Thread: Hazleton Highway Dept. workers back on graffiti patrol

http://www.standardspeaker.com/index.ph ... 8&Itemid=2

Hazleton Highway Dept. workers back on graffiti patrol
Saturday, 24 June 2006
By KENT JACKSON
kent.jackson@standardspeaker.com
The back of the City of Hazleton dump truck was loaded with 20 buckets of paint, brushes and rollers as five Highway Department workers set out on graffiti patrol Friday morning.

They repainted blue scrawl spray painted on walls of a house and garage across from Pine Street Playground.

Each building was defaced by graffiti May 18 and repainted before vandals struck again Wednesday night or Thursday morning.

Mayor Louis Barletta said he spoke to Highway Department Foreman Frank Vito first thing Friday morning and asked him to paint over the graffiti as soon as possible.

“It’s sad and disappointing to me that we have people in the city that disrespect other people’s properties,” Barletta said.

Words such as “Crip,” which was sprayed on a garage, are associated with gangs and make Barletta more determined to continue pushing for an ordinance against illegal immigration that brought him national attention this week.

“It ties into everything I’m doing. I’ve had enough of this in the City of Hazleton,” he said.

One of two boys arrested for firing guns at the playground last month was in the country illegally.

A murder May 10 for which two illegal immigrants have been charged and May 18 drug raids led Barletta to advocate the ordinance that fines landlords who rent to illegal immigrants, revokes the business license of firms that hire them and makes English the official language of city government.

At Pine Street Playground, a woman who stopped to talk with Highway Workers painting over graffiti said a nearby house was sprayed with black paint between 10 p.m. Thursday and 5 a.m. Friday.
She telephoned police and told them that she saw a pair of boys, perhaps 14 to 16 years old, and said the police need to stagger their patrols.

“Somebody needs to be here different hours,” said the woman, who didn’t identify herself out of fear for her children.

To workers painting over graffiti on the garage at East Hemlock and North Pine streets she said, “It’s a shame you have to keep coming out here.”

One city worker agreed and said repainting costs lots of tax dollars.
But contractor Ed Shamany donated the paint and said he has 30 more gallons if the mayor needs them.

“Everybody has to pull together to make everything work in the city. We believe in the city. We believe in the mayor,” Shamany said.

Team Supply also offered to donate paint to the Highway Department.

After repainting buildings around the Pine Street Playground, the Highway Department employees driving three trucks planned to disperse to paint over graffiti on a cinder block garage at Tamarack Street and North Bennett Court, the Sargent Art Industrial Building and Beech Street Playground.

“When I see the stuff with the graffiti and what is being painted, it makes me angrier and more determined,” Barletta said.
“They’ll run out of paint long before I do.”

“When I see the stuff with the graffiti and what is being painted, it makes me angrier and more determined,” Barletta said.
“They’ll run out of paint long before I do.”

I like this man. Can you guys in Pennsylvania get him to run for a higher office?

I just drove through Hazleton tonight. To see what these losers have done to this city is disgusting. The place has been invaded. And they wonder why natives from the city are against them.
12,000 people just plopped themselves down here. Since that time there have been murders (formerly unheard of), robberies, rapes, numerous drug busts.
Yeah, welcome to our city, glad to have you!