There’s a park named for Jack Snyder in the Solera neighborhood just east of Woodward Park.

It’s a fitting honor given the impact Snyder has had on Manteca during the record-setting 24 years he served on the City Council.

There are those that believed a more fitting honor would be naming the 120 Bypass after Snyder given his organizing a full-court press reaching into the Bay Area and the halls of the State Capitol in Sacramento was largely credited for getting a project built that wasn’t even on the radar of the California Transportation Commission.

But that effort was shot down by the enemies that Snyder generated during nearly a half century of council service where he took the tact getting stuff done for the people of Manteca was more important than winning popularity contests.

Snyder has a reputation for being blunt and gruff. Diplomacy hasn’t always been his strong suit. That said, you’d be hard pressed to find someone who would work as tirelessly and unselfishly for the good of the community he calls home — Manteca.

Snyder forged the hell better known as the Great Recall Election of 1982 that saw Mayor Trena Kelley, Rick Wentworth and Bobby Davis recalled for taking steps to terminate Police Chief Leonard Taylor. Snyder survived it.

The mere mention of the recall still opens old wounds for some. Some of Snyder’s detractors date back to the recall. Others didn’t like his “no excuse” stance when he was in charge of quality control at LOF or when he was mayor.

But what they can’t argue with is what Snyder, now 94, has done for Manteca.

While he had his hand in a long list of projects that would fill this page and then some, there are four endeavors that have his handprints all over them — Woodward Park, the 120 Bypass, the Manteca Seniors Helping Area Residents and Police, and the Manteca-Lathrop Boys & Girls Club.

120 Bypass was thought

to be an impossible dream

The 120 Bypass was arguably his finest hour.

He accomplished what most thought was impossible — getting the state to build a bypass of Highway 120 to the south of Manteca.

We take the 120 Bypass — complete with its annoying slowdown in the outside eastbound lane that starts often throughout the day as far back from the Highway 99 merge as Union Road — for granted. 

That traffic all used to funnel through Manteca on Yosemite Avenue. From Friday afternoon to Sunday night traffic would be backed up for miles trying to snake through Manteca. A common complaint for Manteca residents was often waiting 10 minutes or more for a break in the traffic to cross Yosemite Avenue.

The state made it clear the bypass wouldn’t be built for years, if not decades. Most local leaders said you can’t take on the state. Not Snyder. 

Snyder led the charge to launch an orchestrated media blitz in the Bay Area as well as dutifully handing out leaflets to backed-up travelers at traffic lights in Manteca during the Friday through Sunday jam. The effort got newspapers and radio stations west of the Altamont Pass editorializing for the need for the 120 Bypass. Snyder and a small army of dedicated volunteers also pressured state leaders in the valley.

They managed to accomplish what everyone thought was impossible — state funding to build the 120 Bypass.

The state, though, did it on the cheap by employing a three-lane design with two lanes that fed back into one and then back to two in each direction. Thirty-four people were killed in 37 months and countless scores injured in brutal head-on collisions where the suicide lanes squeezed back down to one lane in a single direction.

Snyder again rallied the troops. The state said it would be years before the bypass would have freeway status. But Snyder kept the pressure on.  Caltrans finally relented and invested in concrete barriers that were placed down the center line. The carnage slowed down to a trickle.

Sacramento kingmakers tried to talk Snyder into running for the California Assembly after his initial success with the 120 Bypass. He declined. Snyder did make a run for the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors but lost.

Snyder helped

found SHARP

Former Police Chief Willie Weatherford came to Snyder with a proposal to borrow an idea from a Southern California community and launch a senior citizens volunteer corps to assist police. Snyder, in his usual fashion, didn’t just say he’d help but he took the idea, embraced it and ran with it. Today SHARP — before being put on pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic — is one of the most effective volunteer groups assisting law enforcement in all of California.

The Boys & Girls Club is another example of a vintage Snyder collaboration. There was a need to help kids. Snyder put together a group and then made the rounds of community leaders from home builders to labor unions. When the dust settled, Manteca had a Boys & Girls Club built using a $100,000 donation from the late Antone Raymus at a city park with the labor to do the work secured and donated by the Carpenters Union. He then came up, implemented, and for years chaired the club’s signature fundraising project — the annual telethon.

Is Snyder perfect? Far from it.

But when all is said and done, Manteca is a better place because of Jack Snyder’s efforts as well as that of countless other people.

Snyder notes it was

never a one-man effort

Snyder on Wednesday stressed repeatedly that it was not a one man effort by far.

He also understood why people in various instances took a dislike to him.

“If I were in their place and had (their view) I’d dislike me too,” Snyder said.

But he never let friction blind him to others when they made a valid point.

Snyder was elected in 1972 to the council. He was serving with Mayor Mark Oliver, Vice Mayor William Phillips, and council members H.C. Buchanan and Charles Shaefer when the current Civic Center was dedicated on Nov. 8, 1975. Of the five men serving at the time, Snyder turned into a marathoner when it came to holding elected office in Manteca. He served from 1972 to 1990 including eight years as a directly elected mayor — plus from 2002 to 2008. His 24 years in office still stands as a record for Manteca’s council members. The only elected local officials to out serve Snyder was the late George Dadasovich who was Manteca’s elected treasurer for 52 years.
Looking back, Snyder said his biggest regret was the infamous 1989 vote on Yellow Freight.

He was on the losing end of a 3-2 council vote that would have put a large freight terminal on the southeast corner of the 120 Bypass and Main Street interchange.

Had Snyder prevailed the odds are the area south of the 120 Bypass would be developing differently today and the truck movements on to the freeway could have made the stretch even more congested and even deadlier.

“I’ve been fortunate,” Snyder said. “I’ve lived a charmed life.”

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com