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Impressed with Manteca police officers
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Count Lawrence W. Scrivner Jr. among those impressed with the diligence of Manteca Police officers.

Scrivner got a knock on his front door at 2 a.m. Saturday. Not sure who it was, he looked out the window and a Manteca Police officer responded and informed him that his garage door was open and advised him to close it if he didn’t want to lose anything. Scrivner said he told the officer “thanks.”

As Scrivner notes an officer was protecting his city after seeing a dark street and a dark house with a garage door open. He added that officers doing pro-active policing is probably 99 percent of what law enforcement does.

 

Water rules

apply to you

& me, not city

Marion Elliott noted on Saturday at 12:22 p.m. he drove by Northgate Park and saw the soccer field being watered by sprinklers less than 48 hours after a significant downpour of rain.

With an odd address, Elliott said city ordinances barred him from watering his lawn on Saturday prompting him to ask whether the city is exempt from this requirement.

Basically, the city did exempt themselves from day of week watering restrictions due to heavy play that some parks get such as Woodward and Northgate. In exchange, they reduce watering at other parks. That’s a City Council decree.

However, everyone is barred from watering from noon to 6 p.m. The council did not carve out an exception for the city.

Also last month the council made it illegal for anyone in Manteca to irrigate outdoors within 48 hours following measureable rainfall. That is defined as any amount of rain that generates run-off or puddles. Again, there was no exception made for the city.

Perhaps the water conservation staff will borrow a play from the Manteca Fire Department’s game book when George Quersama was fire chief. The fire department sent a notice to then Mayor Carlon Perry for the city’s failure to abate weeds along the Tidewater Bike Path.

Perhaps a similar notice can be sent to Mayor Steve DeBrum regarding the city’s failure to comply with the water conservation rules.

 

No top city

brass living

in Manteca

The Manteca City Council is meeting Tuesday, May 3, at 5 p.m. for a special session covering the process of finding a replacement for City Manager Karen McLaughlin who is retiring.

After taking public comment on the item, the council will go into a closed door session.

With the decision of Fire Chief Kirk Waters to step down this summer, that means half of Manteca’s eight in-house top municipal leadership staff are departing or have already done so. The others are the community development director and city clerk.

And as more than a few critics have noted, the retirement of City Clerk Joann Tilton means no one in the top spots in the city even lives in Manteca although her replacement — Lisa Blackmon of Napa — who starts June 1 has promised to move her family to Manteca.

For the record, the city’s only upper echelon contract employee — City Attorney John Brinton — does reside in Manteca.

The last city manager to live in Manteca was Bob Adams.

 

BLD starts church

league, waives team

fee for Manteca

chamber members

Big League Dreams is offering two ways for softball enthusiasts to save money playing in leagues this spring/summer.

One offer is for members of the Manteca Chamber of Commerce to avoid the $300 team fee for Season 3 softball on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday nights leaving only the $30 per player fee.

BLD is also starting its first church league for coed softball on Tuesday nights starting May 17. Set up exclusively for church teams from the Central Valley, the $300 team fee is being waived if it is paid by May 10. The $30 per player fee still stands.

For details call BLD at 209.824.2400 extension 105 or 106.

 

Manteca Unified

teacher secures

classroom grant

Manteca Unified teacher Lynnelle Madesen who teaches pre-K at Great Valley School is among nine that have been awarded mini grants by the Teachers College of San Joaquin that’s part of the San Joaquin County Office of Education.

The grant will pay for sensory material.

The $500 to $2,500 mini-grants came from a $25,000 grant awarded to TCSJ by the Intrepid Philanthropy Foundation.  The Promise of Innovation Award allows awardees to implement proposed projects in their own classrooms. There are few opportunities for teachers to be recognized for their commitment to providing quality learning experiences for students. This award honors teachers for being innovative and meeting the needs of students in inventive ways.

 

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com