As she did in 2021, Brandy Meyer, a member of the Tuolumne River Regional Park Citizens Advisory Committee since 2005, asked the Ceres City Council last week to step up to restore its financial contributions to the Tuolumne River Regional Park (TRRP).
Each member agency has financially chipped in for the park development and maintenance based on a 1996 formula. But in 2017 the city of Ceres ended its financial contribution to the park because of budget shortfalls.
Meyer said starting in 1972 the city of Ceres made a commitment to “not only Stanislaus County and Modesto but to the citizens of Ceres that we would take part in the development of a regional park.”
The city of Ceres is a member of the park’s Joint Powers Authority (JPA) which was formed in 1989 to govern the park with the city of Modesto and Stanislaus County. Meyer said Ceres residents can take advantage of the 500-acre park, which runs in fragmented stretches along the Tuolumne River between Modesto and Ceres, mostly on the north side. However the TRRP does encompass Mancini Memorial Park at 1204 River Road, which is outside of Ceres city limits but close enough for Ceres residents to walk to.
Meyer would like to add the Ceres River Bluff Regional Park to the TRRP JPA oversight to “enhance more opportunities to get more state grants.”
She said one benefit of belonging to the JPA is the 9-2-99 cleanup efforts. Meyer said without those clean-up efforts “I can’t even imagine what our river would look like.”
In 2021 then Councilwoman Linda Ryno said that while she appreciated Meyer’s “real heart” for the TRRP, noted that the prior council decided to forego shelling out the $17,000 per year not just because of financial reasons. She said the city leaders didn’t feel they were getting much for the investment, saying Ceres side hasn’t even been included in the cleanups.
Meyer said was became upset when TRRP representative issued her a “stern talking to about why the city of Ceres wasn’t being more involved and why we’re not providing the same passion as the city of Modesto and Stanislaus County. I was caught off-guard.”
Because Ceres cut its share of funding the TRRP, Meyer was stripped of her voting privileges and said that while the action was hurtful she still attended. Those voting rights were restored by Nathan Houx, the city of Modesto’s Parks Planning and Development manager and the JPA administrator.
Houx said the goal is to build the park, which extends along seven river miles and includes over 500 acres of park land, into a destination facility that can generate revenue and tourism while providing recreational activities.
To maintain the park in a fiscally responsible manner, Houx said the park has generated many volunteers to help out. Volunteers have assisted in Operation 9-29-99 to monthly reclaim, rehabilitate, and restore the area along the Tuolumne River in Modesto from the Ninth Street Bridge to Highway 99 by removing trash, tires, shopping carts, and abandoned camps in order to return this blighted area to a public space and riparian river habitat. Cleanup efforts are also coordinated by the Tuolumne River Trust with the Hispanic Youth Leadership groups at high schools turning out twice a year to pick up trash.
The park starts at Mitchell Road to beyond Carpenter Road and includes over 500 acres.
Mayor Javier Lopez and Councilman Daniel Martinez were recently appointed to represent Ceres on the TRRP JPA.