Williams Lake residents are encouraged to help clean up and prevent graffiti by using a new reporting tool on the City website. Users can report the location and description of graffiti to the city. Bylaw officers can then notify property owners of the graffiti in order to have it removed. Contact information is optional.
In a city press release Mayor Kerry Cook says graffiti has been reduced in the last few years, and she thanks the community for their cooperation in reporting and removing graffiti quickly, but says there is still lost of work to do.
“We need to continue to identify and clean up graffiti quickly; that sends the message that it is not acceptable in Williams Lake, and that this lack of respect for property cannot be tolerated. This is a community problem, and it has a community solution — we can all send that strong anti-graffiti message by reporting it, and if it is your property, removing it promptly,” Cook says.
Under the city’s graffiti bylaw, owners of property with graffiti are notified and given 14 days to remove it. If graffiti is not removed within 14 days, the city will paint over it, but will not match paint colours. This comes not at a cost to the property owner, but to taxpayers as a group.
To report graffiti, select Report Graffiti under the I Want To… menu on the front page of the city website at www.williamslake.ca, or go directly to http://www.williamslake.ca/index.asp?p=2123.