The City of Prince George is bringing back the program for another year.
The partnership between the City, Downtown PG, RCMP and Groundwork PG paints over graffiti covering businesses and other private property at no cost to the owners.
“It exists in every community, and it’s just how you work with your business owners to either prevent it or deal with it as it happens.” Downtown PG Executive Director Colleen van Mook said
The removal work is carried out by GroundWork PG, which is an employment program that supports men as the transition from incarceration back into the community.
Last year, 35 buildings across Prince George were cleaned and covered by the Groundwork PG team.
RCMP Corporal Craig Douglass says it’s important to get out ahead of the problem.
“Once it gets painted over two or three times in short order, they stop. They (the vandals) are wasting their paint and they’d rather do it somewhere else… They’d rather do it somewhere else where it would be up there for awhile.”
The tag painted over at today’s media event was from ‘OHGR’, a prolific vandal the Prince George RCMP has been chasing for months. The tags have been spotted all over the city, causing “thousands and thousands” of dollars worth of damage.
“Sometimes you wake up in the morning and the towns just been hit.” Douglass said “It’s discouraging, but we have to keep going with this and identify these people.”
He says ‘OHGR’ is mostly likely a male aged 14-30, who is rarely working alone. Anyone with information on his identity is asked to contact police.
Businesses in the downtown who would like a piece of graffiti removed should photograph it and email an application form to [email protected]. Forms can be found at downtownpg.com.
For removal on a property outside of downtown, you can email the form to City Hall at [email protected].
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