Just a few days ago, the skate area at Gypsy Hill Park was sprayed with gang symbols and sayings.

The park is now clean, thanks to the public works department and their effort to keep the graffiti out of the city.

“If we didn't remove any graffiti that was on street signs, for one thing they can't be read and on top of that, there would just be an abundance of graffiti all over the city-if we keep it down, the people that are doing this, realize it's not staying up and they will try somewhere else.”

And one of the places they're going is Waynesboro. Gang graffiti has been up for several months. The public works department says they are too short staffed to take care of the graffiti at this time.

Staunton, on the other hand, is painting and replacing signs to keep the gangs out.

“In some cases, the signs are damages so much they have to be replaced and others they can be ground off of walls, the paint removed from the wall, if it can’t be removed, then it has to be painted over.”

Holland says the cleaning is costing the taxpayers but he thinks it's worth it to keep the city clean.

“It's a beautification for one reason. It puts blight on society and on the neighborhood that it’s on. It makes everything look bad.”