A recent uptick in the amount of graffiti in Bud Miller Park has left the City tasked with cleanup.
Posts made to social media have shown a slew of tags placed around the park in the last few days, with happy faces and Pokémon Go team names spray-painted onto rocks and other installations in the public space.
According to Alan Cayford, the Director of Operations of the City of Lloydminster, the difficulty of graffiti removal may vary.
“When we identify that there is graffiti, we obviously want to remove it,” said Cayford.
“We typically have to bring our portable steamer in, and use high-pressure steam to wash it off. Occasionally, but not often, we have to try some other, more drastic (measures) like painting over it with some type of a paint that is matching the same colour as the rock. Usually, with the steamer, we can get them off.”
Cayford said rocks allow the cleaning process to become a little more aggressive, as opposed to wooden buildings, which can sometimes need to be re-painted. He also said graffiti in the park has been on the rise.
“We deal with it on a consistent basis out there,” said Cayford.
“The staff find little things all the time. The recent craze is certainly raised the bar substantially, in the number of incidents that we’re finding at the park. It’s not uncommon for us to find stuff, for sure.”
As for a reason, Cayford said there wasn’t one clear motive.
“I think there is a significant number of more events, happened in the last few days, than there has been (in the past),” said Cayford.
“The reason for that, anyone can speculate. More traffic in the park, could be any number of things. I wouldn’t attribute it to any one thing.”
Cayford said the City would prefer not see any graffiti in the park, but if residents do see vandalism taking place, contacting the authorities would provide an opportunity for enforcement.
“We’d certainly like to not see any, but if people are vandalizing in the park, we’d obviously like to catch them doing it, and do what we need to do to provide enforcement in that regard,” said Cayford.
“It’s not a legal thing, to deface our public property. It is an offense, and we just want to keep our park nice.”
The graffiti in the park was also noticed by Pokémon Go players in the Border City, who sought to clean it up on their own, according to social media chatter. Despite the cleaning attempts, the tags “Team Valour” and “Team Instinct” are currently still emblazed on the sundial.