City eyes easier removal of graffiti on private property

SPRINGDALE — A slight tweak in the language of an ordinance will allow language offensive to many to disappear more quickly.

The City Council voted 7-0 Tuesday night to approve the language in the city’s ordinance addressing the city’s removal of graffiti on private property. Councilman Jim Reed didn’t attend the meeting.

“My goal is to get it down as soon as possible,” said Police Chief Mike Peters, but the paperwork and the procedure for investigating the damage had created a bottleneck.

Officials of the Public Works Department previously waited until a police officer investigating the incident filed a report with the Public Works Department before dispatching a cleaning technician.

“In reality, all we need is a picture, and the Public Works staff can send us that after the fact,” Peters said.

Typically, the city likes to give a homeowner a 24-hour notice before sending the technician to clean the graffiti, said City Attorney Ernest Cate. But in the case of an emergency, the changed ordinance doesn’t require the notice.

Cate gave an example of an emergency: Words or pictures of an offensive nature painted across the street from a school. Sam Goade, director of the Public Works Department, added racially offensive symbols such as a swastika to the list.

“Things that are very, very offensive to the public. Something a child doesn’t need to be looking at,” Goade described. “We do whatever is necessary to get it off that day.”

Cate pointed out removal without notice happens only in places that are public. The city technician will not need to enter a structure or a fence.

“In certain instances, it’s so bad that we feel like it’s an emergency situation, and we don’t have the luxury of waiting until somebody gets home from work at 5 p.m. to get it off,” Cate said.

“I don’t think anyone would take any objection to graffiti to be removed as quick as it can,” Goade said. “It’s a rare, rare thing when a property owner would take objection when it’s done without cost to them.”

The city removes the graffiti at no cost to the property owner, Cate said. “No matter what, we don’t want to revictimize the victim. We get our restitution when someone gets caught.”

Graffiti often appears on a fence and on duplexes along Powell Street, across from George Elementary School and George Junior High School, Cate said.

La Dena Eads, George Junior High principal, agreed the graffiti should be removed as soon as possible, especially when it’s gang related.

“It gives a negative depiction of our school, our neighborhood, our students,” Eads said. “We are a good school and our kids are good kids. These are not our kids. They are others coming in who are not from our neighborhoods.”

Consistent removal also might discourage any “tagger,” Goade said. “Why would they want to waste their time and do it again, when they know it’s going to be removed?”

The Police Department and Public Works have cooperated for about six years to get graffiti quickly and consistently removed, and Goade said the program has been a success.

Goade said graffiti removal is fairly easy. A technician takes incoming reports and even drives past places where graffiti often appears every Tuesday and Thursday. The technician uses a high-pressure power washer attached permanently to a 1-ton truck to remove the graffiti from brick or concrete. Other surfaces require a spray chemical that immediately turns the paint loose, so it simply can be wiped off.

But if removal of graffiti is deemed an emergency, “off he goes in his truck no matter what day or what time it is,” Goade said.

If a home or business owner chooses to remove graffiti himself, the city gives the person a seven-day deadline to have the area cleared.

“It’s just an eyesore,” Peters said.