STORIES FROM THE PAST
50 years ago
The El Centro Spartans moved to within one game of clinching a part of the Imperial Valley League championship last night thanks to a late fourth quarter scoring burst by the IVL’s top scorer Greg Marshall.
The score was 61-58 in favor of El Centro with three minutes left in the fourth when Marshall scored 10 straight points and the Spartans coasted to a 77-62 victory over Calexico’s Bulldogs at the Spartan gym to raise their record to 5-2 in the IVL and 13-7 for the season.
Calexico is 3-4 for league action and 14-7 for the season. The best the Bulldogs can do is tie the Spartans for the championship, and they would have to win their final two games and the Spartans would need to lose both of the remaining games.
El Centro watched a 14-point lead dwindle to three before Marshall turned on. Behind, 60-46, Luis Cota hit three shots and George Hernandez popped two around a basket by Mark Bonesteele as the Bulldogs outscored El Centro, 12-1, to move within three.
Then Marshall was fouled and made both free shots, flicked in a 30-footer, made two layups after steals and popped a 10-foot jump shot after another steal to lock the game. Marshall finished with 27 points.
40 years ago
A Southern Pacific Railroad representative told the Board of Supervisors Tuesday that its attempts to protect continued rail service to San Diego may actually stymie the sale of the track that would get trains back into operation.
But the board refused to weaken its resolution calling for Southern Pacific to take over the line if the short-line operator contracted by the prospective buyer cannot make a go of it as a condition of the sale.
Ralph Peck, who was identified as a special representative for Southern Pacific, said, “There is no way we can sell it (the rail line) with these conditions.”
Although the board’s resolution has no force of law, Peck contended Southern Pacific would be bound by it if it were not changed.
He said it really was not necessary because the short-line operator will not be able to abandon the line unless it can get permission from the Interstate Commerce Commission.
He urged the board to drop the condition of sale it demanded in a resolution passed last month.
But shippers in the audience and most supervisors balked at the suggestion.
30 years ago
CALEXICO — The Community Redevelopment Agency Monday agreed to provide financial assistance to the financially troubled Calexico Hospital in an effort to keep it afloat until June when voters will decide the fate of a $7 million bond issue for the medical facility.
But agency member Patrick Hashem opposed the plan, saying it amounts to an illegal transfer of agency funds to the hospital.
The plan involves the sale of the city-owned Clinica de Salud building, 341 Pauline Ave., and a trailer behind the Calexico Hospital, owned by the hospital, to the Community Redevelopment Agency. The agency then will lease the buildings back to the hospital for a nominal fee.
The money used to purchase the buildings will be put into a special fund administered by the city and used to pay for the most urgent hospital expenses.