Over the past few weeks, Riverbank has been a pretty busy community, serving as a backdrop for a holiday movie and honoring exemplary citizens at their recent Chamber of Commerce Awards Dinner. At the Tuesday, Jan. 27 Riverbank City Council meeting, the council continued to move the city forward by approving various resolutions including: a revised fee schedule for Parks and Recreation, additional staffing for the police department, well mitigation plan for the Modesto Groundwater Subbasin and a service agreement for the preparation of a community engagement and communications plan.
Michael Patton, Director of the Parks and Recreation Department for the City of Riverbank, highlighted some of the changes to the fee schedule including the requirement of refundable deposits for facility rentals as well as Military and First Responder discounts to the parks including Jacob Myers Park.
“These changes came about as a result of reviewing a financial sustainability study and we are hoping that these changes will allow us to continue to provide the community with fun activities and resources,” said Patton.
As the population continues to grow within the City of Action, Ed Ridenour, Chief of Police Services, presented information regarding the reallocation of one Community Resource Deputy to a Patrol Deputy to assist with calls for service.
“The city has grown and continues to grow and we continue to get a lot of traffic outside of Riverbank coming into town to shop here so our calls for service have increased as well,” said Ridenour.
From 2020-2023, approximately 11,000 calls for service were reported and from 2024-2025 that number jumped to 12,500 calls for service.
Chief Ridenour also pointed out that during regular business hours, Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., they have eight to 10 deputies on duty and the average response time is 3.6 minutes. However, during the hours from 5 p.m. on and throughout the weekend, the number of deputies drops and subsequently, response times increase significantly to 5.7 minutes. Though Ridenour is just requesting the reallocation of the Community Resource Deputy to the Patrol Deputy now, he also presented a five-year forecast with projections for possible staffing needs as the population continues to grow.
Water was a prominent subject during the meeting as well with Cody Bridgewater, the city’s Director of Public Works, addressing the current state of the Modesto Subbasin, which provides water to Riverbank and other local communities. Riverbank is part of the Stanislaus and Tuolumne Rivers Groundwater Basin Alliance (STRGBA), which was created to ensure that communities operated in compliance with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014. Bridgewater highlighted some of the concerns with overuse of the groundwater including reduced storage of water and degraded water quality. Several citizens spoke during the meeting to voice their concerns regarding the sustainability of the water within the subbasin along with possible rate increases that might accompany the continued sharing of the water with those in other districts. Bridgewater urged residents to contact Darren Smolin, Riverbank’s GSA Representative to learn more about the subbasin and its use. Community members can also attend STRGBA Meetings to learn more about how the groundwater in the subbasin is utilized and managed. The next STRGBA Meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 11 at 1:30 p.m. at the Oakdale Irrigation District, 1205 E. F St., in Oakdale.
Moving forward, the council will be working with JPW Communications, Inc. to develop a Community Engagement Strategy and Communications Plan. Focusing on consistent messaging that engages the community members, city employees, stakeholders and visitors to ensure that meaningful communication is established and resources are fully developed and allocated is what JPW Communications, Inc. will spend the next few months working on with Mayor Rachel Hernandez and her team. Hernandez and her colleagues believe that through this process, new relationships will be cultivated in addition to developing innovative strategies to reach the community and increase engagement.
