Manteca looked like a real city Saturday night with a string of machines three blocks long and hundreds of people on the streets and the band discoursing sweet music. The only bad feature was that several of the stores were not lighted. It looks bad and all business houses should be lighted, at least on Saturday night.

Plans are underway to celebrate the completion and turning on the lights of the new street lighting system now being installed in Manteca by the Pacific Gas & Electric Company next Wednesday. At the corner of Main Street and Yosemite Avenue, Mayor J. M. Luck will turn the switch which will light up the city and will deliver a short address. The local band will play a few selections.

Need for additional firefighting equipment was stressed by several speakers at a meeting of the City Council Monday night. The matter was brought to the attention of the council by Fire Chief Sam Hanna, who stated that a 400-gallon “pumper”, together with the necessary hose and other equipment, would cost around $5,000.

The Eckert Corporation of San Francisco, an old and reliable firm dealing in commercial refrigeration for all purposes and steel insulation and air conditioning, has purchased the former Valley Express property on Highway 99 just south of this city and is now getting the place ready for a commercial cold storage plant and for the distribution of its products over an area including California, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Washington and the Pacific Islands.

Tentative plans were made for calling for a $500,000 bond issue for more elementary classrooms at Monday night’s trustee meeting. Neil Hafley, superintendent, was given the authority to proceed with the necessary arrangements for an election at the “earliest date possible”.

A rural Manteca rancher has proposed deeding 155 acres of land to the county for development into a major regional overnight park to include a 104-acre lake featuring sailing, row boating, canoeing, fishing, swimming and perhaps water skiing. The proponent of the recreation area is Budge Brown, who owns the proposed park site located at the end of Bronzan Road, and bounded by the Western Pacific Railroad tracks, the San Joaquin River and Walthall Slough (Weatherbee Lake).

Final preparations are now being made for the 12th annual Fourth of July celebration, sponsored by the Manteca District Chamber of Commerce and held at Guss Schmiedt Field on the Manteca High School campus. Gladys Brock, manager of the Chamber, reported Tuesday that 12 food and game booths had been reserved and the Chamber thus far has raised $1,589.03 toward the Independence Day event.

Forty-four percent of Lathrop’s 2,198 registered voters went to the polls Tuesday, where they approved the incorporation of their city and chose their first city council. The new city encompasses 6.5 square miles and has a population of about 5,000. Candidates Steve McKee, Apolinar Sangalang, Darlene Hill, Mac Freeman and Bennie Gatto were the top five vote getters in the election and will make up the first City Council.

A local tradition started in 1919 continues this Sunday when the Manteca-Ripon Pentecost Society holds its annual Holy Ghost celebration. The celebration will begin at 9:30 a. m. with the traditional procession to St. Anthony’s Church for Mass, then back to the MRPS Hall on Grant Avenue for sopas and meat served free to all present. After a fund-raising auction, sopas and meat will be served again, followed by a dance until midnight. This year’s queen is Ripon High sophomore Julie Menezes, 15, the youngest daughter of incumbent MRPS presidents Januario and Zita Menezes.