The town of Niagara-on-the-Lake is looking for ways of combatting the recent string of graffiti incidents and is moving forward through its first graffiti task force.

The team, consisting of Lord Mayor Gary Burroughs, councillors Martin Mazza and Terry Flynn, parks and recreation director Clive Buist, bylaw officer Randy Berg and Niagara Regional Police officers Jim McCaffrey, Steve Ballard and Jeff Leavens. The task force met for the first time May 13 to discuss what can be done to keep the town beautiful while catching vandals in the act.

The key initiative said Flynn, task force chair, is to set up a "one stop shop" for the public to report incidents of vandalism. The key question he asked the group was what can be done.

Ballard said there must be emphasis put on engaging residents to speak up on the issue. He said there should be an open dialogue between the community, the task force and police.

"They shouldn't be afraid to bother us. We're here to help," Ballard said.

Burroughs said some of the hardest hit places in town are hydro and cable utility boxes. Disgusted at one point, Burroughs said he once went around with dark brown spray paint and covered a graffiti decorated utility box in Garrison Village with Chamber of Commerce manager Janice Thomson.

"There were people who passed by and asked what I was doing. I handed them cans of paint and eight more people joined in the fun," Burroughs joked. The Lord Mayor suggested it could be possible to work with Niagara-on-the-Lake Hydro and Cogeco to get a clean up done.

Mazza said the Road Watch program, which involves residents anonymously reporting incidents of erratic driving behaviour, is successful in town. Much like Road Watch's campaign, Mazza suggested including a pamphlet in residents' hydro bills to help spread the message.

"They're the ones who are paying the bills and taking a hit in the wallets. We should target them," Mazza said.