The City of Lynnwood’s proposed 2025-26 budget includes ongoing funding for two maintenance workers dedicated to removing graffiti and repairing other vandalism issues. The two positions would cost $323,300 biennially.
Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Superintendent Eric L. Peterson said the positions were added in 2023 using one-time federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars, but the city is proposing to continue them using general fund dollars.
“We track graffiti and vandalism that takes at least one hour to clean up, and [so far] in 2024, we have had 197 occurrences,” Peterson said. “In 2023, we recorded 255 occurrences. Keep in mind we have graffiti in parks every single day, and any issue under one hour isn’t tracked. Due to the two ARPA-funded positions, our response time to graffiti and vandalism is 12 hours or less. Our response time is key in discouraging graffiti as most large issues are removed immediately and never seen by anyone.”
The graffiti remediation team has a graffiti trailer that includes a heated pressure washing unit and a 400-gallon water tank that can be deployed to address issues on concrete or asphalt.
Peterson also said that areas with cameras installed have deterred vandalism and led to a few arrests. “We have 17 developed parks [and] multiple trails that we maintain like Golf Course Trail and the Interurban [Trail],” he said. “There are also a number of undeveloped properties that [the parks department] maintain. Staff addresses multiple occurrences of graffiti daily. Most are found by staff during the daily park routine. ”
However, the parks department does not maintain some areas, such as the interchange area of 196th Street Southwest and Interstate 5. “You have an area here where WSDOT [Washington State Department of Transportation] Parks and [Lynnwood] Public Works all have areas of responsibility. I know that we all work hard to keep our areas of responsibility clean and occasionally take care of graffiti on one another’s areas if we’re working in the area.
The Lynnwood City Council is in the process of reviewing the entire city budget, with the next meeting set for Oct. 28. A second budget public hearing will be Nov. 12, and the council is scheduled to vote on budget adoption Nov. 25.
By mid-January, the department will provide the council with data on the outcomes of the graffiti remediation work, Peterson said.
To report graffiti and other vandalism issues, email the parks and recreation department at prcaadmin@Lynnwoodwa.gov or call Peterson directly at 425-670-5595.
In Mount Vernon, we use “Citizens Patrol” Volunteers to report and get rid of graffiti, and if you stay on top of it, you don’t wind up looking like Seattle.
The Lynnwood police department uses its daytime volunteers to track the graffiti around the city, reporting it back to the police station and then the person in charge gathers volunteers to go out and remove it. Is this service going to be removed? It is certainly saving the city a lot of money.