Chandler has a brand new truck and mascot to battle graffiti across the city.
"It’s fully equipped,” said Neighborhood Preservation Supervisor Daniel Anderson.
“We have water on board, we have a high temperature boiler to boil the water and a high temperature pressure washer,” he said.
The truck cost around $90,000 to outfit and will be used on a near-daily basis beginning next week.
"In the past we would have to paint or we would get [on the pavement] with the wire brush and some chemicals and scrub it out,” said Martin Guevara, a graffiti abatement technician with the city. That process “could be pretty time consuming.”
Now, in a matter of minutes, graffiti can be painted over or washed away.
Chandler is also releasing a new mascot, named ‘Eli’ – short for ‘Eliminator’ – the elf. “For the residents of Chandler, it’s simply magical how the graffiti disappears,” Anderson said. Eli is painted on the side of the ‘Graffiti Elimination Team’ vehicle.
Anderson says the city deals with around 2,000 cases of graffiti each year. Chandler residents are encouraged to report incidents at (480) 782-4322 or by using the city’s mobile app. Many Valley cities allow residents to submit graffiti reports through their websites.
