There’s nothing a little Goof-Off and a morning spent scrubbing, painting and scraping can’t fix.
That’s what Athens city officials had in mind when they gathered members of fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon on Saturday morning to tackle rashes of graffiti on city property. The group of city employees and fraternity brothers traveled to various locations on Mill and Court streets to clean electrical boxes, signs and walls.
The operation was part of the city’s “TAG” task force, or Target Athens Graffiti, meant to combat a rising amount of graffiti Uptown. Spearheaded by Dave Williams, formerly of the Athens Police Department, and John Paszke, director of Athens Code Enforcement, the task force is the city’s most recent attempt to fend off graffiti in town.
The task force started its first cleaning operation Friday, when five Athens High School students took to Uptown streets to clean. If or when more graffiti pops up, the task force will gather more volunteers, officials said, but it is unclear how often that will be necessary.
Graffiti often elicits a divide in opinion: Some consider it to be art while others say it’s vandalism. Whatever it is, city officials say it’s a nuisance that’s costly to taxpayers.
“This easily costs the city thousands of dollars for the public works staff to clean the graffiti and for the police time involved,” said Councilwoman Chris Knisley, D-at large.
She added that the city has applied for and been denied grant funding to help pay for a power washer to help clean up large-scale graffiti, though some funding did come through to pay for chemicals and other materials.
Volunteers, such as the fraternity brothers from Sigma Alpha Epsilon, help the city in terms of labor.
“It’s a good philanthropy event that the guys enjoy,” said Geoffrey Neal, a junior studying film production and president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, adding that the fraternity has participated in similar events in the past.
Ed Newman, former manager of Ohio University’s Recycling and Refuse, said graffiti has long been a problem in Athens.
“Our town is a hot spot for the graffiti movement more than anywhere in Southeast Ohio,” Newman said. “With 75 percent of residents here being rentals, there just isn’t the same sense of place.”
In the past, catching offenders, otherwise known as “taggers,” has proved to be difficult, Mayor Paul Wiehl said.
“It’s frustrating for people who are trying to maintain their property, and proving it is one of the biggest issues too,” Wiehl said. “It’s a different animal than what you see in the bigger cities.”
Athens is also working to address vandalism on private property, Knisley said, adding that the city is asking property owners’ permission to paint over graffiti.
The city is asking anyone who spots graffiti to report it to the Athens non-emergency dispatch and to document the graffiti with photo evidence.
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