Home Care In French Camp, CA

Mayor Gary Singh sees a Manteca that can become competitive with Tracy, Lathrop, and Stockton in the hunt for future distribution and business park jobs.

And it can do so by:

*Taking advantage of two recently upgraded interchanges — Lathrop Road and French Camp — on Highway 99 that are two miles apart and provide access to large parcels suitable for large business park development.

*Capitalizing on a railroad spur that runs along French Camp Road.

*Keeping truck traffic mixing with other vehicle traffic on surface streets at a minimum.

*Leveraging Manteca’s unique reginal position of being between two intermodal railroad-truck facilities — Union Pacific on Roth Road and Santa Fe at Jack Tone and Austin roads — that count for the highest movement of cross country goods.

*Make use of an existing SJAA route — a designation that accommodates longer trucks that the federal government allows to use the Interstate freeway system than what California typically allows.

*Using north Manteca’s close proximity to Stockton Metro Airport — just over two miles from Roth Road and Airport Way — as a drawing card for concerns relying on cargo freight or ease of executive travel.

Singh noted the general plan update adopted by the City Council in July — and now in abeyance until a referendum that was successfully pushed via a voter signature drive launched by Delicato Vineyards is settled next year on whether to go forward with it— implements a good portion of that vision.

As such, it reduces the ultimate number of homes in Manteca’s planning area by shifting more land to industrial uses.

The mayor, though, believes Manteca can go a step further and put in place strategies that allows it to rely on the advantages of its location as well as the fairly ease to make large parcels suitable for distribution bemouths like Amazon, Wayfair, and others available to business park developers to move fairly quickly to develop.

That includes land use tweaks to the adopted general plan that is now on hold.

“We can get truck traffic to the freeway without going through residential and commercial areas,” Singh said.

It would involve redesignating some land inside the city’s sphere of influence — areas with a high probability of being annexed in a relative short-time frame for development — to connect land already designated for industrial, development along the Airport Way corridor to land in the city’s general planning area that is envisioned for business park development abutting the French Camp Road to the south.

When taken in total with land southeast of the French Camp Road and Highway 99 interchange, it would add upwards of 1,800 acres of essentially contiguous land that could be used for industrial purposes.

That would be a significant increase from the 93.9 acres Manteca currently has available for such use.

It would also put Manteca on par with Tracy’s available industrial land even after its expanded by annexations now being proposed.

Singh believes North Manteca — if done right to take advantage of its unique pluses — could emerge as the premier area for business park development in the region.

And it can be done in a manner that keeps big truck traffic conflicts at a minimum on surface streets with vehicles by how the city proceeds with the future alignment of Roth Road toward Highway 99.

Singh initially sees Roth Road as development occurs as a simple an overpass with no ramps across the Highway 99 freeway.

That said, he favors as development occurs that the city requires a set aside for potential land for ramps if and when the need for them arises.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email [email protected]

Veterans were thrilled to finally see their clinic dream become a reality.

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FRENCH CAMP, Calif. — Stockton Army veteran Brownie Elder wanted to see for herself, the beginnings of a new VA Clinic, years in the making.

She came out along with other veterans and dignitaries for the today's official groundbreaking ceremony for the new Stockton VA Clinic located next to the San Joaquin General Hospital.

"Starting right here and seeing this process, it means a lot. It means a lot," said Elder, who served as a combat veteran in the Army from 1978-1996.

While there is already a temporary Stockton VA Clinic in French Camp, this new $143 million facility will be more than ten times the size and cater to an anticipated 25,000 veterans.

RELATED: Home Depot surprises 92-year-old WWII veteran with home renovations

By contrast, the existing clinic currently serves 15,000 veterans.

"This is a new method. A new way of doing healthcare and our mental health will be embedded in the same clinic, so the mental health, primary care all comes to the veteran, one room," said Thomas Fitzgerald, Director of the Palo Alto Health Care System.

The biggest complaint for San Joaquin County veterans is the drive they need to take to get VA medical treatment. Right now, veterans must drive to clinics in Palo Alto or Livermore.

But, soon with the new clinic the drive will be much shorter.

"I was just over at Livermore the other day. It's an hour, hour and half drive just to go to Livermore," said Lodi Air Force Veteran Kenneth Kramlich, who served from 1960-1964.

"The veterans that are in San Joaquin County have to get on a bus at 7:30 in the morning to get to Livermore or to Palo Alto for, like I said, a 15 minute appointment, and they're there all day," added Elder.

Congressman Jerry McNerney worked more than a decade to get the federal funding to make a veteran's healthcare commute a whole lot easier.

