Although the season is one of the driest in several years and with many irrigation districts curtailing the use of water, farmers in the South San Joaquin Irrigation District will have an ample supply to last them through the season to around October, it was announced by Chief Engineer C. J. Campbell Tuesday. However, this can only be done through the cooperation of the water users by not needlessly running water.

Following a meeting of the board of directors of the Manteca District Chamber of Commerce at Ray’s Quick Lunch yesterday, the committee named at last month’s meeting to select a secretary-manager to succeed Geo. D. Murphy met and reviewed seven applications for the position. After discussing the qualifications of the applicants, the committee voted unanimously to hire George F. Poulos, a Manteca boy, born and reared here.

The Manteca City Council approved a resolution to purchase the Arnold Mangold property on McKinley Avenue for an outfall sewage disposal site and authorized their city attorney to apply to the County Planning Commission for a use permit. The City has long sought a home for its cannery waste and sewage water, and Monday night’s action brought the hunt to an end.

Charges and counter-charges were exchanged at the Tuesday meeting of the directors of the South San Joaquin Irrigation District when a group of sweet potato growers demanded irrigation water be rationed so that they could mature their crop. Nine ranchers of the Nile Garden area southwest of town appeared before the board and asked that immediate steps be taken to cut the time limit from nine minutes to six, and that the limits be strictly enforced.

This year could well go down in history as “the year of resignation” in light of yet another city department head resigning his post this week, following three others to depart from Manteca. Three-year City Hall veteran Planning Director Virgil Adams announced Monday that he is to become Planning Director at Corvallis, Oregon, a community of 34,000 people.

It’s going to take $5,324,316 to operate the Manteca Unified School District for the 1969-70 school year, according to trustees who approved the sum for their final budget figure. A total reserve figure of $200,594 was left in reserve, according to Superintendent Mal Malouf.

The appointment of Darell Phillips to the position of General Manager of the Manteca Bulletin, effective August 6, was announced by Bulletin publisher Bruce Wright this week. Phillips will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the newspaper, Wright said in making the announcement.

An attempt to recall Vice Mayor Al Mezzetti will die because organizer Jeanne Keaster failed to gather the 3,200 signatures needed by 5 p.m. today to qualify the measure for November’s election ballot. Keaster, who plans to run for City Council in the next election, said she and other recall advocates have gathered petitions with “close to 3,000” signatures.  

Former city manager David Jinkens failed to inform previous elected city leaders about deficit spending in the municipal sewer account, setting the stage for a possible 6.5 percent rate hike. After being told by existing city manager Bob Adams that the sewer account has been in deficit spending for at least four years, City Councilman John Harris wanted to know why staff hadn’t brought it to the attention of the council earlier. Adams deferred the question during Monday’s workshop on the sewer rate hike to department heads who worked with Jinkens.