Two squiggles of black spray paint marked the front of the iconic CWOOD sign in front of Collingwood’s town hall on Hurontario St. earlier this week.
While the graffiti was scrubbed yesterday, the executive director of the Collingwood Downtown Business Improvement Area (BIA) called the marks “disappointing.”
“The BIA has been advocating for swift removal of graffiti on public and private property as it is a deterrent to the people who do it if the tags are removed quickly,” said Sue Nicholson, BIA executive director in an email on Thursday.
Nicholson said library staff first noted the graffiti on Sunday and passed on the information to the town’s facilities staff, who informed the BIA.
“We reached out to the manufacturer to determine the best way to remove it and their staff removed it from the sign yesterday,” said Nicholson.
The CWOOD sign was first installed in 2023 as a replacement for the previous CWOOD sign that required individual lightbulbs.
The BIA is responsible to maintain the sign, through their budget collected from a tax levy on BIA members only. BIA maintenance staff deal with removal of graffiti on any of their installations in the downtown.
“This is the first time we have had any issues,” she said.
The Town of Collingwood’s website has an option to report graffiti vandalism directly to the town, found here. The town’s property standards bylaw requires private property owners remove graffiti from their buildings.