Dozens of young volunteers - including an exchange student from Japan - rolled up their sleeves last week to scrub off graffiti in a Coquitlam neighbourhood.
Teens Against Graffiti, the Poirier Youth Program and Coquitlam community police station representatives cleared Austin Heights of spray-painted scribbles on utility boxes, lamp posts, mailboxes and traffic signs Aug. 23. The cleaners used an environmentally safe graffiti removal solution and rags donated by BC Hydro and the city's parks department.
Darlene Grieve, Coquitlam community police station co-ordinator, said the project not only beautified the aging neighbourhood - which is undergoing a city-led revitalization - but it also helped to make the area safer.
Coquitlam RCMP Cpl. Jamie Chung said residents and business owners who are subject to graffiti problems are asked to call police and get a file number when they are hit. With the file number, graffiti victims can get a discount voucher from a community police station in Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam, which can be redeemed at a General Paint store.
For more information on Mounties' the discount voucher program, call Grieve at 604-933-6888 or Jodie McNeice (PoCo) at 604-927-2383.
