Graffiti update given to council

SPOKANE VALLEY — The Council discussed options to move forward with a graffiti cleanup project started in 2022 at their regular meeting on July 18.

In fall of 2022, the City received a $3,000 grant to be used towards community clean-up as part of the Greater Spokane Community Safety Initiative.

Funded through the Washington State Department of Commerce, the Greater Spokane Community Safety Initiative is a program of the Greater Spokane Substance Abuse Council.

The City has worked with the Sheriff’s Community Oriented Policing Effort (S.C.O.P.E.) to purchase graffiti removal supplies and use them as part of a pilot program to address graffiti in Spokane Valley.

Since late spring, the City has been addressing graffiti on both public and private property through several different means.

First, the City utilizes Revival, a contracted maintenance team, to address graffiti on City property.

This includes graffiti on bridges, storm-water facilities, and other City property. Secondly, to address graffiti on private property, the city has coordinated with SCOPE to obtain graffiti locations from Crime Check, obtain consent from businesses to enter and paint over graffiti, and to use the supplies purchased through the grant to paint over graffiti on private property.

SCOPE volunteers and police officers have been using the City’s location app to locate new graffiti and to allow SCOPE to use that information to quickly address it.

To date, SCOPE has engaged seven volunteers who have begun actively working clean up. They have cleaned at least 15 sites to date and continue to increase coverage.

As part of its work, SCOPE has partnered with Fairchild Air Force Base, Horizon Credit Union, and the City for a one day City-wide graffiti clean-up event on July 20.

Volunteers will be teamed with SCOPE team members and given sites to clean and the group will work to clean as much of the City as possible.

SCOPE has expended all of the grant funds to acquire equipment and paint, but is still using the supplies to clean graffiti, including for the City clean-up day.