Atwater leaders talk about water, economy

Dozens of residents came together here Thursday at a town hall-style meeting, where the discussion topics included water and economic development.

District 3 Supervisor Daron McDaniel, Atwater Mayor Jim Price and Councilman James Vineyard addressed the group inside the city’s community center.

McDaniel brought the crowd up to date on economic activity at Castle Commerce Center, the 1,912-acre former air base. Castle was the focus of a roundtable during the spring, when the area’s elected officials put their heads together to try to come up with new development there.

“Castle has been a really big focus of ours,” McDaniel said.

This year, he said, five businesses have begun using previously vacant space at Castle, adding that three are new to the area. He said the county also entered into a deal with a consulting firm to try to ramp up development at the former base.

Price said he speaks regularly with McDaniel about Castle, because it has the potential to create jobs for a town with 11.9 percent unemployment, according to the latest numbers.

“We’re trying to take a look at this for 20 years down the road,” Price said.

Connecting Castle to Highway 99 through the Atwater-Merced Expressway also ranks high on the list of ways to buck up Atwater’s economy, leaders said.

Of the roughly 21,000 Merced County residents who commute out of the area for work, more than 17,000 are headed north. The expressway could be a way to direct commuters’ dollars toward Atwater. The biggest roadblock remains figuring out how to pay for it.

Leaders said they are also lobbying for a stop in town by ACE, formerly known as the Altamont Commuter Express. It started in 1998 as an alternative for some of the many Northern San Joaquin Valley residents who drive to jobs in the East Bay and Silicon Valley. The commuter train has 1.3 million riders a year, according to officials.

Modesto, Merced and Turlock have already been marked for stops. Long-term plans call for stations in Atwater or Livingston and in Ripon.

Another topic at the meeting was water wasters. The city, which has about 8,500 homes, has sent out 497 notices to homeowners not following the city’s watering rules, according to staff.

The vast majority of the notices were rescinded after the homeowners made the necessary corrections, staff said, but more than 20 second notices went out.

Some residents in the audience expressed concern over the City Council’s split decision to allow high school campuses to water five days a week, while homeowners are allowed two days of sprinkling.

Vineyard said he has met with Atwater High officials, who said they are making efforts to cut back. He said he has not heard from Buhach Colony High yet.

“(We’re) trying to find out how we can help each other and not make this contentious,” he said.

The meeting also covered an update on the Mello-Roos district, a special tax levied on a geographic area of Atwater homes and businesses. The Mello-Roos district in Atwater stretches from Highway 99 to Bellevue Road.

This story was originally published August 28, 2015 at 2:22 PM with the headline "Atwater leaders talk about water, economy."