More than 100 volunteers fill the ranks of Seniors Helping Area Residents & Police (SHARP), Seniors Assisting Fire Effort (SAFE), and the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).

The three organizations have 16 vehicles between them — 13 with SHARP, two with SAFE, and one with CERT. All have been donated for the use of the volunteers.

Back in December, Manteca Mayor Ben Cantu thought it would be a good idea to have uniformity in the decals that appear on the 16 vehicles. The rest of the council concurred. Staff promised to look into the request and at the same time check the condition of the vehicles.

Municipal staff got sidetracked by the pandemic emergency but has finally completed designs and research. The City Council will decide when they meet Tuesday at 7 p.m. whether to spend $19,133 on the vehicles. That includes $13,080 to remove the old logos and replace them with updated and uniform logos. At the same three SHARP units have body repairs that will cost $6,053.

 Both SAFE vehicles have over 150,000 miles. Five of the SHARP vehicles and the one CERT vehicle have over 100,000 miles. Of the remaining nine SHARP vehicles, six are more than 15 years old.

None of the volunteer are paid.

Without SHARP volunteers pilfered shopping carts would linger longer around town as would graffiti and countless illegal signs such as those promoting yard sales nailed and taped to poles. The department would have to tie up sworn officers or community service officers to help secure major accident and crime scenes prompting a backup in response to lower priority calls if they did not have the unit to call on. The SHARP volunteers also free up staff by helping with menial tasks in the office as well as assisting officers in the field besides allowing Manteca to stay on top of a wide array of quality of life issues

 The SAFE volunteers assist fire personnel by performing business re-inspections. man department informational booths at community events, assist with the fire awareness in the schools effort, conduct the second inspections for weed abatement citations that numbered 800 last year, assist with office filing, handle fireworks booth inspections during the seven years non-profits are allowed to sell them in Manteca, handle daily mail runs” between city hall and the four fire stations can take as long as two hours a day, plus other support activities.

CERT operates under the umbrella fire department to provide trained volunteer manpower during community emergencies.