Twenty-four years ago, then Manteca Fire Chief George Quaresma was reviewing plans for the Union Road fire station at a City Council meeting.

It was designed to accommodate an engine company and ladder company. It also had seven separate individuals quarters for firefighters instead of a large dorm room.

Then Councilwoman Denise Giordano questioned the need for individual sleeping quarters.

Quaresma replied that although the department at the time had no female firefighters, it was to be prepared for the day it did.

It prompted a short council discussion led by Giordano questioning whether women would ever be firefighters.

The station opened in 2003. It was the city’s first new fire station in 18 years since the Louise Avenue station that was completed in 1985 and sat vacant for over a year was the city council not afford to staff it.

The Union Road station was located to serve not just a growing area of the city but to allow it to serve as a coverage replacement for the Center Street.

The Center Street station next to Manteca Online Academy campus that was once the Yosemite School campus that replaced the original two-story brick Yosemite School that was gutted by fire on Aug. 7, 1948.

That station now houses the city’s facilities maintenance division. It was woefully inadequate for a fire station almost on par with today’s Manteca police station built in the late 1970s.

Fast forward to day.

The fire department hired its first full-time female firefighter this year.

And finally, there was a design reveal for a new police station.

It took place Tuesday.

And when Police Chief Stephen Schluer explained the new locker room design and forward thinking that prompted it, nobody in the council chambers questioned the wisdom of the move.

The new locker room is an open space with banks of lockers.

Along one wall, are a series of individual changing rooms complete with toilet, shower, and bathroom.

Schluer explained it made more sense than building two separate locker rooms — one for male officers and one for female officers — because there is no way of knowing how many female officers the department could have in 20 years.

Or, as he pointed out, if there would be a transgender officer.

As such, it is a design that allows for maximum flexibility while affording officers privacy.

There is also a fitness gym that will allow officers to stay in shape and relieve stress.

Decades ago, the current station’s “workout room” that had a treadmill and little else, was converted into office use.

You might question the need, but anything that makes it easier for officers to work out and do so after they complete their shifts, helps keep them healthier and less prone to injuries.

They could do it on their own or at a health club, but the convenience aspect assures more will do so.

There are also other touches such as a sleep room and a mother’s room.

The sleep room comes in handy if an officer has turned to a quick turnaround shift that could occur with staffing shortages for various reasons.

The mother’s room (lactation room) is for employees — and they could be officers — that have young children.

The wellness of dispatchers wasn’t forgotten.

They can often work 10 hour shifts with minimum in an environment best described as a “cave” with its extremely low lighting.

They will have their own break room as well as an adjacent patio where they can take a break in fresh air and be within feet of returning to the dispatch center if call volume and they need to cut a break short to handle a surge of 9-1-1 calls.

That is just a short list of the farsighted planning and emphasis on employee health and wellness.

Not only does it help deal with stress, but in doing so it typically pays dividends in reduces health issues and such.

It is a 180-degree approach to space needs that guided city leaders — elected and otherwise — for years.

The city previously bought two different buildings to retrofit as a police station and a fire station in the belief it would save money.

One was the old Carpenters Hall in Union Road where Manteca CAPS is today for a fire station and the other was the old Qualex building in the Manteca Industrial Park for a police station.

Neither panned out as trying to do it on the cheap by retrofitting space soon penciled out as more expensive.

The fourth station ended up being built next to Del Webb on Lathrop Road and the new police station is soon breaking ground in the 600 block of South Main Street.