BY ANDY BLATCHFORD

andy.blatchford@transcontinental.ca

For years, Pointe Claire’s mayor has had it out for graffiti in his town.

The municipal leader announced plans last week to go one step further and privatize the cleanup.

Pointe Claire has implemented a graffiti and sticker-removal service on private properties across town.

“It’s a hell of a problem for us,” Pointe Claire Mayor Bill McMurchie said of graffiti after the April 23 council meeting.

“It’s tantamount to walking up behind a guy with a paintbrush and painting all over his suit coat.”

Citizens and business owners are invited to report their unwanted urban art to the municipality, which will pick up half the bill to remove it (up to $600).

The city already spends about $100,000 a year to scrub, sandblast and paint over graffiti, the mayor said.

But until now, Pointe Claire’s cleanup has targeted only public property, including municipal buildings, bus shelters and overpasses.

Meanwhile, private properties have also suffered from public scrawl, which McMurchie calls a form of “physical abuse.”

With the high cost of graffiti removal and its frequent recurrence, private owners are left discouraged and few are willing to shell out to wash up, he said.

McMurchie said he doesn’t blame them.

“There’s nothing to say that if we help to remove it (graffiti) that it won’t reappear the next morning,” he said.

More than $40,000 has been allocated for the new program, in which citizens and business owners can apply with the city for a clean-up estimate. The application costs $25 to process and the owner is required to sign a form to lift any legal liability on the city’s part.

“We feel we can help,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Montreal borough of Pierrefonds/Roxboro also set aside funds for a similar initiative last week.

Borough mayor Monique Worth said the program targets graffiti on private property, such as the fences of homes that line Pierrefonds Boulevard.

“It’s a very serious issue,” she said. “It doesn’t bother the owner because he doesn’t see it. It’s an eyesore.”

Worth said the borough has worked to erase graffiti from public buildings, but funding for private land was never in place until now.

The borough can impose fines on property owners for graffiti, but the wrong person would be punished, she said.

The borough mayor said catching vandals is a challenge for local police, who have more pressing concerns.

“If you have to choose between street gangs and kids doing something to a fence, you want them (police) to take care of the street gangs,” she said.

Const. Dan Maheu of Montreal police Station 3 said graffiti should be removed immediately or more and more “tags” will appear.

He said police have gone door to door in Pierrefonds to advise businesses to clean up after vandals.

“If they leave it (graffiti) there it’s sure they’ll have 100 more at the end of the summer,” he said.

The art of tagging becomes a competition, Maheu said.

“There’s always someone else who will say ‘I’m better than you,’” he said. “It’s like a signature for them. It’s like a challenge between taggers.”