Graettinger: Sun City Posse takes pandemic seriously

The pandemic is a grave emergency that we at the Sun City Posse are serous-minded about.

For nearly a year, the grim statistics that have been central to all of our lives here in Sun City has become our living reality. As a result, Posse senior staff not only track the number of cases in Arizona and the country at large, but continues to follow all information and guidelines provided by the Arizona Department of Health Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to make certain that we have the necessary precautions in place to not only protect the public, but also our valuable staff.

Although it has been a tough year for everyone, our staff has been unblinking in its commitment to its oath of office to protect and serve our community. We continue to patrol our streets and our support staff — the dispatchers and administrative staff — continue to cover their shifts. Our black cars with its gold lettering that says “Sun City Posse” is very apparent on our streets. We are out there for you.

But in our endeavor to continue to be safe this year, we have instituted several programs to maintain a clean environment not only for our Posse buildings on Sunland Drive and Grand Avenue, but also in our patrol vehicles. The Sun City Posse Board of Governors approved an aggressive program in January to identify and treat those safety issues.

In January, our buildings underwent a deep cleaning. The building was fogged and surfaces were hand wiped with disinfectants that effectively destroy COVID. The cleaning was similar to the one we had in May of 2020.

“In addition to the deep-cleaning protocols we have introduced, we have instituted an electrostatic program for heavily used Posse building areas,” Dave Miller, Posse commander, said. “It is similar to the one currently being used by the Sun City West Posse.”

The Posse building areas that will be targeted for the electrostatic are those that are most used, including the Posse briefing room, the dispatch area, all Posse bathrooms, the lounge area, the training room after a meeting or activity and the auditorium, again after a meeting or activity. We also are examining our air conditioning systems and instituting a regular service and maintenance program.

Now that we have looked at ways to protect our staff, we continue to embrace the CDC’s mandates that will help us do our jobs and protect our residents.

All of our members continue to wear masks and social distance when they are in our buildings or with the public. Washing hands and hand sanitizers are critical to our safety concerns. We individually monitor our health and are alert to any possible symptoms. Several of our staff members have already been immunized and others are in line to be immunized.

When we are dispatched to help a Sun City resident, we maintain those protocols.

So be assured, Sun City, that during these horrendous days, our staff — your neighbors — continues to patrol the streets of Sun City and protect you by adhering to CDC guidelines. Our unofficial mantra, “We are here to serve; we are here to save.”

Editor’s Note: Diana Graettinger is Sun City Posse public information officer.