"We've been cleaning more — but not necessarily because there's more," said Marianne Zalzal, interim director of the department, after being informed that several benches and pieces of playground equipment in Westmount Park were recently targeted by graffiti vandals.

"We are trying to catch up and trying to be more ahead of things," said Zalzal. "So we've been trying to get more cleaned up as much as possible."

From the appearance of things in Westmount Park last weekend, graffiti vandals don't seem to take a winter vacation. In the children's playground, slides and other recreational items made of yellow plastic had freshly painted and illegible scrawls daubed on. Nearby, park benches had received similar treatment. On the edges of the park, several street signs had also been tarnished with graffiti.

A resident out walking his dog commented to an Examiner reporter on the scene that he found the situation disgraceful. He suggested that the City is no longer able to keep up with the sheer number of graffiti incidents.

According to Zalzal, Public Works officials decided several months ago that they weren't going to wait for complaints to come in about specific graffiti problems, and an employee was sent out to compile a comprehensive list of defaced property.

Although the department is responsible for cleaning graffiti from City property and facilities when it's a straightforward undertaking, sometimes the task is more demanding and a specialized contractor does the work.

"It's hard for us … but we do have a contractor that does quite a bit of it," Zalzal said. "He's got the products to remove it. It depends on what it is. We'll take care of our signs. We'll take care of something simple that we can do. Our park benches or things like that which we have to repaint, we'll take care of. But there are areas he's better off doing because it's special stone or whatever. He's got the products to do it without causing damage."

Zalzal hadn't noticed that the graffiti vandals had apparently remained active despite the cold weather. "I'm going to get someone to take a look at the graffiti on the playground equipment and see what we can do about having it cleaned up," she said of the latest damage. "If it's not already on the list, we'll get it done by one of our guys or by contractor."