An east-end councillor is providing businesses and residents with a bit of firepower in the battle against graffiti.
Yesterday, Bob Monette (Orleans) donated a 1,500-psi pressure washer to the Heart of Orleans Business Improvement Area, to help clean graffiti off its members’ buildings.
The city’s aggressive new anti-graffiti bylaw requires businesses and residents to erase graffiti tags within a week or be charged by the city for its removal, but Monette said he was never comfortable with punishing business owners twice.
“They never asked to have the graffiti put on their properties,” he said. “We’ve got to find ways to make it easier for the community to clean it up.”
The gift is symbolic of the community approach the city hopes to foster in the battle to get the vandalism under control.
“Hopefully people will get on board and clean up their areas so it looks nicer and more welcoming for business,” said Heart of Orleans BIA executive director Anita Macdonald.
