Two city-owned dog wash stations that residents will have to pay to use may have full funding at $70,000 a pop.

But a water play pad that kids can enjoy and keep cool in the blistering heat such as you can find in every Northern San Joaquin Valley city with 50,000 or more residents and even Ripon, has been thrown a partial bone of sorts.

The Manteca City Council has tentatively set aside $405,000 toward the $1 million cost of a splash pad from the remaining $2.5 million in federal COVID relief funds elected leaders tentatively divvied up during a workshop on Wednesday.

A water splash pad may be built — presumably at Woodward Park — if the city can come up with the balance of $595,000.

And by all indications given Wednesday, it won’t be from unrestricted future development fees developers are tossing the city’s way, park fees assessed on growth or the general fund.

Instead, staff has indicated they will rely on the city’s ability to compete with other jurisdictions to possibly secure grants from either the public or private sector.

Full funding of a pair of dog washes and partial funding of a splash pad are on a list of amenities and needs the City Council  gave staff direction on during the workshop.

The spending plan will come back to the council for final approval at a future meeting.

While it includes items that will be fully-funded with the remaining federal COVID dollars, more than a few endeavors — especially when it comes to things such as streets and law enforcement that normally are addressed in city budgets to a larger degree — were done with partial allocations and the challenge for staff to find additional money to hopefully make them happen.

If you eliminate items the council members didn’t have the desire to fund at this time such as a $1,350,000 concession stand with restrooms at Woodward Park — staff will need to come up with less than a $1 million to make everything else remaining on the list happen.

The process involved $2.5 million overall in remaining COVID funds.

Each council member earmarked $450,000 allocated to them plus Mayor Gary Singh was designated where another $700,000 would be spent.

Councilman Jose Nuno set aside the full $70,000 needed for a dog wash at Woodward Park. Mayor Singh fully funded a second dog wash for the dog park at the Civic Center.

Singh also put $230,000 toward the splash pad. Nuno added another $175,000.

The existing water play feature at Library Park put in place for $450,000 12 years ago, hasn’t been used for more than four years.

That’s because the city — when they had the custom play feature designed and installed — opted to save money by not putting in the apparatus needed to recycle and sanitize the water instead of dumping it directly into the city’s storm system.

Items that were fully funded

Besides the two dog wash stations, COVID money will fully fund:

*$54,000 worth of drones for the Manteca Police Department as earmarked by Councilman Mike Morowit and Councilman Dave Breitenbucher.

*$30,000 for solar lighting at Woodward Park near the basketball courts as earmarked by Nuno.

*$70,000 for a cricket field at Doxey Park as earmarked by Morowit.

*$125,000 for inclusive sensory playground equipment likely at Northgate Park as earmarked by Morowit.

*$50,000 for sidewalk repairs in the council district north of Lousie Avenue as earmarked by Morowit.

*$12,000 for carpeting at the city’s emergency operations center portable building that doubles as a classroom used by departments citywide at the Powers Avenue fire station as earmarked by Breitenbucher.

*$200,000 to improve the alley behind the east side of the 200 block on North Main Street in downtown as earmarked by Breitenbucher.

*$50,000 for solar lighting at the pickleball/tennis courts on Center Street as earmarked by Breitenbucher.

*$100,000 for pavement improvements on West Yosemite Avenue from the downtown train crossing to the western city limits as earmarked by Breitenbucher.

*$25,000 for sidewalk repairs in the southeast Manteca council district south of the 120 Bypass as earmarked by Nuno.

*$45,000 for pavement grinder relate equipment to allow the city to do more street repairs as earmarked by Breitenbucher.

Partially funded projects

Coiuncilman Charlie Halford committed his entire $450,000 toward adding license plate readers at up to 16 more intersections that can be used to alert police to stolen vehicles as well as vehicles and/or plates connected with crimes such as robberies or kidnapping plus suspects wanted for various crimes including homicide.

The police — with the license plate readers and cameras at just four intersections — were able to use a description of a vehicle they could tie in with a license plate number to help lead to the arrest of a homicide suspect.

The overall tab for the license plate readers is $790,000. Morowit  added $155,000, Nuno kicked in $50,000, and Singh $100,000. That means $650,000 of the needed $790,00 for the readers has been allocated.

Other partial funded projects include:

*$20,000 for a community garden in the existing lawn area at the Lathrop Road fire station that backs up to the Del Webb neighborhoods and was earmarked by Morowit.

*$150,00 — $100,000  from Singh and $50,000 from Nuno — for a thermoplastic application  machine and trailer for street markings such as lane lines. The cost is $180,000.

*$150,000 —  $100,000 from Singh and $50,000 from Nuno — for golf course netting along Crom Street. The cost is $200,000.

*$100,000 for skate park components possibly near the BMX track earmarked by Singh. The cost is $200,000.

After the workshop, Morowit pointed out that Manteca was one of the few cities that was able to spend its COVID relief funds not just on pandemic overtime, incentive pay for municipal workers that stayed on the job when shots were not available, and for losses and expenses the city incurred directly tied to the pandemic.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com.