COUNTYWIDE : Wiping Out the Writing on the Walls

Orange County’s sprawling 310-mile network of flood control channels were built to handle rising waters from storms, but in recent years, they have met a different sort of deluge: graffiti.

Although two county paint crews work full time removing graffiti, in addition to court-ordered work hours, volunteers are needed to turn back the tide of tagging.

“It’s an important step toward reclaiming our community from these vandals,” said Chaz Ferguson, county graffiti abatement coordinator. “And the people who volunteer get a great deal of satisfaction from the work. They get a feeling they are making a difference.”

The Board of Supervisors in August approved a package of anti-graffiti tactics, among them the creation of the volunteer program. Since then, half a dozen groups, ranging from a homeowners’ association to a Girl Scout troop, have helped repaint the channels.

By the end of February, the total wall area covered by county crews and volunteer groups combined will probably top half a million square feet, Ferguson said.

But graffiti vandalism, which reached a fever pitch in late 1992 and early 1993, has dipped in recent months, Ferguson said. He and other officials attributed that to stiffer penalties, stepped-up police efforts resulting in more arrests and the increasingly violent tendencies of taggers, which have scared away novice vandals.

Only South County seems to be bucking the trend, with graffiti incidents on county property increasing in cities such as Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Lake Forest and Mission Viejo, reports show.

Because of agreements worked out with 15 cities, county workers patrolling the channels in those cities are allowed to paint over graffiti on adjacent public property, and even private property with owner consent.

“Our attitude is, if we’re there, let’s go ahead and take care of it; let’s get it down off the wall,” Ferguson said.

Community volunteers are outfitted with paintbrushes and rollers, disposable orange safety vests and work gloves. A county employee, often accompanied by a court-ordered worker, ferries the volunteers and their five-gallon drums of paint through the channels in a truck.

The volunteers are typically civic or community organizations, but school classes and corporate groups also participate.

To report graffiti on county property, call (714) 834-3400. To volunteer a group or get more information about the program, call Ferguson at (714) 567-6280.