Highlights from "The Week in Review"

Here are the highlights from this week's "The Week in Review" (TWIR). You can read the entire TWIR by clicking on the link on the right side of the page.

Public Works
Solid Waste Rates: A recent survey by an independent industry analyst (HF&H Consultants, LLC) revealed that Manteca’s Solid Waste rates for both residential and commercial service are the second lowest of the 11 service areas in San Joaquin County in every category of service that was analyzed. Manteca’s base residential rate is the fifth lowest of the 40 service areas in the entire four-county San Joaquin Valley. All service areas, except the cities of Merced and Manteca, are serviced by private haulers, and the areas with lower rates have access to cheaper land-fill disposal that is not within a reasonable drive of Manteca. Manteca’s Solid Waste Division operates as an enterprise fund, where rates pay for the service without any tax subsidy. This ensures the managers and employees operate as efficiently as possible, and this study confirms that in this case they provide the service cheaper than commercial firms in the surrounding area.

Union Road Street Signals: The three new signals on Union Road at Highway 120 westbound, eastbound and at Atherton Drive are scheduled to be energized on July 29. With the completion of the signals, the entire Union Road project will be very near completion and only lack minor clean-up items.

Finance
Budget Advisory Committee Meeting: City staff met on July 16 with the Budget Advisory Committee (BAC), where the Finance Director provided an update on the City’s budget, as well as recent developments in the State’s budget and those potential impacts on the City. Copies of the minutes from the previous BAC meeting and sales tax trends that were provided to the BAC are attached to this week’s report. The committee members agreed to meet again in 3-4 weeks to discuss any new developments at the State level. In addition, staff will be providing the BAC with an overview of its efforts to address the issues of managed competition and levels of service.

Transit Stimulus Funding Grant: The Manteca Transit System has received the first half of its approximately $1.3 million in Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Federal stimulus) funding. The following projects are programmed to receive this funding:

Manteca Multimodal Station (Environmental/Engineering): $380,000
Marketing Plan (Rebranding/Signage/Brochures): $40,000
Fixed-Route Bus Purchase: $100,000
Operations Facility Lease: $130,000

Staff anticipates issuing a call for bid in August for the environmental and preliminary engineering phase of the Multimodal Station project. This phase is expected to be completed in February 2010.

Community Development
Staff has completed its review of the new site plan and related environmental assessments for the B.R. Funsten industrial/office project on Industrial Park Drive at South Main Street. Foundation/grading permits will be issued July 24, and work will commence on the first phase of the project on July 27. The project will include 87,000 square feet of new industrial warehouse space, and 7,200 square feet of related office space. Planning and Building Safety, along with Public Works staff, have expedited the review and approval process in a drastically shortened time frame.

Construction is continuing on an accelerated pace for the new One-Stop Permit Center within the Community Development Department building. Staff expects to be finished in approximately three weeks, and will be planning on hosting a “Grand Opening” in late August.