To the Editor:
Again, it’s that time of year when the so-called graffiti artists have found their way to Fort Revere. Even though they did not take the winter off, they had kept most of their paintings on the interior walls, which were clean as of last fall. Now they have hit the fort four times in the past week. Some of it was harmless, but some was racist and sexual.
Eight years ago, my daughter told me that she and her daughter had gone to the fort and found it covered head-to-toe with graffiti covering all different subjects, including swears, racist comments, sexual drawings, and more. I went to a selectmen’s meeting and asked what this town was going to do about it. Domenico Sestito asked me if I was volunteering. After thinking about it for a few seconds, I said, “I’ll paint it, if you buy the paint”.
The town has reimbursed me once in eight years. With the state Department of Conservation and Recreation leading the way, it was cleaned up but for only a short while (a week). I would go to Richmond Hardware in Braintree to get the same color paint the DCR used. The town then paid for anti-graffiti paint that the Fort Revere Preservation Society applied with volunteers from the town. I’ve still gotten paint from Richmond Hardware over the past six years to cover the interior walls where the graffiti is vulgar. And in the spring/summer months, I lug 400 feet of garden hose and a gas-powered pressure washer to clean the exterior walls where the anti-graffiti paint is.
There are people constantly going up to Fort Revere on a daily basis to enjoy the views, to explore the fort, to have their kids roam around and play with nerf guns, picnic, hang out, and get some sun. It’s tough doing that comfortably when there’s broken glass and swears on the walls.
Over the past couple of years, the Hull police and Mass. State Police did a crackdown. Some people were caught. The graffiti subsided for a while because it received news coverage in The Hull Times.
It’s that time again. We need more frequent patrols where the place is walked. The graffiti I found and reported this morning wasn’t a hit-and-paint. They were up there for a while because of the extent of graffiti. And from the dates next to their names, they were male and female between the ages of 20 and 25. Not kids.
Please, be proactive.
Randall Gould
