Editor, Manteca Bulletin,
It is hard for me to understand this Manteca City Council and the city in terms of the direction they are taking us to address the deficit. First the city breaks private maintenance contracts and tells us the level of service won’t be reduced. Then the Bulletin discloses that the city park maintenance will be cut by a third. Then they want to add more parks in the city they can’t service.

I have written the council on what I view as overkill on adding parks we can’t service. We need to rethink the addition of more parks that will put a strain on the service level and the city budget. There are parks in Manteca that get very little usage. I suggest that the city make a survey of parks that receive very little usage. These could be sold off to reduce our deficit and maintenance costs. I also think these excess unused parks if sold would reduce taxes on residents and create a badly needed tax base for the city.

My philosophy is, if you can’t afford them, don’t put them in. I believe we need to rethink the need for parks in new construction, I think this would reduce costs to buyers of new homes.

I also think the plan to get seniors to volunteer for manual labor in the hot summer months is going over the top. It is a lot different than riding around in an air conditioned car. I myself wouldn’t volunteer, after the city reduced the head count to address the budget. That to me is showing very little concern for seniors. We are being taxed for services that the city is supposed to give us; instead, they look for seniors to perform manual labor in three digit heat, so they can reduce their on-going deficits. Hell would freeze over before I volunteer.