To lead or not to lead, that is the question for Manteca’s elected leaders.

They are being presented with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to address what many believe is a lengthening list of community amenities that Manteca — perennially one of California’s fastest growing cities that is a handful of years  away from surpassing 100,000 residents mark — lacks.

On that list is a performing arts center.

The Manteca Unified School District is conducting a serious look at developing a performing arts center complex at the district office site at Airport Way and Louise Avenue.

The school board wants the City of Manteca to be among those having input shaping what such a complex might entail if it is built.

The schools and the city have a long relationship of sharing facilities. It makes sense given they have overlapping constituencies comprised of the same taxpayers.

Manteca has an option to do more than just tag along for the ride.

They could seize the opportunity to truly partner with the district and commit funding towards “add-ons” to the basic performing arts center that are tailor-made to provide community recreation facilities such as for dance, group exercise, musical lessons, community theater, and even static arts classes  among other uses.

While some of what facilities the district may pursue on its own may lend itself to such uses, it is arguable that specific space created to address the dearth of community needs is something the city might want to pursue.

And by “pursue” that means put up the money to build. That includes a dance studio for everything from ballroom and ballet to tap dancing lessons that can also be utilized for group exercise such as yoga, Zumba, and aerobics. Music rooms for instrument lessons. There could be art specific classrooms along with perhaps a community art gallery. And a theater room for community use to prepare for non-school productions.

They are all things the school district offers but addresses on school sites. Such add-on facilities to a performing arts center would primarily benefit the community but could also be harnessed in some capacity to go beyond what schools offer. The most likelihood is they would by and large be used by the community that could tap into the synergy provided by a performance venue.

The school district has the land and would be developing parking. By having everything under one roof, so to speak, there are economies of scale as well as cost savings.

A joint-venture for the performing arts would benefit both the schools and the city. And it would require the city paying to construct parts of a performing arts facility that are more community driven than school driven.

Manteca staff and elected officials need to suppress any fiefdom or territorial tendencies they might have. They also have to face the cold truth.

It’s a truth Mayor Ben Cantu knows well. The city not only has repeatedly failed to follow through on amenity initiatives for community recreation, library facilities and such but they have a lot of wants that cost a heck of a lot of money they haven’t been collecting much, if anything, for to turn into reality.

The city back in 2002 when elected leaders started what ended up being a lethargic push to expand and upgrade community learning opportunities by addressing the fact the city has a library built in 1962 and expanded in 1977 to serve an ultimate population of 45,060 they also said they wanted to see a performing arts center with seating for 800 built in 20 years or so.

Next month it will have been 20 years. The only thing Manteca has to show for either library system upgrades besides replacing the roof and carpets or a performing arts center are paid invoices and cancelled checks made out to consultants.

Manteca did what Manteca did best. They got the community excited. They formed a citizens’ panel. They explored what other cities in the area have done. And they hired a consultant for preliminary needs and cost estimates.

Then, after a lot of talking, they leaned toward raising fees to pay for growth’s fair share but then decided the city couldn’t afford to come up with the rest of the money needed and dropped the subject.

Three years ago the majority of the current council did a repeat of the 2002 leadership ghosting of their predecessors.

They spent money on consultants and invested community time on a proposal to pursue an $80 million community center and aquatics complex.

In a slightly different twist, the staff convinced the council to hijack a sales tax initiative initially being crafted to pursue a community center and aquatics complex. Instead they asked for a general sales tax increase that wasn’t restricted to recreation amenities. That happened when then City Manager Miranda Lutzow channeled Chicken Little warning of the imminent collapse of city finances.

We know now the municipal books were in disarray but the proverbial sky wasn’t falling down.

At any rate, voters rejected the tax measure. And the council did what previous councils tend to do when they hit a rough spot — they folded their tent.

Today Manteca is no closer to having a community center/aquatics center than it was 50 years ago.

Contrast with the Manteca Unified School District. Voters rejected Measure R to address pressing needs at aging campuses, including a number that had classrooms in excess of 50 years old that simply were becoming too expensive to maintain and were severely crimping educational offerings. They came back six months later with the same $260 million bond proposal. It passed the second time.

They were more diligent in identifying the needs and making it clear the funding they were seeking was for specific needs. They viewed a setback not as the end of the road but merely a challenge to properly address.

The city’s dead-in-the-water aquatics center effort also underscores the historic lack of urgency that often exists on the city’s part to make a decision.

Manteca Unified endeavored to work with the city to pursue a possible joint-facilities swimming pool. In that instance, the city minimum was separate changing rooms and showers, an entrance area building, and a smaller shallow pool for young kids as well as fencing to control access needed when the city was operating programs as opposed to the school.

The joint pool development plan made sense given there is no overlap of use.

But then things went astray. The city at the time had no sense of urgency. Key staff was also wedded to the fiefdom concept meaning they wanted their own free-standing swimming pool and it had to be an aquatics center.

By the time August rolls around, Manteca High’s new swimming pool will be completed. The city aquatics center will still be a pipe dream. And, to top that off, the city is still saddled with a 55-year-old community pool that is woefully inadequate and — based on a city commissioned consultant report — is going to need $2 million in work in the coming years just to remain viable in its current configuration.

It is in the best interests of Manteca’s residents if the council steps up and takes a leadership role. They need to be involved in discussions with the school district and they need to decide whether it makes sense to get amenities in place instead of letting municipal staff set the agenda.

There is nothing barring the city 25 years or more from now building their own free-standing performing arts center after partnering with the school district with the city financing possible add-on facilities designed with the community in mind to a proposed performing arts center on district property.

Just going along for the ride is fine too.

But if city leaders do that then they need to stop bemoaning the fact Manteca has a dearth of amenities.

The city keeps playing one shot for all or nothing for amenities and the community keeps coming up short-handed.

This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com