See Graffiti? Kennewick Will Clean It For Free

The city of Kennewick wants you to know about its graffiti abatement program.

Much of the graffiti you see around the city and the rest of the Tri-Cities region is also known as "tagging", which entails the repeated use of symbols to mark territory.

"It can be a variety of things where the graffiti is vandalism, but it does come in different forms. I think what we see for the most part in many areas is some gang tagging." said Evelyn Lusignan, the city's director of public relations and government affairs.

Despite efforts to keep the city clean of graffiti, tagging persists on private and public properties as catching vandals in the act is a difficult task for municipalities nationwide, not just in the Tri-Cities.

"What's important for us is that we get the word out. If any businesses or homes see anything suspicious or in progress, we really want that reported right away, and not later. It's a priority to capture the individuals who are responsible for it and get pictures of the graffiti." Lusignan said.

It's understandable to want the graffiti covered immediately, especially if you have some paint lying around. But if you get word to the graffiti abatement team, they will come out and remove the eyesore for free.

"They do their best to match the colors of the existing walls or pavement and they definitely have special paints for that. But it's good if homeowner or businesses know that if they have some paint leftover from a paint job that they can provide that to the graffiti abatement team so that the colors can match." Lusignan added.

For access to the city's Report Graffiti page, we've set up a link here.