CLAREMONT — Lightly traveled Half Mile Road in West Claremont was hit by some graffiti in recent weeks that had to be painted over by the city’s public works department not once but twice.
The road was closed off on Tuesday with cones at either side because a tree had fallen on some phone lines, Claremont Police Chief Mark Chase said, adding that the problem was cleared up later in the day. Public Works Director Vic St. Pierre said a couple of weeks ago workers spotted obscene graffiti scrawled on the cement abutments of the railroad bridge that crosses over the road. There was more graffiti on the road.
St. Pierre said the graffiti included names, obscene language and drawings.
“We painted some of it over but ran out of paint and when we came back a couple of days later there was more so we painted that over,” St. Pierre said, adding that they also “blackened” the road surface to cover the graffiti.
The road connects Jarvis Hill Road with Plains Road and has only one house on it, near the intersection with Plains Road. Motorists using either Jarvis Hill or Plains Road rarely if ever use Half Mile to cross over, especially since the road surface is in poor condition. Last year, former City Manager Ryan McNutt recommended to the City Council that the road be closed down because of illegal dumping of trash and household items. The council rejected the idea.
On Tuesday, Chase said the dumping was “sporadic” and happened a couple of times last year but so far, none this year.
