The Santa Clarita City Council is looking to honor hometown heroes with a military banner program that was approved in a 4-0 vote Tuesday evening.
Current military personnel from Santa Clarita and their family members will have the opportunity to contract with AAA Flag and Banner to create a single, double-sided 3-foot by 6-foot banner that will hang along major city streets three times a year.
The cost of the banner fabrication, installation and removal will be borne by the families of the honorees or sponsors or anyone else who wants to honor an active-duty military member, Mayor Bob Kellar said.
The annual cost of printing and hanging a banner would be $417.50 plus tax. The second year would be $232.50 for three hangings with the same banner.
The program is open to any active-duty military personnel, deployed or not, from anywhere in the Santa Clarita Valley, whether inside or outside the city, Kellar said. The banners will be hung in one of the four communities inside the city: in Canyon Country along Soledad Canyon Road from Camp Plenty to Canyon Country Park; Newhall along Lyons Avenue from Interstate 5 to Main Street; Saugus from Bouquet Canyon Road from Soledad Canyon Road to Festividad Drive; or Valencia from Valencia Boulevard from McBean Parkway to Magic Mountain Parkway.
The banners will feature the service member’s name, rank, branch and a color photo. It would hang for a minimum of three weeks, three times per year on military-related holidays: Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Veterans Day.
Kellar encouraged people to sign up right away so banners can be hung in time for this year’s Memorial Day celebration in late May.
The city currently hangs 300 American flags five times per year on Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day through July 4, Labor Day and Veterans Day. The banners would be hung in addition to the flags.
As part of the program, the city will pay about $4,600 for banners honoring the 11 SCV residents who have died in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. Their banners will hang on the Fallen Warrior Memorial Bridge (aka Golden Valley Road bridge).
Mayor Pro-Tem Dante Acosta, whose son Rudy died in Afghanistan in 2011, recused himself from Tuesday night’s discussion and vote.
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1 Comment
Come on City of Santa Clarita–you can’t hang banners for active service personnel on Memorial Day! Memorial Day is only for those who have died serving our country. I expected a much better knowledge of protocol from the City. Count me as a proud former military dependent who’s father was career Navy and a husband who served as an Airborne Ranger LRRP in Vietnam.