WAYNE, NJ — A proposed Township Council ordinance would shorten the time that property owners have to clean up graffiti on their homes or businesses in Wayne.
Mayor Christopher Vergano explained that the township has been having recent issues with vandalism in several locations around Wayne, even though code enforcement officials are handing out notices to remove the graffiti.
“It is one of my most unfavorable subjects,” Vergano said at the most recent council meeting on July 19.
Currently, the township code section on vandalism allows a 90-day window for property owners to clean up any unsightly graffiti on buildings, after they get a written notice to remove it. The proposed ordinance would shorten that window to 30 days.
“This gives us much more of a hammer to go after people to get it done,” Vergano said. “(30 days) should be sufficient for anyone who has it on their building. And why they’d want to leave it there at all, I don’t know.”
If property owners don’t clean up the vandalism in time, the township will do so and then bill the owners for reimbursement.
“The cost of removal shall be certified as a municipal lien against the property, and the payment shall be enforced as an assessment, together with interest, as a debt of the owner of the property,” the proposed ordinance reads.
Council members will next meet on Wednesday, Aug. 16 and are expected to take a vote on the measure.
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