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(Photo Credit Chillicothe Gazette)

Chillicothe, OH - City budget cuts are holding up the removal of racist graffiti from a park restroom, officials said.

The spray-painting in Strawser Park includes racial slurs and a depiction of a lynching and a Confederate flag. The words “Whites Only” are scrawled beside a bathroom door.

The city, about 45 miles south of Columbus, has submitted the vandalism case to its insurance company but doesn’t have park funds to cover a $1,000 deductible, Mayor Joe Sulzer said.

He said he’s checking whether money from a different department could be used for the cleanup.

The spray paint has been on the bathroom walls for at least two weeks.
“It’s very offensive to the people that read it,” said Parks and Recreation Director Cathy Primer. “We hate to leave it there, but we have to rent a sandblaster to get it off and it’s going to take time and money from something else in the park.”

“We’re hoping someone who knows these kids who are doing this comes forward,” Primer said. The culprits should be forced to clean it up, she said.

The restroom graffiti is part of a recent uptick in vandalism using racially charged symbols, said Don Ellifritt, a local neighborhood watch group organizer.

About a week ago, vandals spray-painted a swastika on the house of a black family, and that symbol and others associated with white supremacists were drawn on a storefront, which has since been repainted, police reports show.

City Councilwoman Jean Malone, whose ward includes Strawser Park, said she wants to talk to the mayor about funding options to remove the restroom graffiti.
“If I had my way, it would be down yesterday,” she said.

City Council President Bob Shoultz said the city must get the graffiti removed.
“I think it should be a priority to get it down, but the bottom line is finding the money,” he said.

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