FITCHBURG — The Worcester County Sheriff’s Department has unlocked the secret to graffiti prevention, and the answer isn’t community outreach programs, increased police patrols, or bans on spray paint. The answer is walnuts. “What we use 99.9 percent of the time is this ground walnut shell, which is exactly what it sounds like,” said Officer Dan Joslyn of the Sheriff’s Department. “There’s nothing else in it and it’s all natural so it won’t harm anything.” Imagine a power-washer, or better still a sandblaster, that pummels graffiti-covered walls with a spray of finely ground walnut shell. Since last year, this device has been used by correctional officers and inmates from the Worcester County House of Corrections’ work release program to combat the growing menace that is graffiti. “We started experimenting with it towards the end of last year. For two months now we’ve been going out a few days a week all over Worcester County,” said Joslyn. Much of the work that has been done so far has been in Gardner, Southbridge and Worcester. The crew took its first job in Fitchburg on Friday morning, where they had been called to dispatch some spray-paint scribbles left on the walls of St. Bernard’s High School. “We just thought it would be a great thing to do to help local communities that might not otherwise have these resources,” said Worcester County Sheriff Lew Evangelidis. Read more: http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/news/ci_28503925/cleaning-walls-walnuts#ixzz3gVbC9N2o
