Community, students in Orting come together to clean up graffiti, bridge hit hard by 'Taggers'

ORTING -- No one likes to look at graffiti. It's an eye sore. It can give the impression that a marked area is unsafe and most importantly -- it's a crime. A bridge over the Puyallup River in Orting has been hit hard by ‘Taggers,’ so the community and students are coming together to clean up the problem. It’s a really good feeling to help clean up the community,” says Orting High School junior Hunter Mullins. He and dozens of his classmates spent Thursday painting over the mess. Mullins says, “During the summertime a lot of little kids will come down and play by the river and when they see the graffiti a lot of parents don`t feel comfortable letting their kids come down here and that’s not cool.”

Orting police and the high school organized the cleanup. Teacher John Miller says it’s with good reason. “I think with every small town getting bigger you have an influx of change and some expressions of that change can be crime or vandalism or whatever it might be and the students feel like if we don`t do something about it who will? Orting has been rocked by crime including a string of at least 20 arson fires last year and the community is still dealing with the unsolved murder of 53 year old Michael Compton who investigators say may have been shot during a burglary in his garage last February. We`re starting to grow in a negative way,” says Mullins. “We`re starting to get a lot more illegal activity over here and frankly we don`t like it.” In a community of less than 7,000 people it’s why some like Hunter are doing everything they can to pitch in. “Hopefully this will spark bigger plans in the future and hopefully change more lives and influence more people.”