‘We’re never going to be complacent’: Fresno mayor introduces new graffiti-removal tool

FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer introduced a new tool that will be used to remove hard-to-reach graffiti.

Russell Cope is the office manager at Jensen & Pilegard in Fresno.

He says the Chinatown location was tagged in what he calls a hard-to-reach area.

It’s been up there for years.

“As you can notice, there’s really no way up there unless you got a ladder that reaches that high,” said Cope.

It was cleaned up Tuesday morning- thanks to a new tool.

Fresno mayor Jerry Dyer announced a new graffiti truck is hitting the streets to remove graffiti, the new bucket truck will help crews in hard-to-reach places.

“This bucket truck will reach high enough to where we can go multiple stories,” said Mayor Dyer. “And we know that that is very, very important, especially in the core of our city, the downtown area, which we’re working hard to revitalize. We have many buildings over there that are five, six stories. And beyond that, graffiti ultimately ends up being on.”

The mayor also says he would have the graffiti team work seven days a week

“We’re never going to be complacent as a city to where we can look at graffiti on a building, on an overpass, on any piece of property in our city, and be okay with it,” said Mayor Dyer.

Each year, Dyer says the city’s graffiti team removes nearly three million square feet of graffiti; from signs, buildings, and overpasses.

In the past, the city had to rent trucks to remove graffiti in hard-to-reach places. Dyer says the new truck will now speed up the removal process.

His objective: beautify Fresno.

“The future of our city depends on our ability to attract businesses, to retain businesses, and to attract residents,” said Mayor Dyer. “It’s hard to do that when you have blight and graffiti all over your city.”

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