Ramon V. Montijo was named police chief here, change has been the order of business at the Police Department.
It started with what some consider a controversial decision to hire James Belcher as a police officer. Belcher had served as an officer on a one-year grant but when that grant ended this summer, the City Council chose not to retain him.
Montijo said this morning people can expect more changes in the department in coming weeks and months.
Tonight he will go before the City Council and ask for new uniforms and badges for his officers.
Montijo also plans to talk with the council about computerizing the entire department to better keep track of police files.
Montijo said he is giving himself a year to make the changes he thinks are necessary in the department, although he hopes the changes will move forward more rapidly.