Ripon, based on the relentless onward march of growth and curve balls thrown by Sacramento, faces daunting challenges as the decade wears on.

It’s not unlike 1974 in Manteca.

But at the same time, it is entirely different.

Manteca surpassed the 16,000 population mark that year.

Fifty years later, Ripon started 2024 with 16,063 residents.

Within 11 years of topping 16,000 people, Manteca had built a new fire station they couldn’t afford to man.

Some Manteca schools, at the same time, were forced to explore double sessions due to student growth.

Today, Ripon has a fire station that was built in 2014 that it can’t afford to staff.

The current challenge of the Ripon Unified School District is a pressing need to renovate and modernize aging schools.

Ironically, it is with a situation that will be exacerbated with student enrollment increases driven by housing growth in part of the Ripon district that is within Manteca’s city limits.   

The election in November indicated Ripon voters weren’t willing to tax themselves to allow the fire district to staff the vacant station.

Nor were Ripon voters sold on the need for a bond that is needed as a local match to snag State funds to repair and modernize existing schools.

Those are challenges but in the overall scheme of things, they might not be the ones that are daunting.

The biggest is to essentially is protect what makes Ripon “Ripon”.

That means a fairly cohesive community with a definite small town vibe. Mayberry, if you will, but by 2025 standards.

Ripon’s elected leaders, over the years, have made solid decisions to allow Ripon to flourish as Ripon.

And, all things considered, they continue to do so.

Today is not 1980, 1970, or 1960. Change is inevitable. The key is to change without losing the qualities that make Ripon the community it is.

And that’s a big challenge, given Ripon’s existence in a region projected to continue to be the among three fastest growing areas in California through at least 2060.

Three major moves before Ripon got too far into the 21st century have served the community well.

One was making it next to impossible for national chains to “box” Ripon into submission with big box and medium box stores as they referenced.

It is why downtown Ripon is bustling.

Another was helping to derail plans to build another Stanislaus River crossing just west of the city using an alignment of Olive Avenue with an interchange on Highway 99 just south of Jack Tone Road.

That would have made the corridor that would have been created a magnet for developers. It also would have turned Ripon into a sieve of sorts making it easier for criminals to commit acts and flee.

The third decision that paid dividends was the intentional development of the Jack Tone Road interchange redo in a manner that would lure truck stops and highway commercial.

It meant Ripon could literally prosper on the fumes of diesel and gas that are a mere trace of what they were before the days of reformulated fuel.

Sales tax is collapsed into the price of a gallon of diesel or gasoline.

That means every time a motorist pumps $50 the city takes in almost 50 cents. And every $100 of diesel a trucker buys, it includes almost a $1 for Ripon based on the local share of 1 percent for sales tax assessed by the state.

That adds up.

The impact of that decision for overcoming any sales tax dollars losses incurred from not welcoming Walmart with open arms is major.

While specific business sales tax receipts are proprietary information, a gander at Manteca’s top five sales tax generators underscores the impact the gas station/convenience store combo can have on a city’s general fund.

Manteca — even with Walmart, Home Depot, Bass Pro, Kohl’s, JC Penney, new car dealers, and such — has a convenience store/gas station as one of its top five sources of sales tax.

This is where the curve ball comes in.

The state’s drive to mandate that all new vehicles sold in California starting in 2035 must be zero emission will hit Ripon hard.

That assumes, of course, it happens.

There is clearly a limit to the supply of fossil fuels per se.

But the switch from diesel to zero-emission on such a scale by 2035 may not be plausible or practical.

And a compromise may be needed to allow cleaner carbon based fuels such as compressed natural gas that man can produce the equivalent of such as Manteca does at its wastewater treatment plant.

Should such a compromise happen or if hydrogen fuel becomes practical, the Flying J travel centers of the world would have taxable fuel to sell.

Yes, quick chargers for massive batteries needed to power trucks could be within reach by then, but there is one huge drawback.

One can’t slap a sales tax on that fuel source as you would have to apply it to either all electricity consumption or power obtained for vehicles from public chargers.

It’s doable, but the predictable backlash into adding an 8.25 percent or so sales tax every time you spend $30 charging a car would have even the most adherent green policy politician sounding the retreat.

It certainly would be comparable to sales tax paid when you buy gasoline.

But given for 16 million Californians that sales tax would be collected by the likes of PG&E it would become a political nightmare in Sacramento.

That means Ripon will have to deal with dwindling sales tax receipts as more and more cars and trucks go sans fossil fuel.

Of course, Sacramento could work it all out in a manner that benefits the state and keeps local jurisdictions whole but betting the farm on it actually happening is extremely risky.

Then there is the looming groundwater sustainability mandate.

The state is requiring users in a water basin not to extract more water from underground courses than they return in a given year.

That is one reason why securing treated surface water from the plant operated by South San Joaquin Irrigation District is important.

At the same time, growth is needed to help blunt the cost of such an endeavor.

Then there is the state’s aggressive stance taking on any jurisdiction that tries to say no to housing developments.

It is clear Ripon’s elected leaders know the general direction the city is headed.

It was reflected late last year in remarks about how the new corporation yard was designed to support a Ripon population of 40,000, or 150 percent more than what it is today.

The high wire act Ripon faces is how to keep municipal services funded without solutions that inadvertently lay ground work such as what helped morph Manteca from the size of Ripon 50 years ago to being just three or so years from surpassing 100,000 residents. 

This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com