By Edita McQuary
Third generation Santa Cruzan, Erik Santee, attended local schools and graduated with a Business Administration degree from UC Santa Barbara. His family are well-known landscape and building supply company owners. As he readily admits, he was “born into the business.” He says he had the biggest sandboxes to play in of any kid he knew.
Married to a beautiful Brazilian woman, Ana, they are raising three children. Their kids are now the fourth generation and “coming up into the business,” as Erik’s dad, Rick Santee of Central Home Supply proudly says. In fact, his son Ryan, age 12, has his own mini rock outlet in the store, and younger brother Luke, age 8, and sister Sophia, age 6, are the assistants.
Erik has been running the store for nine years and has 14 employees. He looks upon it as fun – making sure everything runs smoothly – and looks at troubling situations as challenges, not problems. To help him with this “fun,” he has recently hired Kasey Milligan as his store manager.
Kasey, also a local family man, is known to many from Antolini Rockery where he worked for a long time. He has over 25 years of experience in the landscape construction business and worked himself “from the ground up” as one of the yard guys learning to drive forklifts and loaders at Antolini’s.
Aptos Landscape Supply is located on the site of the former Cabrillo Sand & Gravel Quarry, which was in operation from 1966 to 1990. Erik has recently installed a new sign on Freedom Boulevard that represents the new company logo. The massive sign is hard to miss and is sure to be a new landmark.
Now that our weather has calmed down a bit it is time to spruce up our yards. Even though the drought seems like it is over many households are redoing their yards to reflect minimal water usage. Aptos Landscape carries all that you need to redo your yard to your specifications. They carry a beautiful and varied supply of gravel, flagstone, fieldstone, boulders, wall rock, slate, interlocking pavers, brick, and many more items. Mulches, topsoil, retaining wall bricks, many more items are also available. Check out their website, www.aptoslandscapesupply.com for a complete list of what they carry.
Their large fleet of trucks can promptly deliver to anywhere in the entire bay area. Want to place some large boulders throughout the landscape on your property? No problem. Aptos Landscape Supply can deliver them with a truck and forklift them right to the spot where you want them!
This is a local, family owned company that prides itself on excellent customer service. Getting the right materials for the job, on time, and with the lowest prices around is their standard operating practice.
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Aptos Landscape Supply is located at 5035 Freedom Blvd. in Aptos. Telephone number is 831-688-6211. Summer hours (until daylight savings time changes) are Monday – Saturday, 7:30am to 5:00pm. Winter hours (after daylight savings time changes) are Monday – Saturday, 7:30am to 4:30 pm.