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Ripon council will push for federal funds for stadium
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The City of Ripon will again support the Ripon High stadium project as part of the San Joaquin One Voice advocacy trip scheduled for late April.
The Ripon City Council agreed last week to endorse the non-profit Ripon Community Athletic Foundation’s goal to build new restrooms at Stouffer Field to go along with the regional transportation project of a Ripon Multi- Modal Station and the local project of a South San Joaquin Irrigation District Surface Water Supply.
Mayor Dean Uecker and City Administrator Kevin Werner were also selected as local representatives at the One Voice in Washington D.C.
Vice Mayor Michael Restuccia, who has attended more than his fair share of One Voice trips over the years, believes that Werner, for one, can greatly benefit from this event.
“It’s a great opportunity for (Werner) to meet with federal officials and coordinate with municipalities from other cities,” he said.
RCAF president Stephanie Hobbs, who appreciates the Council’s endorsement, agreed. “This is a great relationship-building trip – you never know who you’ll meet.”
She’s attended a few of the previous One Voice trips but noted that she’ll miss the upcoming one scheduled April 30 through May 4.
San Joaquin One Voce is SJCOG’s regional advocacy effort consisting of a public-private delegation to visit Congressional and federal departmental representatives in the Nation’s Capital. The goal is to get Congressional and federal folks to possiblly OK funding along with regulatory relief needs, issues and projects.
Such funding may be tough to come by.
“The Stockton airport is the only SJCOG to receive money,” said Werner.
He added: “With the new administration, we don’t know where the incentives will be this year – plus we are in a drought so that could change the outlook on the local project.”
As it stands, all three SJ One Voice projects were re-submitted from the previous year. However, one part of the RCAF project was recently taken care of thanks to the Ripon Unified School District.
RUSD made possible the stadium’s new home bleachers, according to Hobbs.
She indicated that cost for the restrooms is estimated at $900,000, with RCAF currently having $100,000 in the bank.
“The stadium impacts our community,” Hobbs said. “It houses most of our kids who are non-Ripon Christian school (students).”
Some of the funding for the restrooms is expected to come from events such as the annual Rina’s Run scheduled for May 13.

To contact reporter Vince Rembulat, e-mail vrembulat@mantecabulletin.com