PENNS GROVE An ordinance to crack down on graffiti artists has been introduced by borough council here.
With talks of graffiti being spread throughout the borough growing among residents, the council has decided to enact an ordinance to toughen punishment for these street artists.
“It has been determined that the use of spray paints and ink markers and other methods to deface public and private property in the Borough of Penns Grove has increased significantly in the past years,” the ordinance reads. “Such defacing of property causes a decline in property values and encourages racism and prejudice which can lead to violent criminal acts. The existing laws have failed to deter offenses within the borough of Penns Grove requiring specific prohibitions of such acts.”
It was only a couple of short months ago when resident Jess DeVault told the council a gang of kids had been damaging his Naylor Avenue home.
He said they were predominantly spotted behind the railroad tracks, where they graced the walls of the underpass with their graffiti, as they threw rocks at his front porch, where his mother usually sat.
In the ordinance, a description of graffiti is given as “any unauthorized inscription, word, figure painting or other defacement that is written, marked, etched, scratched, sprayed, drawn, painted or engraved on or otherwise affixed to any surface of public or private property by any paint, spray paint, markers, chalk, dyes or any other substance or method which defaces, obliterates, covers, alters, damages, mars or destroys public or private property”.
The graffiti ordinance defines what is not graffiti: “It shall not include the occasional and temporary marking on public streets or sidewalks with chalk for traditional children’s games.”
Under a section deemed violation and penalties it cites the fine to be imposed with a minimum and maximum dollar amount.
For juvenile offenders the law works otherwise. Juveniles charged with defacing property would be turned over to Superior Court’s Family Division for action.
Adults guilty of spreading graffiti would be “subject to a minimum fine of $100, which said fine shall not exceed $2,000 and/or imprisonment not exceeding 90 days, and as an additional condition of sentencing, the judge shall impose a requirement to restore the property which has been damaged as a result of the graffiti to the owner’s satisfaction or make monetary restitution to the owner for the cost of cleanup as incurred by the said owner.”
However, the property owner will only be reimbursed if the violator is convicted.
Property owners will be left to remove any graffiti scrawled on their property at their own expense and will receive reimbursement from the convicted graffiti artist.
However, if a property owner fails to remove the graffiti in 14 days, the borough has the right to have the graffiti removed at borough expense and then plain a lien against the property owner until the borough is reimbursed.
A public hearing and final adoption of the ordinance is scheduled to take place April 15 at borough hall.
Tags: New York Graffiti
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