By KEVIN BERGER, Local Journalism Initiative
A vandalism spree targeting street signs has become an issue within the City of Martensville, which has so far cost the municipality approximately $10,000 to $15,000 to repair or replace the targeted signage.
Director of Infrastructure and Planning Matt Gruza brought up the vandalism spree during the June 10 committee of the whole meeting and then elaborated further in his report to council at the June 24 meeting.
Gruza said their crews have been able to remove the graffiti in most cases, but due to the nature of the substrates and films used on traffic control signs, this process sometimes affects their retroreflectivity (ie. their ability to reflect light back to its source, such as headlights).
While some signs can simply be put back into service, it is an issue with traffic control signs, as reducing their retroreflectivity presents both a safety and a liability risk.
“It is a high dollar value issue in the community,” Gruza said.
To address the problem, Gruza said they have ordered some replacement signs with an anti-vandalism coating and also put out the word to media.
At the June 10 meeting, Staff Sgt. Jason Teniuk of the Warman RCMP indicated that tips from the public had led to the arrest of two youth who were responsible for some of the vandalism.
Teniuk said the youths, who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, did not have records and would probably be referred to alternative measures.
But even though it has slowed, vandalism is still an ongoing issue. Case in point, the City of Martensville posted to its Facebook page on July 4 that multiple stolen signs had recently been recovered from a local residence.