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"And, as I've been on a ride-a-long with one of those veterans, a four-hour drive in traffic - you got a short visit, and you got a four-hour drive back. It's just unacceptable," said Representative Jerry McNerney, whose 9th District includes Stockton, Lodi and Galt.

Construction is expected to be completed in two years.

A new 80-bed veterans Community Living Center housing complex will be built nearby as well.

WATCH ALSO:

The San Joaquin County Grand Jury thinks that it is past time for the French Camp McKinley Fire District to be consolidated with a neighboring agency.

In a scathing report released on Thursday, the grand jury questioned the French Camp McKinley Fire District’s ability to provide essential services to important county complexes like the San Joaquin County Jail and San Joaquin General Hospital and recommended that the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors conduct an independent review to determine the feasibility of the ongoing service arrangement.

After a tumultuous year which led to a shakeup of the independent district’s top brass – including the dismissal of some personnel and the extended leave of Fire Chief Fred Manding – the report details a culture of backbiting, ongoing litigation, and generally poor morale coupled with inadequate financial management, financial misconduct, and virtually nonexistent board oversight.

The toxic culture in the workplace alone, the report states, has cost the district more than $400,000 in lawsuits with several more currently pending. In a table that outlines the number of grievances that have been filed and investigations that have been conducted over the past six years, French Camp – which only has 16 firefighters – has had at least 12 and was second only to Stockton, which employs 179 firefighters, which only had 14.

The Lathrop Manteca Fire District, for example, which has more than double the number of firefighters as French Camp McKinley, only had one grievance filed while the Ripon, Escalon, and Mokelumne Fire Districts had none.

Part of what allowed that culture to exist, the report stated, was little to no oversight by the district’s Board of Directors – whose opinions of the status of the workplace varied drastically. One board member that was interviewed, according to the report, estimated that there were between 15 and 20 grievances that were filed over the last five years, while another estimated the number between 2 and 3.

Part of the issue, according to the grand jury, is that the district doesn’t have a clear policy manual to set workplace expectations of the employees that work there. While French Camp McKinley did purchase a policy template from a private, for-profit company in 2016 that was supposed to be customized to fit the unique needs of the agency, that work never appears to have been completed.

And since “significant ongoing changes to the California Fire Code require updates to policies and procedures as statutes, case law, and regulations change,” the need to “regularly” update the Policy Manual would also “communicate clear and concise policy guidance to employees,” according to the grand jury’s report.

Other findings include:

uPast investigations into personnel issues determined that the district had a very high likelihood of facing “severe litigation” due to the “actions of individuals employed by the district and the inaction of Board members in resolving employee issues.”

uA Battalion Chief’s behaviors warranted a “serious written reprimand and the recommended disciplinary action was not implemented.”

uAlleged final misconduct by District employees was “identified by the Interim Fire Chief and confirmed by the County Auditor-Controller’s office” and may end up costing the District over $100,000. The entire situation went “undetected by the Board of Directors Finance Subcommittee.”

The grand jury also claimed that inadequate testing procedures within the department allowed for less qualified candidates to be promoted into positions that “require them to make decisions based on qualifications, training, and experience” – something that jeopardized public safety.

The ensuing fallout of the report could spell an end to the independent district as it now known if the recommendations are adopted by the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors and the agencies that are under its control.

The report clearly calls into question the district’s ability to adequately protect some of San Joaquin County’s most vital assets, noting that the “absence of steady leadership, excessive turnover of personnel, and financial instability” means that their ability to serve those facilities and the constituents is “questionable.”

In the report’s conclusion, the grand jury pulled no punches on what its findings mean for the district or the people that they are sworn to serve.

“French Camp McKinley Fire District has been struggling on multiple fronts for the last decade and is currently in disarray. Continual turnover of the Fire Chief position and failed oversight by the District’s Board of Directors has exposed the District to expensive investigations and litigation,” the conclusion reads. “Although the Interim Fire Chief has made progress in his short tenure at the District, the process required to transform the District into a fully functional, efficient Fire District will take many years at best. The constituents of this District, and the hard-working firefighters that serve them, deserve better.”

And efforts to move towards consolidation are already underway.

The neighboring Lathrop Manteca Fire District has already publicly expressed interest in pushing for a takeover after a flap over who got to provide service to the Flying J Truck Stop on Roth Road resulted in a sliver of the City of Lathrop falling under the jurisdiction of French Camp McKinley despite the fact that it doesn’t have a hazardous materials program in place to handle a major spill – something that the grand jury report reiterated.

