PEOPLE WHO SHAPED TURLOCK
Brad Bates has a park named after him. His daughter has a play park named after her. The distinction matters: the former mayor helped organize and raise money for Donnelly Park’s wooden playground, but the idea came from ten-year-old Augusta Bates.
Bates served as Turlock’s mayor from 1982 to 1990. His later public life ranged from park work and a Carnegie time capsule to arguments over campaign finance and another mayoral campaign.
Updated 2026.
From the mayor’s desk to the sprinkler trenches
A city newsletter from fall 2009 records Bates’s mayoral years and the October 9 dedication of parks honoring him and his successor, Curt Andre. Brad Bates Park occupies the west side of the Turlock Regional Sports Complex at 4200 Mountain View Road; Andre’s park was dedicated on the east side.
The nomination that led to Bates’s park is particularly revealing. City public-facilities maintenance manager Rick Harden cited six years on the Planning Commission, four as chairman, and service on two county commissions. He also described Bates installing sprinklers at Pedretti, helping develop Sunnyview’s off-leash dog park, joining Rotary workdays at the sports complex amphitheater, and fundraising for recreation projects. Bates had been named the Chamber of Commerce’s Citizen of the Year in 1987. Turlock City News preserved the nomination in April 2009.
Harden’s nomination credits both his public service and the volunteering that continued after his term ended.
The playground began with Augusta
The Journal’s September 2018 account of the play park’s renaming supplies the family detail that an older summary can miss. In 1998, Augusta took her proposal to service groups, churches, businesses and the City Council. More than $80,000 was raised, and over 2,400 volunteers worked for four and a half days to build the wooden playground.
Twenty years later, the council unanimously approved the name Augusta Bates Children’s Play Park. Brad, who applied for the change, would pay for the updated sign. The city’s current Donnelly Park information uses Augusta’s name. The project is remembered in two overlapping ways: Harden’s nomination emphasized the father’s organization and fundraising; the later account restored the daughter’s role as its young champion.
Still arguing about how the city should work
Bates did not leave local debate when he left office. With former councilmembers Mary Jackson and Ron Hillberg, he supported a proposed TIN-CUP campaign-finance ordinance. The petition sought to restrict council participation in decisions materially affecting major campaign donors. Its proponents pointed to the controversy over the downtown farmers market contract as a reason for pursuing the measure. Those were their concerns and proposed remedies, not a finding that wrongdoing had occurred. The Journal explained the petition and its proposed rules.
The city’s November 14, 2017 meeting minutes record Bates identifying himself as a lifelong resident and announcing another run for mayor. In the final certified 2018 county election results, he received 6,342 votes, finishing third behind Amy Bublak and Gary Soiseth. Bublak won.
These later appearances show a former officeholder returning through public comment, a petition and the ballot. For today’s officeholders and contact information, use our Local Representatives directory.
A small contribution intended to last a century
One of Bates’s quieter appearances in the record came in 2016. The Carnegie Arts Center sealed a centennial time capsule intended to remain closed until 2116. Bates supplied a penny collection; other contributions included former mayor John Lazar’s family photographs, students’ visions of the future, local school shirts and a Dust Bowl Brewing growler. The Journal listed the contents at the dedication.
Find the places mentioned here in the Turlock Guide’s parks chapter and Carnegie and the arts. Read more about the city that Bates helped govern in our history of Turlock.
