An aquatics center in Manteca would be nice.

But even nicer would be a more robust — and more accessible — recreation programming that requires swimming pools to offer.

That may sound as if it is saying the same thing, but it’s not.

The reality is Manteca 10 years from now will not have an aquatics center.

And that will be 10 years of recreation programming lost that could have had a major impact on young lives and improved the  lives of all  those who would  have been impacted by water-related recreation programming.

Manteca’s leadership is gearing up for a sales tax ask. Whether it is a half or one cent jump, it will not be enough to address all needs and wants.

The list is pretty daunting.

It includes the need to add personnel and not just police and fire.

It also includes facility and infrastructure needs.

A new police station.

Interchange upgrades.

Acquiring land and developing a second community park the council has committed to doing in north Manteca as part of the Delicato settlement.

A southwest fire station that needed to be in place a year ago.

Major equipment replacement. Fire engines, for starters cost $1.1 million today.

More robust street maintenance.

And that’s just the start.

An aquatics center is way down the list.

Keep in mind it’s not just a swimming pool. They incorporate waterpark-like features as well as water spray features. It may even have bleachers et al for competitive swim meets;

And they are expensive to build. It can cost $14 million to $20 million for a “low end” aquatics center.

And what you build you must maintain and eventually overhaul.

Sooner than later, Manteca will need to dump serious cash into the Lincoln Pool which is barely, size-wise, out of the backyard swimming pool class.

That is a tad of an exaggeration.

That said, plowing a large sum into it is akin to spending $20,000 to overhaul and modernize a 1961 Nash Metropolitan as one’s sole family vehicle to serve all of your needs from running errands, chauffeuring kids, commuting, and using it for family vacations when it’s 2024 and you have six people in your household.

Then there is a problem with dumping all of Manteca’s available resources — assuming there will ever be enough for that purpose — into one big aquatics center.

It is especially true of some past suggestions that such a complex be located at the family entertainment zone and designed to make Manteca a magnet for regional swimming competitions.

It doesn’t address Manteca’s needs and wants.

Nor is it truly accessible for the community that is vowing to transform itself into a “walkable community” by reducing the need to travel miles to access amenities.

Besides, Manteca already has three swimming pools ideal for swim lessons and open pool that serve three distinct geographic areas of city. They are Manteca Unified swimming pools at Manteca, East Union, and Sierra high schools.

There is no overlap between existing school and city programming that prevents using them for municipal recreation efforts. At the same time, there isn’t much potential conflict that can’t be dealt with if the city rolled out water-based programming for the community during the school year.

And to be completely honest, those that have treated any idea floated in the past to utilize them robustly for community recreation programming as DOA have been past city staff and previous elected leaders.

Past refusal to insist the city have “its own” has robbed two or so generations of community youth of the ability to access more robust water recreation.

The open pool programming in the summer at Lincoln Pool is a joke based on its reach.

Nine-tenths of the community’s youth can’t realistically walk to it while every kid in town could back in the early 1960s when it first opened.

Bicycling access isn’t much better.

Speaking of jokes, take a hard look at what personnel Manteca dedicates to recreation and community services.

There is a growing need to expand and coordinate more community events and recreation offerings as Manteca marches toward the 100,000 population mark and beyond.

People — read that dedicated city positions — to accomplish that are inadequate.

Why not set aside a small portion of a sales tax increase for personnel to up Manteca’s game if you will?

Current facilities — whether they are city, school district, or even faith-based owned — are far from being maximized.

Besides, the last thing Manteca needs is spending $7 million or so on a swimming pool component that won’t receive maximum return on tax dollar investment while at the same time $21 million worth of taxpayer financed swimming pool infrastructure will sit unused during the summer months.

It should be noted putting in three or four smaller interactive water play areas in parks throughout Manteca would be much more effective, accessible, and less expansive.

There is a framework in place to make this happen. It’s an existing memorandum of understanding between the City of Manteca and Manteca Unified School District.

We are long past the time when recreation and community event style programming needs to be taken to the next level in Manteca.

It is a key part of the quality of life puzzle that needs to be on the front burner going full blast, not simmering on a back burner.

The council needs to overhaul the Parks & Recreation Commission keeping in mind it should be a partnership arrangement with Manteca Unified.

Taxpayer financed facilities in Manteca need to be leveraged to do the most good.

At the same time, it’s clear the nuts and bolts of programming for schools and the community are two separate things.

The council needs to elevate its game when it comes to Manteca recreation and the city programming community-style events and gatherings.

And the way to do that is use every community resource effective and to its fullest.

Step up the MUSD partnership.

Put community representatives from every council area on the commission.

And then give the commission the power to advise elected leaders and do the grunt work of being a sounding forum for taking Manteca recreation to the next level.

None of that would preclude Manteca eventually pursing its own aquatics center eventually.

But if they think that is feasible in the range of the next 10 to 20 years with what Manteca needs to do, they need to face the truth that it is pure fantasy at best.

At worst, it’s delusional.