Dave Breitenbucher is answering the call Wednesday just four days shy of the 10th anniversary of his retirement as a Manteca Fire captain following a 30-year career protecting the people and property of his hometown.

This time he won’t be scrambling to put on turnout gear and board an engine with fellow firefighters to reach a medical emergency, vehicle accident, or fire.

Instead, he will answer the call as one of five council members who — along with various other officials — will ceremoniously turn the dirt for the groundbreaking of a new fire station in southwest Manteca at 10 a.m. Wednesday.

The station going near Woodward Avenue and Jason Street next to where Manteca Unified is moving forward with building an elementary school to initially accommodate 1,000 students will be the city’s sixth.

It will mean stepped up response times to medical emergencies and fire where seconds count to obtain the best outcome possible for more than 3,000 households in southwest Manteca

A ripple effect — thanks to the current council finding nine more firefighter positions in May to put a sixth engine company into service that shares quarters with the aerial company at the Union Road station — will be felt citywide.

That’s because there is a reduced need for other engine companies to cover calls in rapidly growing southwest Manteca where the sixth fire station is being built.

Breitenbucher — who is being challenged for re-election to the District 3 City Council seat in the Nov. 3 election by Lei Ann Larson — isn’t just along for the ride Wednesday and the accompanying photo op.

Getting the sixth station built and having city management start working for a seventh station is a goal he has invested more into reaching than a simple “nay” or “yea.”

Breitenbucher along with those on the council back in the summer of 2024 knew that that the fire station breaking ground on Wednesday wasn’t going to happen anytime in the next five or more years as there was no money.

The city was collecting all of the money it could legally do under state law to help pay for needed facilities — including fire engines that are $1.3 million a pop and $2 million for an aerial style truck that need replacing and moved to back up service every 10 years or so.

Breitenbucher and his colleagues not only drafted a temporary sales tax and placed it on the ballot to address pressuring police and fire needs as well as roads and more but actively campaigned for the measure individually knowing full well the political firestorm it would create.

A firestorm being harnessed by some to burn Breitenbucher and his colleagues up for re-election next month.

And while growth fees can and should pay for the new fire station expected to cost somewhere around $12 million, as of now there is no money in the fee account due to other pressing needs when it comes to facilities and such.

The entire upfront funding for the fire station is coming from Measure Q.

Part of the funding source will be diverting fire growth fees collected from new growth to pay down the bond debt created by the fire station construction instead of relying 100 percent on Measure Q funds.

That will free up more Measure Q revenues for other municipal needs.

Councilman Mike Mlorowit has repeatedly pointed out that waiting until Manteca had all of the money in hand to build a new station was impractical on two levels.

First, construction costs are always going up.

The second reason, as Morowit has noted, is such an expensive need is in the same category of a house. Extremely rare are those that can buy a house without a mortgage.

As for campaign rhetoric offered by some of the challengers on the Nov. 3 ballot that bond rates are too high for the city to move forward now, Councilman Charlie Halford has countered the city will do what it has always done.

When rates drop, and the assessed valuation grows primarily through growth, the city will move when they legally can to take advantage of opportunities to refinance at lower rates to save taxpayers money.

And they would follow state law that requires such refinancing would not extend the life of bond repayments.

“We (the city) are doing what we said we would do,” Breitenbucher said of city critics that are trying to paint a picture of Manteca being financially unstable despite the analysis of investment experts and independent organizations that monitor and rate the fiducial responsibility of government agencies.

Breitenbucher noted the fire department is in a much better position today than 10 years ago.

And he credits that to the current council being able to build on the policy efforts of previous councils as well as city management plus the efforts of the men and women of the fire department.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com