While the neighboring districts have long had a working relationship, tensions over the decision by LAFCO to create an island in the City of Lathrop – the first time since the city was incorporated in 1989 that Lathrop Manteca didn’t provide fire service for all property inside of Lathrop’s city limit – led to administrators at Lathrop Manteca requesting access to the district’s financials to determine the financial feasibility of combining jurisdictions.

The French Camp McKinley Fire District will have 90 days from the receipt of the report to submit responses to all of the report’s findings and will largely have until the end of the year to meet the recommendations. The San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors will also have to respond to the recommendation that they study whether French Camp McKinley is the most viable option to protect the county’s vital assets moving forward.

To contact reporter Jason Campbell email [email protected] or call 209.249.3544.

CommunityJACLNews

On a warm Saturday afternoon, the French Camp chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League held its 70th annual Installation and New Year’s Luncheon at the Calvary Presbyterian Church in Stockton, Calif., on March 16.

The JACL’s French Camp chapter grew out of the Nisei Progressive Society, a group formed after World War II to help rebuild the community and were led by Bob Takahashi, who later became JACL District Governor. In attendance at the luncheon was Katy Komure, a charter member, who still attends board meetings as chapter adviser.

During the luncheon, Scholarship Committee Member Dave Furukawa introduced the two high school seniors who were recognized as recipients of the 2019 French Camp Chapter scholarship for their outstanding community service and leadership potential: Kenichi Watanabe and Samuel Liang.

Watanabe, the son of Steve and Marissa Watanabe and grandson of the late Seiichi and Sueko Watanabe, is a senior at Whitney High School in Rocklin, Calif., where he played on the soccer team and has been an active member of the California Scholarship Federation and Key Club. He has also served as an assistant coach for his local Special Olympics team and participated in broadcast media activities for his school. As a child, Watanabe attended weekend Japanese school at the Port of Sacramento Japanese school and helped preserve the Asano-Watanabe family tradition of pounding mochi for New Year’s at the family farm. This fall, he plans to study biology at Sierra College to prepare for a career in the biotechnology industry.

Liang, the son of Sam and Linda Liang and grandson of Kiyoshi and Mari Hayashi, is a senior at Middle College High School in San Pablo, Calif., where he has already completed 24 units of college credit. He is an active member of the Key Club as well as the Politics and Dance Clubs. Outside of school, Liang enjoys karate, having attained his brown belt. Lastly, he has attended the Buddhist Church from a young age and has received many awards for perfect attendance at Sunday School and held various leadership positions such as Religious Chairperson and Recording Secretary in the Junior Youth Buddhist Assn. Next year, he plans to continue his education at San Joaquin Delta College in preparation for a career in nursing.

Former National JACL Secretary/Treasurer and French Camp member Alan Nishi installed the following slate of officers: President Dean Komure, VP Bob Asano, Treasurer Karen Nakamura, Corresponding Secretary Jeannie Matsumoto, Recording Secretary Mary Nakamura and Membership Chair Marcy Wong.

For more information on the activities of the French Camp chapter, please email [email protected].

FRENCH CAMP - The cold weather didn't stop families from gathering at Paulsen Ranch in French Camp Saturday morning for its sixth annual Bikes For Kids Christmas Giveaway.

The holiday spirit was in the air as cars lined up for miles down Bowman Road as eager families braved the cold for the Bikes For Kids event.

"Knowing there was donations going on here, this helps out a lot," recipient Emily Lopez said.

It wasn't just a giveaway, it was all about spreading joy through the gift of bikes.

"What they're doing is a great thing, it helps a lot of us out," Alain Ambroziac said.

Hundreds of families poured out of their cars, excited to choose the perfect bike for their little ones, including father-daughter duo Alain and Kaydi Ambroziac.

Kaydi recently outgrew her training wheels.

"She just learned how to ride a bike not too long ago, so she is absolutely ecstatic about getting a new one," Alain said.

For some children, this marks the day they get their very first bike.

"It has air in the tires, that's why I like it," Ricardo Gales said.

Some may not be able to wait until Christmas to ride them.

"I think they're going to fight me to ride it today," Lopez said.

But bringing the joy to these families comes at a cost and organizer Pete Paulsen hoped more people would have helped grow the event.

"We would have had more bikes ready and more volunteers working on them but getting volunteers and donations is like pulling teeth," Paulsen said.

Still, more than 200 bikes were given out bringing smiles to faces and families.

One of the reasons Paulsen keeps the event biking on.

"It puts a smile on my face, especially the young ones with their first bike," Paulsen said. "Those are the ones I really enjoy the most."

Paulsen said they are already gearing up for next year's donations. To learn more about how you can help out, click here.