Eagle Eye For Graffiti

Scout’s Project Aims To Rid City Of Eyesores


By Brad Jenkins


Dylan Kelley considered building something for his Eagle Scout project. Instead, he’s tearing something down.

Dylan, a 16-year-old from Harrisonburg, is completing a several-months project to help police identify and remove graffiti in Harrisonburg.

"I’ve grown up in this city, and it’s our duty to make sure it’s nice," Dylan said.

To do that, Dylan has a three-part plan: creating a way for the public to report graffiti to police, designing an awareness campaign for residents and cleaning the Rose’s department store building on Mason Street.

"You can see the buildings, and you know there’s a gang problem," Dylan said. "[My project] is something to help the community look nicer."

Dylan’s efforts — which will help him earn scouting’s highest honor — come at a time when police are stepping up vigilance in controlling graffiti, which they say often contain messages from rival gangs.

"The timing of his interest was ideal," said Eddie Bumbaugh, director of Harrisonburg Renaissance, a group working to revitalize downtown Harrisonburg. Bumbaugh’s group recently developed methods for removing graffiti, but they had not yet designed a way for the public to notify clean-up crews about what locations needed attention.

Dylan’s proposal — an online form that residents fill out and is then sent by e-mail to police — fills that gap. Both the Harrisonburg Police Department and the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office put the form on their Web sites.

"One of the things we’re trying to stress is that people should notify the police before they clean [graffiti]," said Harrisonburg Police Sgt. Chris Rush, who coordinates a city-county gang task force. "The graffiti could be good intelligence. It could contain a message" that could help with current or future criminal investigations.

Along with the form, Dylan plans to create public-awareness materials to help residents know about the city’s graffiti problem.

On Saturday, Dylan and his Boy Scout troop — Troop 42 — helped a sheriff’s department work crew clean graffiti from Rose’s department store.

While his Eagle Scout designation is pending, Dylan already has won the approval of those he has discussed his project with.

"You can set back and watch and say, ‘we’ll let the police handle that,’" said county Sheriff Don Farley, who met with Dylan and his father, Barry Kelley, in the spring. "That’s not how problems get solved."

For Dylan, a lifelong Harrisonburg resident who will start boarding school in Orange County later this month, solving a community problem made the project worthwhile.

"It’s a community problem," Dylan said of graffiti. "If the community doesn’t face it, it’ll get worse and worse. Graffiti is just not acceptable."