The Manteca City Council now has a subcommittee dedicated to overseeing city efforts to remember and honor veterans.

It will involve ways to:

*preserve the existing the Veterans Memorial Mural Wall on the side of the city-owned IOOF Hall in downtown.

*establish a veterans memorial on Moffat Boulevard by the city-owned Moffat Community Center that is leased to the Veterans of a Foreign Wars.

*continue with the Memorial Day Weekend commemoration at Woodward Park.

*possibly add more veterans murals at the future veterans memorial.

The council sub-committee, however, doesn’t include the only veteran on the council: Regina Lackey who was active duty Air Force for six years serving in Korea, then Qatar after the Sept. 11 World Trade Center terrorist attacks, and stateside. She then served three years in the Air Force Reserve.

Mayor Gary Singh appointed himself and Councilman Dave Breitenbucher to the subcommittee on Tuesday.

The council confirmed the appointments on a 4-1 vote with Lackey abstaining.

“He (the mayor) has the authority to choose the committee,” Lackey said Wednesday.

She added that Singh represents Manteca while he is mayor “and I will represent veterans until I die.”

Both Breitenbucher and Lackey made it clear to Singh they wanted to be on the sub-committee.

“I had a dilemma,” Singh said Wednesday.

Singh noted a majority of the endeavors will be in Breitenbucher’s council district that includes the downtown murals and the proposed site for the veterans memorial.

Lackey has served the country — a service that Singh emphasized he greatly appreciated.

But as mayor, Singh he has taken a stepped up commitment in advancing — and securing funds for — a veterans memorial.

That is in addition to the pivotal role he played not just in launching the effort to revive the Memorial Day Weekend Commemoration at Woodward Park, but securing the bulk of the $110,000 needed to stage the event by reaching out to developers and businesses and working with Supervisor Sonny Dhaliwal to obtain county funds.

Singh said he wanted to serve on the subcommittee to follow through on what he started.

And noting it was a tough decision, he went with Breitenbucher given most of the veterans projects will have a direct impact on District 3.

Memorial ‘plaza’ in the works

Preliminary steps are in the works to establish a veterans memorial plaza where the temporary storm drain basin is now located on Moffat Boulevard next to the Manteca Community Center/VFW Hall.

The city has also been exploring options that could see a second city facility established on the south side of the retention basin for a future Legion Hall.

Should that occur in the future, one option is to have the Legion and city switch facilities with the current Legion Hall being programmed for community recreation, possibly the arts, and other uses related to downtown.

The goal is to create synergy for veterans activities, services, and a community focal point to honor and recognize the service that veterans have provided the country and community.

Preserving the existing murals

The city now owns the IOOF Hall where the five Veterans Murals commissioned by the Manteca Mural Society are located.

The goal is to make sure the murals are preserved given the high degree of community buy-in that they have as the city moves forward with plans to repurpose and remodel the IOOF Hall with the most likely use being a restaurant or entertainment venue of some type.

The city also owns the parking lot that the murals overlook on the northwest corner of Yosemite Avenue and Main Street.

Memorial weekend commemoration

The American Legion foundation led by Jeff Aksland was the led entity in bringing back the three-day Memorial Weekend event this year.

It also involved a high level of city participation in terms of staffing and planning.

Having a subcommittee in place will help assure elected officials can help keep the partnership going.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com