Mean street

By Tania Martin
A MONBULK man says he is terrified to go outside because ‘hoons’ are running the town and leaving a trail of vandalism and graffiti down the main street.
Frank Ruigrok fears also that the town’s new community centre will become a target of vandalism and graffiti.
“The centre will be fantastic for the town, but we fear it will be wrecked by these hoons,” he said.
Community centre committee member Ray Yates said he was looking into several strategies to combat activities such as vandalism.
Options included a warden scheme similar to that introduced in Holland in the late 1990s, in which volunteers would act as wardens for the town and that part of the job would be to patrol the area.
Mr Yates said graffiti was a big problem for the town and one that needed to be stopped.
“We need to do something before the graffiti happens,” Mr Yates said.
Mr Ruigrok, too, is calling for an end to the destruction youths have caused to streets and property in his area.
“The main street is littered with graffiti and there needs to be something done to stop all the crimes, he says.
“Youths are out of control, doing burnouts up and down Main Street, swearing, yelling and drinking.
“I love Monbulk but the hoons at the moment are ruining it,” he said
Mr Ruigrok himself has been the victim of several acts of vandalism in the past 12 months.
“Last year my utility was stolen and set on fire and a couple of weeks ago youths stole my wheel barrow.”
Mr Ruigrok said he was sick-and-tired of the bad behaviour and has called for something to be done.
He said all he had to do was look out of his kitchen window to see graffiti.
“There is graffiti on the back of nearly every shop in Main Street, it’s disgusting.”
“I don’t know what we can do to stop this but we need to do something about it now.”
Monbulk Police Sergeant Alan Fincher said there had been a spike in graffiti and vandalism over the past few weeks.
But he said some recent problems had been the result of several parties in the area.
“There is graffiti all down the main street and it looks really bad.”
Mr Ruigrok said one of the problems was that by the time police arrived the youths had fled and there was no way to catch them.
Sgt Fincher said that police were looking at ways to combat the problems in Monbulk with increased unit patrols and assistance. He is calling for any information or assistance in identifying the graffiti tags.