NO-TAG Medford
Operational Success

by Ryan | Mar 15, 2015 | Articles & Events

On Sat Mar 14, 2015, Scanner Group Members implemented a plan for turning negative actions into positive changes via community outreach and an experiment in reform.

17 Graffiti Tagging Sites were cleaned and/or painted at no expense to the property owners! You can check out the custom map we used for organizing here (most sites pinned).  Some were impromptu and there were others on mobile structures or not easily seen that we passed up.

There were two residential locations and 15 business and public locations. Some were very hard (concrete is porous LOL) and others tool less than 15 minutes. The directors, businesses and Members worked hard, learned, had fun, ate well thanks to Bobbio’s Pizza. Where was definitely a physical impact on the community achieved through scrubbing and painting.

Our strategic goals of creating awareness were also achieved and emboldened through the coverage we received via Members getting the word out and Roma Villavicencio from KOBI NBC 5’s coverage of the back-story and event.

Heath Sartin, our sponsored arrestee has admitted his crime, is not hiding from it or trying to avoid punishment. Based on his remorse and accountability we decided to turn what could be a felony for him into something positive.

Read about his arrest & NO-TAG here.

OUR MEMBERS ACHIEVED THAT and Heath and his young family are very appreciative for the caring support in getting things right again. In a long talk with Heath, I found out that he is passionate about skateboarding, exercised though it daily and watched a lot of skating videos on YouTube. Some of those videos are very cool and edgy. They include a lot of graffiti art and rebel tagging. He admitted he let the excitement of them lead him to make bad decisions for about a week. Heath had his first court date on the 20th and we will keep you updated on the progress of his case. We are hoping for restitution, more community service, but no felony or jail time in this case. Agree or not, having a working, functional guy like heath locked up is a true waste of a bed when we could keep one of the many meth heads or violent criminals that have to be let go due to lack of funding.

Kevin Ammerman, the reformed tagger, mentor and paid graffiti artist that joined us to help had some great conversations with Heath and all. Pretty sure those guys will hook up to get Heath involved in a positive, legal spray job sometime. Three years ago Kevin was arrested in the larges graffiti bust in Jackson County History. His stuff was true art, but he caused a court-estimated $50,000 in property damage at 19 years old. He recieve a felony and 700 hours of community service time and could be two felonys (case pending). Kevin is reformed and mentors, volunteers and helps people find legal places to express thier artistic talents. Graffiti art is different than tagging. It’s beautiful and has a place in our county. We hope you agree, but realize it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

WHAT IS NEXT FOR NO-TAG MEDFORD? Scanner Group Management will now bring the project back in-house to prepare it for the next round of community awareness and outreach. Will be a bit cryptic hear, but look for good things involving some of the names you see below and more. Please continue to post photos of major illegal tagging on the feed as Members and if you see one of the sites we fixed get tagged again, we want to know. We consider them hallowed ground and have some cleaning supplies and paint left to address that! 😉

CORRECTION: Scanner Group had nothing to do with Heath getting caught. If we gave that impression, it was entirely unintentional, but it did get reported so we are addressing it openly. Our members posted pictures of the tagging problems for a few weeks, including his but we provided no leads that we know of. Medford Police Department gets full credit for diligently doing their research online and drawing undeniable similarities between Heath’s tagger name and a very old post he made on Instagram (per Heath). THANKS for changing the path for this future community contributor MPD. Arrests are important to catch good guys that make bad choices and get them turned in the right direction.

SPECIAL THANKS TO THE BUSINESSES & MEMBERS that helped up pull this thing off for less than $100 out of our own pockets and the gas I donated for my people hauler. YOU ARE THE REASON this thing happened and we have the opportunity to increase awareness and build some great friendships.

Cleaning Solutions Equipment & Supply (Morty Richert) gave us a huge stack of graffiti cleaning supplies worth hundreds of dollars. He was also very generous with his time in helping me understand the best ways to use the chemicals he provided and really get the paint of. They supply industrial janitorial, cleaning and paper supplies, but are open to the public, so hit them up if you want to know what cleaner works for your application.

2 the T Restoration & Painting (Kevin Temple) gave us professional painting & restoration time, paint and use of his pro equipment. He painted a graffiti wall that now looks better than it did before the tagging, helped us match paint at Reef Tech, and brought his pressure washer to attack another graffiti wall. Kevin knows what he is doing: watched him rip into our projects for a half of a day and WOW. He is a community loving badass! Consider him the next time your home or business needs to be painted.

Nop Notch Lawn & Garden (Michael St. Arnold) gave of his time, fuel and equipment perform a half-day of maintenance on the residence with the worst graffiti. Their neighbors mentioned they are seniors who don’t have much and are regularly abused by taggers because they own a wall. Michael made their property look great and brought a friend to help. You know this guy – he ALWAYS helps out Scanner group and we love Mike! Top Notch is a cost efficient and reliable maintenance company. Do what you do while Michael and his helpers take care of your yard

Bobbio’s Pizza (Rick Deats) is our long-time community partner, fed our volunteers until they were full of the best pizza in town and sodas. They even let us hang up our Scanner Group banner and Rick Deates and his staff always show us the love. Rick even came down to help out and check out the work we were doing. Very positive people! Get food from them and mention you are a Scanner Member. You’ll get a free sticker!

James Z / Farmers Insurance (James Zimmerman) showed up to help scrub the heck out of the worst tagging wall we attacked. James is the type of guy that turns up to help out for everything. He is a true insurance expert. Takes SOLID care of his client and happens to know more about business insurance than most folks I have talked to in my 25 years in business. A veteran too and has been serving his community and country his whole life. Have him quote your insurance needs – easy guy to chat with.

RB Photo Memories (Robert & Brittany Deates) were our free, professional photographers for the event and have serious talent. Documenting the work and catching some moments to help us add visuals to the story are important. It’s helps us deliver awareness in the community in a way that helps folks identify with the content. Have them shoot your family, graduating senior, newborn or business. They GET IT and are also community servants.

Kevin Ammerman Graffiti Arts (Kevin Ammerman) showed up to help us understand more about cleaning graffiti, scrub tags of, talk with Heath about his past experiences and promote the world of legal and amazing spray can art. Kevin stayed with us all day long and it was our pleasure to get to know him. I have seen his work at corporate parties, community events and legal projects about town. He travels to paint murals around the country. Get at him if you have something that special, edgy art work would benefit from.

Heath Sartin (tagging arrestee) helped me organize by walking all over town to inventory his tags with photos and addresses plus others he wanted to help clean up. Then he rode around with me for a half day to verify and organize for the volunteers. He showed up for the whole event and worked hard. YES, he was part of the problem and this will help him, but he did it whole-heartedly and followed through. We will provide Heath with the backing information he needs for court, contacts for jobs and ongoing friendships that will help him make his way. His time and labor contributions were STRAIGHT UP SOLID.

FULL LIST OF VOLUNTEERS & COONTRIBUTERS THAT WERE ALL IN: Heath Sartin, Kevin Ammerman, Kevin Temple, Michael St. Arnold, Nicole Chaplin, Ron Smith, Robert Deates, Britney Deates, Rick Deates, Mike Davis, Renne’ Davis, the Staff at Bobbio’s, Ryan Mallory, Kerri Mallory, Addison Mallory, Kyler Norman and Acob Barr.