STORIES FROM THE PAST

50 years ago

HOLTVILLE — The workout had gone well and now it was over except for the running.

A tall, slender figure moved away from the group, his long blond sideburns visible under the cotton baseball cap, and walked toward the manager.

“I’ve gotta put some ice on this, Del, okay,” the blond asked, nodding toward his knee, and Del Rice nodded affirmatively, turning his attention to the other players as the young man walked toward the clubhouse.

“Wasn’t that Roy Gleason?” Rice was asked later as he left the training diamond and made his way to the long, low building that serves as the locker room of the California Angels farm teams.

Rice nodded again. “We drafted him last winter for AA ball,” the El Paso manager replied and once again the instability of baseball was an ever-present fact.

Last year, Gleason divided his time between

Albuquerque and Bakersfield in the Los Angeles Dodgers farm system. This year, he will spend the summer in Texas or Hawaii.

“We can’t send him down,” Rice said, “or we have to offer him back to the Dodgers.”

Going up is another matter, however, and both Gleason and the Angels are hoping that is the route he takes for his new employer.

And this is where the route begins, on one of the four diamonds perched on the eastern edge of the fourth largest city in the Imperial Valley, slightly more than 200 miles from Anaheim and the big time.

There are many others who will be following the same path Gleason will take but for now they are just so many names on a very temporary roster names like Jim Suckiewich and Charles Vinson and Johnny Rivers and Bobby Trevino and Randy Niles.

Some of them never will be more than that. They will stick around for a year or two or three and then call it quits and go back to the gas station or the grocery store or the used car lot back home.

40 years ago

The Calexico Community Action Council has spent six years and more than $ 3 million, mostly in public funds, trying to turn 66 dusty acres into an industrial park, but it has not moved a single business onto the site nor created any industrial jobs.

Now, despite all the money poured into the project, the land owned jointly by CCAC and the city of Calexico is in jeopardy because a sheriff’s sale is set for Monday to get money long owed a former CCAC employee.

No one seems to know for sure what has happened to all the money or the long-held dream of jobs for the poor.

Certainly, public agencies have freely poured money after the dream of jobs.

Much of the money had gone into building wide streets installing sewers, lights and gas hookups and erecting a fountain. All now grace the vacant, weed-covered acres.

The federal government also financed an “incubator building” to attract fledging industry to the park.

But to date, not one sale to a private firm has been completed, although several have gone into escrow.

The only sale has been to the Calexico School District which bought a parcel earmarked for an elementary school in CCAC’s subdivision map. But the school district had to initiate condemnation proceedings to get the land at a reasonable price.

CCAC, to date, also has failed to lease any spaces in its incubator building even though the grant application was funded after CCAC indicated 30 percent of the spaces were committed. CCAC claims however, that two businesses are ready to move into the building, although they have not signed leases.

As time and money fly by with little sign of progress, allegations of financial irregularities, violations of federal guidelines, inept recordkeeping and attempts to gouge prospective buyers have become rampant.

These and other mounting concerns have prompted the initiation of investigations by a federal grand jury, the FBI and the county grand jury. None of these investigations has been completed.

30 years ago

CALEXICO — Mexican nationals crossing the border into downtown Calexico are deluged by a horde of men who inquire about their destination and offer rides to cities such as Indio, Los Angeles or San Diego.

These entrepreneurs stand on the corner near the port of entry unlawfully soliciting passengers to transport in their private vehicles — vans, station wagons, pickups — anything that can carry a large group.

Sometimes the operators hire someone else to solicit passengers for them while they wait in a vehicle parked in a nearby lot. In this case, the solicitors get a percentage of the driver’s earnings.

These drivers, known as “raiteros,” operate without proper business licenses and most often without enough insurance coverage, and legitimate cab drivers complain they are being shortchanged by this underground transportation business.

But the “raiteros” say they provide cheaper, faster and more efficient long distance service.

“They (the taxi companies) charge $55 to Indio,” said one illegal operator who was amongst a group who spoke under condition of anonymity. “We charge $15 to Indio and directly to the house. They know us. They look for us.”

Another “raitero” said the illegal drivers direct their business toward farm workers and country folks who are looking for congenial service when they cross the border.

“Do you think they want to go to Greyhound where the driver is cold? The relationship is cold with those drivers.” They want more personal service, he added.

Others in the group added that they only make long distance trips and refrain from taking local business from taxi drivers.

The practice has been going on for years, but since the Greyhound strike began March 2, there are more clients for the raiteros to approach.

Legitimate taxi drivers say they are fed up with unregistered drivers taking away their business.

“As soon as they start, we don’t go on long runs like to San Diego,” said Alfredo Jaime, a driver for California Taxi. The local taxi companies charge twice as much as the raiteros, he said.