A familiar issue made its way into city council chambers Monday.
It is graffiti, particularly whether City Hall can offer any relief to graffiti victims stuck with the prospect of having to clean it off of their properties.
The issue was raised at by Councillor Kelli Hawtin, who asked if there were any resources the City could offer business owners when their property is vandalized by graffiti.
City Manager Jim Puffalt responded there were time requirements to get graffiti off their property, but also noted he was "not aware of any program we have to offer assistance" to remove graffiti.
There are companies in town that do provide that service but it has not gone any further than that, he said. Mayor Ian Hamilton noted the former mayor Julian Sadlowski had collaborated with the school divisions to access volunteers from the high schools to help.
Councillor Cathy Richardson suggested perhaps something could be worked out with the fine-option program to help with the issue.
Councillor Ryan Bater also expressed support for providing some assistance, noting Hawtin had raised some valid points.
"The idea of spraypainting is one thing if it's random nonsense, kids spraypainting on the side of fences," said Bater.
"Where it becomes a bigger community safety issue is when it becomes a gang venue. And I think that that's what people are seeing most recently. That's what I'm hearing. I'd be very open to looking at options, ways we could assist at removing those as quickly as possible, because those tags send a signal we don't want sent in our city."
