Stories from the past

50 years ago

Santa Rosa Acres residents, west of El Centro, suspected of unloading their raw sewage into the Lotus Drain may soon face court action, according to Fred Singh county inspector of sanitation.

“We’re going to contact these people one more time before we sock it to them,” Singh informed the Board of Supervisors this morning. “We know of four who are guilty for sure,” he said. “If we don’t act soon, we’ll have to replace the whole sewer line in four years.”

Supervisor Charles W. Kilgore stated the board was not trying to harass the residents but only trying to stop those involved. “The problem is to find out who is actually doing it,” he said, “and there are people doing this because it shows up in our tests.”

40 years ago

CALEXICO — Calexico High quarterback Larry Weaver made an auspicious debut Friday night, throwing one touchdown pass while leading the Bulldogs to an impressive 32-0 victory over Imperial High.

Weaver, a senior quarterback with little experience at the position, directed the Calexico offense with poise during the shutout performance over the vaunted Tiger defense. And nobody was more pleasantly surprised than Bulldog Head Coach Al Gutierrez.

“It was a good ballgame,” commented Gutierrez shortly after his club had thoroughly beaten Imperial. “It really took me by surprise. I didn’t think Weaver was going to do this well.”

“The fact that we were able to run the ball made it that much easier to pass the ball.”

And the Bulldogs carried the football up and down the field with seemingly little resistance from the Tigers. Running a Wishbone-style offense out of a basic I formation, the Bulldogs sliced through the middle and ran outside at will. Overall, the hosting Bulldogs garnered 230 yards rushing compared to Imperial’s 139 yards. Calexico rolled up 344 yards in total offense.

30 years ago

As an artistic endeavor, it was a disaster-piece. But when judged by the criteria most Central-Brawley games are ranked on — was it exciting and was it close — Friday’s renewal of the Valley’s biggest rivalry was an absolute winner.

The first half ended in a scoreless tie. It was marked by missed field goals and turnovers, but those same mistakes gave the game an aura that anything, anything could happen next.

In the end, a wild finish locked the game away for the Central Spartans, 20-7.

Central turned the ball over five times in the first half but kept the Wildcats off the scoreboard. But when Brawley made its only mistakes of the game in the second half — both of them fumbles — the Spartans took advantage.

The first was a fumble recovery by linebacker Darren Dickey with 1:39 left in the third quarter. It led to a nine-play, 74-yard scoring drive that was Central’s first score. The second Brawley turnover was a fumbled pitch with less than a minute left that Central’s John Pyburn scooped up and ran 85 yards into the end-zone to ice the game.

20 years ago

Only seven people shared their thoughts on the definition of fallowing and its importance with the Imperial Irrigation District’s Board of Directors, although one person came back for seconds.

The IID-San Diego County Water Authority agreement, as signed April 29, prohibits fallowing. The public hearing drew about 60 people, most of whom were familiar faces to the board and each other. All were opposed to fallowing except one, who clearly favored it.

Calipatria-area farmer Fred Singh said if a grower chooses to fallow some land while it’s being improved such as by installing drain tile, he should be able to sell the water he’s not using. He added that such improvements increase the number of jobs available.

“I farm over 1,000 acres in the north end, and if I want to fallow my ground at the end of a crop or do a crop rotation, and I want to leave it fallow, and ... get some money from the district for saving that water and at the same time I can improve my ground such as with tiling, I’m not going to put people out of production,” he said. “I think if a farmer’s going to lay some fallow ground with the good intention of improving his ground, I think that he can sell that water.”