Mankato businesses tagged with graffiti

MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) - The city sculpture that was vandalized last weekend adds to the half a dozen sculptures that have been damaged in the 2022 tour.

“Hopefully, we can get to the bottom of it and you know really just create awareness that you know, we want to keep our community looking at its best and you know not have things like this happen that detour from the positive things that are happening and the growth that we’re seeing in our community,” says Jessica Beyer, CEO of Greater Mankato Growth.

‘Enchanted Muse’ owner, Alastair Weston, opened his business earlier this year.

He says Mankato has been a welcoming community, yet lately he has been dealing with an issue; graffiti.

“There’s places to express yourself and on the side of a business just isn’t it,” explained owner of the Enchanted Muse’, Alastair Weston.

Weston says the graffiti has been more visible in the last few weeks, and this drives business owners to put in extra hours of work and to dig in their pockets.

“We have to come in here after work, get our own paint and paint up this just yesterday. I was out all evening cleaning up the dumpsters and cleaning up the electrical boxes. And this sort of thing and paint doesn’t come off very easily,” Weston added. “It takes a lot of elbow grease and a lot of a lot of work to do that.”

Mankato Public Safety says they have a strict policy when it comes to graffiti.

“Once graffiti gets reported to Public Safety, they have two business days to get it removed,” said Dan Schisel, associate director of public safety resources for the city of Mankato.

They say the sooner they can handle it, the better.

“We have learned that if we can get that covered up then it helps prevent it in the future,” added Schisel.

Authorities want community members to speak up when they see something.

“We encourage anybody to report any suspicious activity or if they think somebody is damaging that property,” Schisel Explained. “We do encourage everyone to contact us immediately so that we can respond and figure out what’s going on.”

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