LAUREL TO THE CITY OF MANTECA for finally installing concertina wire on top of the fencing surrounding the air conditioning unit at the Manteca Veterans Center at 580 Moffat Boulevard.It delivers on a promise made by former City Manager Karen McLaughlin to protect the $10,000 plus unit from copper thieves and other vandals so the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6311 wouldn’t be faced with trying to raise funds to replace a $10,000 unit. While 15 months is a tad too long of a time to be called nimble, at least the city has taken a proactive step to protect taxpayers’ investments against the dregs of society.While not all the copper thieves are homeless, more than a few tend to be.The state of being homeless is not against the law but some of the things they do that go to support drug or drinking habits — a large number of homeless receive disability checks, general assistance and/or food — are destructive and costly.Manteca wasted no time in spending $30,000 to make the Manteca Transit trash enclosure secure from vandals after an attempt was made to break in to try and rip wiring from expensive equipment controlling solar energy panels on the shade structures over the transit parking spaces.And in 2013 after spending $80,000 replacing copper wiring stripped from city street lights Manteca required all new street lights to have access points buried beneath concrete and even started retrofitting older street lights in such a manner. It has reduced the amount of street lights going dark due to copper theft.