Manteca High will start its second hundred years with Buffalo Way leading to a new 2,161-seat gym.
The Manteca City Council Tuesday approved changing the name of what is now Garfield Avenue from Moffat Boulevard to Mikesell Street to Buffalo Way. The city earlier this year officially abandoned the segment of Garfield Avenue from Mikesell south to the student parking lot to allow for a $42 million plus upgrade of the century-old campus upgrade that will eliminate public traffic between the parking lot and Mikesell while allowing for securing the campus.
When the school district completes its current upgrades, the student drop off for the campus will be in front of the new gym and swimming pool that will be accessed from entering what will soon be Buffalo Way off of Moffat Boulevard. Once students are dropped off, drivers will exit the campus onto Sherman Avenue.
The section of the street from Miksell to the student parking lot is currently being torn up to allow for part of the new gym to encroach where the street is now as well as build a cluster of classroom across from the gym. The street, per se, would be replaced with a one-way lane for access when needed that would be part of a premade of sorts.
It will end the public’s ability to simply walk — or drive through — the middle of the campus as wrought iron fencing and gates will complete the project to secure the school site.
The council also instructed staff to fine tune a proposal to establish an honorary street naming program that involves placing a second sign on specific streets with a different design and color while the existing street names would remain intact.
One of the first two streets that will be considered for the honorary street name program will be the entire length of Thomas Street in from Winters Drive to Fishback Road that also runs in front of Sierra High. It will carry the honorary street name of Jim Thomas Street. The other is Mt. Etna Way that parallels Louise Avenue behind a sound wall west of the railroad tracks that would carry the honorary street name of Georgiana Reichelt Way in honor of the longtime community activist.
Honorary street names and signs will not replace existing names and signs. Nor will they appear on official maps or Google Maps.
The honorary signs besides being of a different color and design, would sit below the primary street sign. As proposed by the council, a fee would cover the cost of the installation and manufacture of the honorary sign(s) as well as staff time to process the request would include the presentation of a copy of the sign for the applicants.
Eligibility requirements for the signs would be names of historical significance, those who have made contributions to the city as well as living and deceased individuals.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
