Manteca now has a store that you’ll only find in 46 other cities that include the likes of Hong Kong, Shanghai, Houston, Las Vegas, Honolulu, Colorado Springs, and Sacramento.
It’s a 5.11 Tactical retail store and it opened for business within the past month on the northern end of the firm’s new 404,657-square-foot distribution center at 3201 Airport Way.
The firm is planning a “door breaching” event on Friday, Sept. 21, at 10 a.m. as part of their grand opening event. There will be giveaways for the first 70 adults in line, free gifts with purchase and 20 percent off entire purchase during the grand opening weekend. There also will be free food and refreshments.
The store is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
I’ll admit I’ve already dropped a few dollars there ordering Cable Hiker Boots. If they are anything like the 5.11 Tactical shorts I bought for hiking last year from one of their dealers — Crescent Work & Outdoor in Modesto — it will be money well spent.
Nearby stores that carry 5.11 Tactical clothing and equipment include the Manteca Bass Pro Shops, Code 3 Wear in Lincoln Center in Stockton as well as Weber Point Uniforms in Stockton, and the Work World locations in Modesto and Stockton.
There are seven 5.11 Tactical retail locations in California with the nearest besides the Manteca store in Sacramento and Fresno.
The new distribution center combined existing warehouses in the area to help keep 217 regional jobs that were moved to Manteca instead of other locales they were scouting in the Midwest.
The Manteca location allowed the firm to stay in the San Joaquin Valley close to critical transportation infrastructure to support the firm’s global clientele that need gear immediately. The new location streamlined 5.11 Tactical logistics and gives it the ability to expand by 134,500 square feet.
They offer more than 900 products with more than 13,000 distinct types of items for sale. The firm’s products run the gamut from clothing, gloves, boots, holsters, knives, watches, and slings, to packs. Their products are used by law enforcement, private military contractors, the Armed Forces, and civilian customers ranging from shooters and hunters to hikers and backpackers.
The roots of 5.11 Tactical run deep in the 209. The firm traces its name and mission back to 1968 to an enterprise founded by mountain climber Royal Robbins of Modesto. During a climb in Yosemite National Park be realized the pants he was wearing were not suitable for climbing. So he decided to come up with is own pants that had better function and durability and added them to a company he owned that was producing boots and clothing.
Robbins also is credited with devising the Yosemite Decimal System that is familiar to serious hikers, rock scramblers and mountain climbers.
Class 1 is basic hiking where hiking boots are a good idea and the odds of injury are low.
Class 2 involves some simple rock scrambling with some hands needed occasional to cover terrain. The danger level is low and hiking boots are highly recommended.
Class 3 involves scrambling with handholds necessary. Falls can be fatal.
Class 4 is simple climbing often with rope. Falls may be fatal.
Class 5 covers technical roped free climbing. Un-roped falls can result in severe injury or dealt. The class is further broken down from 5.0 to 5.15c to describe free moves that become more difficult,
Class 6 is reserved for aided climbing.
Class 5.11 is the highest rock climbing difficulty in Yosemite National Park hence the 5.11 Tactical name.
By 1999 Robins’ pants were becoming poplar at the FBI Academy in Quantico.
Robbins sold the company in 2002 to Dan Costa who elevated 5.11 Tactical brand to the company’s name as he started shaping the firm into the go-to place for those needing specialized equipment for first responder and military tasks.
Manteca’s current
water bills are still
due on the 15th
A few people were a bit startled to see that the City of Manteca Facebook page on Friday posted that you had to make your municipal utility bill — water, sewer, and garbage — by the 10th or face having service disconnection.
Finance Director Jeri Tejeda noted Monday that two key words were left out “past due” that were subsequently added to the post to clarify it
Current bills are still due the 15th as always. Past due bills must be paid by the 10th or disconnection will occur.
The city has become proficient at preventing people from skipping on their utility bills. After it reached a high of $261,854 in 2010 — up from a pre-Great Recession level of $87,945 in 2008 — the finance department instituted changes such as requiring copies of rental agreements and such to determine who is renting. That avoided people pulling such stunts as claiming the previous renter had moved out when the city tried to collect delinquent bills. Other measures also were put in place to return the delinquency rate close to pre-recession levels.
Of the 23,000 accounts the City of Manteca services less than 1 percent of charges have to be written off in a given year as being uncollectable.
Payments can be made online at ci.manteca.ca.us, over the phone, by mail, in person or dropped in the drop box at City Hall.
For those asking on Facebook why the city doesn’t have an app to allow payments to be made that way, Manteca is working on it. The city software doesn’t currently allow for PayPal. Tejeda said they are working on a few upgrades to the phone payment system that may allow payment via an app in the future. The earliest that could take place is sometime in early 2019 of not later.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
