Manteca’s sixth fire station will do more than just house a 9-member engine company that responds to medical emergencies, fires, accidents, and such.
It will be a place of learning.
The Manteca Unified School District board when they meet today at 5:30 p.m. at the district office are expected to take steps required under state law to eventually convey ownership of a surplus acre at the Tara Park school site in southwest Manteca to the city.
Language in an agreement between the city and school district for the transfer indicates the fire department will work with Manteca Unified to develop and implement an education program for students who will be attending the school.
MUSD Assistant Superintendent Victoria Brunn said it is an ideal way to help students “learn about” what those who serve as firefighters do. The district hopes to also the program career exploration that would be easy to do given the proximity of the station.
The parcel in question is 58 feet wide making it impractical for either building classrooms or developing playing fields for the school.
Mayor Gary Singh praised the deal allowing the fire station to be located on the parcel as another example of the school district and city working together for the best interests of the community and taxpayers.
The district is in the process of the architectural planning stages for a 1,000-student TK-8 campus on the remaining 21 acres.
The site is north of Wooward Avenue and west of McKinley Avenue in the rapidly growing southwest portion of the city.
The city is also at the building planning stage for what will be Manteca’s sixth fire station.
Manteca has already accepted a federal grant to help cover part of the cost of hiring nine more firefighters that will ultimately will be assigned to an engine company housed at the new station.
The firefighters need to be hired by mid-2026 under terms of the grant.
They will initially be assigned to a second fire company that will be located at the Union Road station, the closest currently to southwest Manteca.
The station was built to house personnel for two fire companies of three firefighters on each for 24/7 staffing.
The plan is to move the tiller truck currently assigned to the Power Avenue station to the Union Road station to join an existing fire engine company.
A frontline fire engine will then be placed at Powers Avenue.
The Union Road station is the busiest in the city based on call volume.
There are also more than 2,500 households outside of the targeted five-minute response time in southwest Manteca.
Until the sixth station is built, two engine companies running out of Union Road will help improve response times somewhat.
That’s because if the Union Road engine company is already on a call when an emergency occurs, an available engine from elsewhere in Manteca — or even Lathrop Fire — would have to respond.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
