NEWBURGH – Paul Harrington just wants to be a good Newburgh neighbor and would like to remove graffiti spray-painted on a wall of the train trestle along the Newburgh waterfront, but red tape and legal issues appear to cloud the issue.
Someone painted “defund the police” on the wall and it has become more difficult to remove it.
“The City of Newburgh officials at City Hall are making this more of a hardship than just getting the paint removed itself,” Harrington said. “It’s a shame that it has to be this way.”
Mayor Torrance Harvey said it is not as easy as just grabbing a paint brush and covering the graffiti.
“There are liability concerns and issues because we don’t own the wall – CSX owns the wall. That’s private property. We don’t want to be held liable as a city for, God forbid, there is an accident or something that they do,” the mayor said.
Harvey said the city does not condone graffiti anywhere in the city, but “we have to follow protocols.”
He said, though, he would reach out to CSX Railroad to remove the graffiti.
On the issue of “defunding police,” that is not to be taken literally, Harvey said. “No one in their right mind would defund the police department because public safety is a priority, but that phrase is to reallocate money possibly in the police department for youth programs and anything that is going to serve the public good.”
