On Friday, the Economic Development Commission assembled a subcommittee to work with community leaders to study how best to purge public and private buildings of the taggers’ work.
"It’s probably something we need to review," said City Manager John Bohenko. "Let’s try to nip it in the bud before it becomes a real problem."
Working on the subcommittee will be EDC members Cliff Taylor, Paul Harvey and William Gladhill. The group will be responsible for forwarding a recommendation by next spring to the City Council on how to deal with the wall scrawl.
When graffiti turns up on city property, city workers remove it within 24 to 48 hours of its appearance, Bohenko said. But municipalities face liability issues when working to erase graffiti from private property, and officials need to develop a strategy to effectively accomplish that task.
In an effort to help them do that, David Moore, the city’s community-development program manager, compiled a report that looked at public-private graffiti-removal programs in other cities across the country.
The EDC subcommittee will also likely seek the input of downtown merchants. Bohenko would like to see Downtown Business Association members help in that effort, he said.
DBA member Bob Hassold raised the issue about how to best rid the city of graffiti before the City Council earlier this year. He was thrilled to hear on Friday that the EDC assembled the new subcommittee.
"That’s absolutely great," Hassold said. "It’s great that they are fulfilling the need for this."
Hassold, who owns the gift shop Tugboat Alley and the tugboat Tug Alley Too, has not seen any graffiti on his property, he said. But, he has seen an increase of the writings on traffic signs, mailboxes and buildings in and around downtown.
Along with the EDC looking at the issue, Hassold said he hopes school officials discuss the problem with students in order to educate them about the costs behind ridding the graffiti from the city.
"It’s going to go on and on. If they don’t stop it now, it will be on every building in town," he said.