Manteca is gearing up to build two new fire stations in the relatively near future.
The City Council on Tuesday is expected to accept the gift of 1.14 acres at 1250 North Main St. It is on the east side of the street just north of Lancaster Drive.
It will allow the city to replace the Louise Avenue station west of Main Street.
That station, that was closed recently for several months to undergo emergency roof repairs, has serious shortcomings.
It has severe space constraints, outdated infrastructure, and an inability to accommodate modern firefighting equipment and operational needs.
The station built in the 1980s, as an example, was designed with quarters for only two member engine crews instead of the three firefighters now assigned to engine companies.
The city’s top priority is getting the sixth station built in southwest Manteca within the next two to three years.
Manteca is expected to cover the cost of the sixth station — being built near the intersection of McKinley Avenue and Atherton Drive — using fire growth fees collected from new development with Measure Q sales tax receipts covering any gap.
Even though the Louise Avenue replacement station that is going on a site an acre larger and will handle future growth, there is currently relatively few active new subdivisions or developments in the station’s coverage area.
That means the three-quarter cent 20-year Measure Q sales tax is likely to be the primary source for construction funding for the replacement fire station.
The council decision will impact where a future seventh fire station will go that a consultant report indicated a few years back would be needed as Manteca development starts picking up momentum east of Highway 99, particularly in the northeast.
There had been talk of eventually relocating the existing Louise Avenue station to the east of Highway 99 to allow it to cover existing and future development.
The bottom line of Tuesday’s action means when a seventh station is eventually built when Manteca grows to the northeast, it could have optimum placement to serve growth that is not likely occur in a significant amount for a decade or so into the future.
It also means as infill projects occurred in established north central Manteca and that accompanying traffic it will add to streets, response times for the engine company serving that area will likely stay mostly within the targeted five minute response time.
Land gift is from family
that helped build Manteca
The gift of the land from the Edward J. Cardoza and Dolores M. Cardoza Revocable Trust means a large cost of a replacement station — land acquisition — will not cost Manteca taxpayers.
The couple (Ed passed away in 2023) arguably for decades were among — if not the — leading forces in commercial development in Manteca.
They didn’t just build shopping centers but they worked with those that would lease space by securing needed equipment to make various ventures work.
Cardoza opened a television repair shop in 1954 known as “Ed’s TV” in downtown Manteca on Main Street. He moved into another location at 211 West Yosemite Avenue and then to 183 North Main just south of what is now the parking lot of Wells Fargo Bank.
The Cardozas also owned Show Place Furniture Store in the 200 block of North Main Street that was across from where the Brethren Brewery is located today.
Ed served as president of the Manteca Kiwanis Club at the infancy of the Pumpkin Festival.
Dolores was president of the newly formed Kiwanianns – wives of the members – where the men were asking the women to become involved in their service club since they were not allowed membership at that time.
Their next adventure were shopping centers with the first being on North Main Street just south of Louise Avenue in 1978. He booked Safeway Market and Value Giant on just over eight acres. There was also Sprouse Ritz, Carl’s Junior, Winchell’s Donuts, Pietro’s Italian Restaurant and a laundromat.
The next move was taking over a furniture store building just south of Center Street on North Main Street in 1980.
Their second Manteca shopping center was on North Main Street at Louise Avenue known as Cardoza West where eight pieces of property were put together with the first store to be leased being Little Caesar’s Pizza restaurant.
Also on North Main Street, just south of Joseph Road was a commercial building known as Electronic Control with Bob Arwine as its president and Ed Cardoza as secretary of the board. The firm was heavily involved in electronics.
An FM radio station was part of Cardoza Enterprises was KEJC-FM at 93.9 FM and its 420-foot transmission tower erected in Modesto.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabullin.com
