Manteca - at least for the past 30 years if not longer - has always under spent surrounding jurisdictions and similar-sized cities when it comes to what residents pay per capita for fire services.

No one, especially those who have had a loved one saved by Manteca Fire Department personnel, is going to dispute the effectiveness and professionalism of the city’s firefighters.

And no one can argue that the more firefighters, stations, and engine companies you have coupled with top-notch building standards and enforcement wouldn’t result in an improved level of service to some degree.

It is why Manteca has two new fire stations - one on Lathrop Road next to Del Webb at Woodbridge and another at Woodward Avenue and Atherton Drive - in the planning process. It is also why voters five years ago saw the value in bolstering Manteca’s general fund support of public services by augmenting it with the half cent Measure M public safety tax.

The pending loss of six firefighters being laid off July 1 due to the continued deterioration of the general fund that is tied directly to significant drop-offs in property and sales tax - the main source of funding municipal services such as public safety - will set back plans to enhance emergency service response to parts of Manteca such as the northwest.

That’s the bad news. The good news - if you can call it that - is it won’t be devastating in the short run.

Manteca’s fire staffing in terms of actual manpower and not the number of firefighters per capita is going back to about late 2008 levels.

That is because the net gain of 12 firefighters from Measure M tax receipts went to provide the nine firefighters needed to man the $1 million 100-foot aerial platform truck that went into service in 2010. It is housed in the same station as a regular engine company on South Union Road.

Losing the six firefighters and mothballing the equivalent of one engine company won’t put a vast segment of Manteca outside of an effective first response. In fact, if all things are equal and an engine isn’t tied up on another call the impact of idling one engine company won’t severely deteriorate service.

It has a lot to do with Manteca’s layout and growth pattern.

Unlike most surrounding cities Manteca is blessed with a major road system with key streets a mile apart in a grid pattern. Add to it the fact Manteca has not allowed leapfrog development plus has essentially grown almost equally in all four directions, the temporary loss of an engine company won’t be devastating.

It means Manteca doesn’t need to “brown out” stations for 24-hour periods as some cities are doing to deal with budget cuts.

The strategy behind adding a fourth engine company before a fourth station was built was a sound move at the time. It was to allow Manteca to start easing up to the manpower costs that exceed $1.2 million per engine company each year after average salaries and benefits for nine freighters are taken into account.

Some have been critical that the decision was made to go with a 100-foot aerial platform truck and not a regular engine. At the time, though, there were at least six four-story or higher buildings being proposed - including a 10-story office structure - along the Highway 120 Bypass. About half of those are still viable projects such as the one being pursued by Oak Valley Community Bank overlooking the Highway 99 and 120 Bypass interchanges. Construction will likely go forward once the economy gets its legs back.

Manteca also has picked up large retail and business park big box buildings well in excess of 100,000 square feet.

It will be extremely difficult given Manteca’s general fund outlook over the next four years at least to re-staff the aerial platform engine, the rescue squad that is without manpower on most days, and add a fifth engine company either at a new station in the north or southeast.

The most likely scenario after $4.2 million in Manteca general fund cuts are made by July 1 is that the city will be at roughly the same funding level for four years out. There is still the looming issue of pension costs, other rising costs such as fuel and electricity, plus a need to eventually stop doing compensation reductions and to start restoring some pay instead of taking away from municipal workers.

It is why city leaders believe 400-plus hotel rooms and an indoor water park are the answer.

If 70 percent of the projected $4 million annually in room taxes Great Wolf Resort is estimated to being capable of generating each year went to public safety and 80 percent of that went to salaries and benefits, you’d have $2.2 million. That would be enough to staff an additional engine company and hire between eight to nine more police officers just on the strength of one business.

Great Wolf could - if the deal makes sense - significantly improve municipal services as well as police and fire protection for Manteca residents while visitors foot the bill.