The City of Ripon will submit the same two projects from last year to the upcoming San Joaquin One Voice advocacy trip to Washington, DC.
The “Ripon Multi-Modal Station” — the Altamont Corridor Express train station in downtown — is the 2016 One Voice Regional Project while the “South San Joaquin Irrigation District Surface Water Supply” is again the One Voice Local Project.
Both project requests for consideration were recently approved by the Ripon City Council in time for the Feb. 5 deadline.
San Joaquin One Voice is the San Joaquin Council of Government’s regional advocacy group that’s scheduled to attend the One Voice event on April 17 through 21.
Members of the local delegation will have the opportunity during this time to visit Congressional and federal department representatives. The goal, according to SJCOG, is to educate these reps on federal funding along with regulatory relief needs, issues, and regional significance of these projects to the San Joaquin region.
 In turn, delegation members can receive first-hand information on grants and other funding sources to meet these regional priority needs.
San Joaquin One Voice will also have projects – regional and local – from the cities of Escalon, Lathrop, Lodi, Manteca and Tracy not to mention the transit agencies, the Port of Stockton and the Stockton Metropolitan Airport.
A year ago, Ripon submitted the Multi-Modal Station (Regional), the SSJID Surface Water Supply (Local) and endorsed the Ripon Community Athletic Foundation Stadium Project, according to City Administrator Kevin Werner.
“The Multi-Modal Station project is requesting funds to purchase right-of-way ($550,000) and complete the preliminary layout ($80,000) for the future station,” he said.
Plans call for the 7,000-square-foot multi-modal station near downtown Ripon to be part of the San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission’s major expansion of the Altamont Corridor Express commuter passenger rail service to Modesto by 2018 and Merced by 2022.
As for the SSJID Surface Water Supply project, the City is requesting funds to construct five miles of pipeline to connect Ripon’s water distribution system with SSJID transmission main. Cost is estimated at $4.5 million, Werner said.
He added that Council can designate a representative to participate in the 2016 One Voice trip, pending approval.