Clintonville has recently seen an uptick in graffiti activity over the past two weeks.
“We’ve been receiving complaints of gang symbol-type graffiti on street signs and on some buildings,” said Clintonville Police Chief Jim Beggs. “We’re trying to follow it up, but so far we have very few leads to go on.”
Chief Beggs adds that there have been about seven or eight different instances reported over the past couple of weeks, scattered throughout the city.
One location that’s been hit with graffiti has been in Olen Park.
“It’s very difficult to clean,” said Clintonville Park and Rec Director Justin McAuley. “You can’t really clean that stuff off old steel and wood. We’re probably just going to paint over it.”
The parks department has worked swiftly to remove any graffiti in high visible areas, but some tagged locations still remain – like in Olen Park – but workers have been stretched thin.
“It’s not a high-visible building for many of the roads, or the park, the ball diamond,” McAuley said. “If it’s visible, we’d get it right away. We’ll get [the Olen Park graffiti] in a week. I’ve been understaffed and only have two guys right now.”
While the police are doing to their best to thwart any further activity, Chief Beggs says they’ll appreciate any tips they receive from the public.
“We’d love to have anybody report seeing anybody who is defacing, or marring up, or spray painting any signs buildings or anything like that,” Beggs stated. “If it looks suspicious, please give us a call. We’d love to check it out.”