How important is public art in Manteca? It’s the $1.2 million and counting question.

It is not a rhetorical question.

And how it is answered cuts to the heart of what makes Manteca basically Manteca.

The $1.2 million is what the city has spent so far on the IOOF building, which is basically the acquisition cost.

The public art?

It’s the downtown murals.

More specifically, it’s the $125,000 or so spent on the five veteran murals that grace the side of the IOOF Hall at the heart of Manteca at the Yosemite Avenue and Main Street intersection.

The murals have become as much as part of Manteca as the placement of 2,400 flags along city streets 11 times a year, the Memorial Day Weekend Commemoration, and the Fourth of July.

It’s a reflection of the price paid for the freedoms, lifestyle, and prosperity we enjoy today in Manteca.

Countless times we’ve been told by community leaders, elected and otherwise, we should never forget.

Those words are about to be put to the test.

One way or another the murals are in jeopardy.

Basically, they are difficult at best, and impossible, at worst, to move. They were placed on panels due to the nature of the wall.

Any alterations to the east facing wall — such as adding a side entrance — could conflict with the murals.

Whether that will be an issue remains to be seen.

But what clearly will be is any exterior wall work ranging from assuring the structural integrity of the 110 year-old structure that is tall enough to accommodate three stories or simply painting the building.

In fairness to the city, none of the downtown murals when they were put in place came with an iron clad guarantee they’d remain forever.

That said, the city is the entity that made public art in the form of murals an integral part of the 2002 downtown plan that brought Manteca the Library Park expansion, the turn-of-the-century style street light poles, the transit center, and crosswalk pavers that didn’t fall apart.

And there is no mural(s) that have been as high profile or have enjoyed such a large buy-in as the veteran murals.

The best case scenario for both the murals and the city-turned-downtown-property-developer is not to build a permanent structure per se in the parking lot that was part of the IOOF Hall purchase.

The corner is too valuable in terms of what it can do for downtown and the community as a whole to remain a parking lot or be covered partially or completely with a permanent building.

The lot represents a rare opportunity that not many cities have which is the ability to transform a “clean slate” when it comes to a parcel that is not only at the heart of downtown but at the crossroads of a key east-west arterial and the main north-south arterial that is basically at the geographic center of the developed community.

It is an opportunity — along with repurposing the IOOF Hall — that shouldn’t be squandered.

And it is the reason why city leaders were astute enough to purchase the property to make sure that it didn’t languish and could be transformed into a great benefit not just for downtown the all of Manteca.

It is why the general concepts Ascend — the consulting firm the city obtained for $960,000 to devise a holistic downtown plan — submitted regarding the IOOF property should be pursued.

It was part of a competition using the building and lot to showcase the moxie of the firms jockeying for the contract.

The most obtrusive possibility, under the initial Ascend vision, was a tent that — one assumes — could be used in connection with an event or even for outside dining on the southeast corner of the lot by the intersection.

Again, keeping in mind, it was only a concept and about as far away as one can be from a done deal, there was grumbling that it would ruin the sight line for the murals.

But let’s be honest.

A parking lot is a horrible thing to be in the sight line of the veterans murals. They — and the combined sacrifices they represent — deserve more than asphalt with cars parked on top.

The murals — just like the others downtown — are best when viewed up close and not treated as being no different than a drive by billboard

Painting and structural work should be seen as a challenge, not a problem, as the city moves forward.

What is today a parking lot should be seen as a place people will gladly walk several blocks to reach.

It should be a place where the community gathers to laugh, have fun, make new friends, and to celebrate our freedoms as well as Manteca.

And what better way to honor the sacrifices of this who did not return — as well as those that did — by having the veterans murals incorporated with such a community space.