LINDSAY, CA – Today, Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger) released the following statement after announcing that she secured a $1,000,000 investment in fire and public safety funding for the cities of Lindsay, Woodlake and Sanger:

“The one million dollar investment the state has made here in Lindsay, Sanger and Woodlake will help not only the city, but neighboring communities,” said Senator Hurtado. “Many of the smaller, more rural towns in California often come to each other’s aid at times of disaster, and this investment will help support fire mitigation and the purchase of lifesaving fire equipment.”

“Words cannot express how much I appreciate Senator Hurtado’s fight to help rural cities like ours here in Lindsay,” said Ramona Caudillo, Mayor of City of Lindsay. “Lindsay’s portion of the $1M in funding will help the city’s public safety department to better meet the community's needs, especially in a new era of increased wildfires and with our proximity to rural land and foothills. We are a very blessed community. We could never thank her enough.”

“In today’s political climate, it is difficult to find a partner in the State Legislature that will work with rural communities to support public safety,” said Rudy Mendoza, Mayor of Woodlake. “We are proud to partner with Senator Hurtado on these matters.”

Senator Hurtado secured $1,000,000 in the State Budget that will be divided in grants among the fire and public safety departments of the cities of Lindsay, Woodlake and Sanger. This funding can be utilized towards addressing wildfire risk and impacts, as well as for public safety equipment. She also secured $750,000 for the City of Farmersville to purchase a new fire engine.

Many of the cities and towns here in the Central Valley rely on each other to back up local fire and emergency response, and they also rely heavily on statewide mutual aid response. This million dollar investment will allow local fire departments to not only meet their needs, but also provide support to regional or statewide incidents.

This legislative session, Senator Hurtado secured $25 million for a regional fire training center in Fresno. Built in the 1930s, the last major upgrade to the training center was in 1953. The training center was built for a department of 100, which protected a population of 50,000; Fresno, today, has more than 540,000 residents and 302 firefighters on staff.

The City of Fresno is positioned as a regional hub, meaning that this training center will help support fire personnel in surrounding cities and counties. Fresno hosts hundreds of fire service training officers from across California at the Training Officers Symposium, the state’s premiere fire-training event.

This $25 million investment in the Central Valley will allow the fire service to perform live-fire training exercises, and use specialty training props. It will ensure smaller fire departments in the region don’t need to travel to Los Angeles or the Bay Area for training, helping to strengthen the Central Valley’s workforce pipeline, and bringing the departments closer to state and national average recommended ratios of firefighters-per-population coverage.

Media Contact: Michelle.Sherwood@sen.ca.gov

About Senator Melissa Hurtado

Senator Melissa Hurtado represents a new generation of Latina leaders as the youngest woman ever elected to the California State Senate and a product of immigrant parents. Senator Hurtado represents the 14th Senate District and focuses on rural community issues that often go unheard — access to clean air and water, food insecurity and poverty, inequities in environmental policies, agriculture and access to health care. In July 2020, she was appointed to the national Biden Latino Leadership Committee alongside former Labor Secretary and current Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis – the only two California Latinas on the Committee.

For more information, visit Senator Hurtado’s Website here or find her on Twitter at @Senator_Hurtado

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