Santee Firefighters took the shirts off their backs to help support and gather final signatures for the Protect Santee tax initiative that proposes a small temporary tax to provide resources and firefighter personnel to meet national safety standards. On May 2, at Deano’s Pub, Protect Santee held its Shirtless Firefighters Protect Santee Calendar Release Party to not only sell calendars, but also to gather signatures for the initiative in the last days of signature gathering to get the initiative on the November ballot.
“Many of you know we’ve been out volunteering to let Santee know our fire department is severely underfunded, and that we need you to get behind the Protect Santee initiative to help save us,” said Fire Captain Patrick Henry, a member of the Santee Firefighters Association in a press release. “You get to be one of the heroes who have helped our team Protect Santee by providing the much-needed financial support to run a campaign to let Santee voters understand how critical it is to support our initiative.”
Henry said staffing levels have remained the same since 2000 with 18 firefighters, and now, 24 years later, 17. The Santee fire chief took information from a report by AP Triton, LLC, hired by the city of Santee, finding the city needs a station at the north end, one in the south end, and needs to increase staffing by 9 to 12 full time positions, and rebuilding its headquarter station, which was built in 1972.
Calendars can be purchased for $25. All proceeds support the Protect Santee initiative. If enough signatures are collected and the measure qualified, it will appear on the November ballot in Santee.
For more information, or to purchase the calendar, visit ProtectSantee.com.
