The Lathrop Generations Center has become a destination for residents and non-residents alike – drawn to its open space, expansive skatepark, and convenient location.
And if the Lathrop City Council gives its blessing, the facility will soon have even more to offer the community.
When the council meets on Monday, Oct. 12 inside of its chambers at Lathrop City Hall – located at 390 Towne Centre Drive – at 7 p.m. they will discuss potentially awarding a bid to a local contractor to develop the property between the existing park and the 4-acre park site that will be located just next to it.
Using land that was initially slated for the Lathrop Generations Center, the city’s proposal will turn the strip in between the two parks into a connecting segment – which will include walkways, lighting, landscaping, upgrades to park equipment, a covered picnic area with tables, benches, and BBQs, and a pair of pickleball courts.
Of the seven bids that the city received for the project, Taylor Backhoe Service – doing business as TBS Contractors – submitted a winning bid of $531,022. With a 10 percent contingency of $53,102, the total amount that the city is requesting funding for will be slated not to exceed $584,124 – $303,000 of which will come from the city’s culture and leisure fund to offset the funding that was not available in the city’s existing budget.
Once completed, the park upgrades will connect the existing land at the Lathrop Generations Center – which has become a destination for residents for large civic events including the city’s annual birthday celebration and fireworks show in early July – with the nearby Central Lathrop parked named after the Stanford family which has ties to the local community.
Railroad tycoon Leland Stanford named Lathrop after the family of his wife, Jane Lathrop, and the Mossdale Crossing bridge over the San Joaquin River was the final piece of the transcontinental railroad that was completed months after the hammering of the golden spike in Utah joining the two main segments from both coasts in the middle of the country.
That park will be the centerpiece of a residential housing development being developed by Saybrook, LLC – the company that acquired the defunct property from the failed Richland development that left the parcels tied up in court and saddled with bond issues for years.
The Lathrop City Council meets on the second Monday of every month at Lathrop City Hall – located at 390 Towne Centre Drive – at 7 p.m. For additional information about how to view the meeting remotely, or to obtain a copy of the agenda for the upcoming meeting, visit the City of Lathrop’s website at www.ci.lathrop.ca.us.
To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.
