STORIES FROM THE PAST
50 years ago
An 11-year-old Mulberry District boy today considers himself quite lucky, and he will doubtless do little tunneling in the future.
Tommy Lee Turman, son of Mr. and Mrs. J. D Turman, narrowly escaped with his life yesterday afternoon when a small tunnel he and his playmates were burrowing in a ditch bank caved in and buried Tommy for about 15 minutes.
The youngster’s parents dug their son out, he was rushed to Pioneers Memorial Hospital and after being revived was released.
Mrs. Turman said the incident, which occurred at about 3 p.m. some 50 feet from the Turman home near Marigold Canal, took place in an irrigation ditch that had only recently been cement-lined.
Tommy, his eightyear-old brother, Billy, and a pair of neighbor’s children, Jimmy and Danny Aguiliria, 5 and 6, were playing in the ditch.
The idea of tunneling occurred to one of them, and they began their project. Tommy was inside when the wet soil suddenly collapsed.
40 years ago
The Board of Supervisors on Wednesday night listened to more than $1 million in requests for the $400,000 of available Revenue Sharing money earmarked for community projects.
Meanwhile, at the board’s direction, the county administrative staff worked with budget worksheets and calculators in a back room trying to find ways to cut county spending.
And eight days after opening hearings on the $49 million county budget, the supervisors still appear to be in a quandary about what they intended to spend or cut.
Ironically, there were indications Wednesday the supervisors will reconsider the only major cut they have made thus far in the proposed budget. Several supervisors spoke of putting back the $157,000 in merit increases for employees that were sliced from the budget Monday.
Also Wednesday, the supervisors agreed they will give the $400,000 of Revenue Sharing money to community projects even though they had previously considered using at least part of that money to supplement the general fund that will be depleted by the passage of Proposition 13.
30 years ago
In what was described as a “very unusual” move, the Calexico Housing Authority has hired the Riverside County Housing Authority to reconstruct its financial records for fiscal year 1988 after an apparent computer malfunction erased part of the authority’s financial records.
“This is very unusual to have to sit down and reconstruct 1988 financial records this far down the r4oad,” said Howard Smith, deputy director for financial services at the Riverside County Housing Authority. “The commissioners should know on a monthly basis where they are (financially), and they haven’t.”
In an interview Tuesday, Smith said the Riverside County Housing Authority began work on the Calexico Housing Authority’s 1988 financial records last week and that the Calexico Housing Authority was still in the process of sending him additional financial information.
20 years ago
The city of El Centro has long entertained the notion of creating a municipal 18-hole golf course as a way to improve the city’s financial situation.
When local voters decided to end the city utility tax in 1996 — a move that shrank the city’s revenue by $1.8 million in one year and prompted the disappearance of 56 city employment positions — city staff began searching for ways to run the city on a tighter budget and a golf course seemed particularly promising.
The city Recreation Department suffered the largest portion of budget cuts, losing one of three full-time employees and at least 37 part-time workers. Golf courses, however, tend to pay for themselves and would therefore be more immune to the economic woes of the city governance, Phil Carr, city director of administrative services, said in a meeting in May.