Oakdale City Council members finalized a development agreement for a 155-unit housing development at their Monday night meeting, Sept. 19. In addition to the development agreement, council took action on several agenda items, including a contract for fire services and three Parks and Recreation decisions.
The motion to approve a development agreement with Trieste Investors came after two weeks of consideration by council and minor adjustments to the contract. Trieste Investors LCC will install 99 senior housing units and 56 single-family homes under the development agreement. The contract now includes language that holds the City of Oakdale unaccountable if funds for road improvements run out. A total of $2.2 million was set aside specifically for the extension of D Street and the repositioning of Stearns Road. The development agreement now says that the city is under no obligation to use general funds or RDA money to complete D Street if money for the project runs out.
Council unanimously approved a contract with Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District to provide battalion chief officer support on nights and weekends. Oakdale Fire Department currently has two part-time battalion chiefs. Chief Mike Botto told council that the contracted battalion chiefs would provide on-call coverage on weeknights and all day on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The previous arrangement was for two full time battalion chiefs.
“It’s significantly less expensive than what we did before,” Botto said.
The council also took action on several Parks and Recreation Department related items. They unanimously approved to put out a request for proposals for private facility management of Kerr Park. Joseph Leach, director of public works, presented the option for council to consider allowing a private party to run operations of Kerr Park and pay the city a fee. The private party would be responsible for park maintenance and would establish a snack bar with possible alcohol sales. City staff believes that a private park manager would have to contract for several baseball or softball tournaments a year in order to make a profit from running Kerr Park. The city would receive some of the revenue from league fees and concession stand funds. Council voted to formally request proposals for the management of Kerr Park.
“We have been approached by several different organizations,” Leach said.
Parks and Recreation will also receive additional funding through the sales of advertisements in their activity guide and other publications. Council approved to allow the Recreation Department to enter into advertising agreements to help offset the cost of printing activity guides and promotional materials.
Parks and recreation will be expanding their program participation by offering a youth scholarship program. The scholarship money would all come from community donations and would be offered to low-income youth to offset the cost of participating in Oakdale recreation activities. Mayor Pat Paul and council member Jason Howard both requested that recreation staff find a volunteer to administer the program.