The Annex vandalized day after grand opening

Both The Annex and Bohn’s security cameras captured footage of a possible suspect and, at 11:13 a.m., Anthony Eisele was identified as the person involved in both acts of vandalism and was arrested for a felony parole board warrant. Eisele was booked into the Northern Oregon Regional Correctional Facility on Oct. 13, and his bail was set at $1,200.

According to Kenny LaPoint, executive director of Mid-Columbia Community Action Council, the organization that owns and operates The Annex, red squiggles had been drawn all over the stucco on the front and side of the building. The fence also read “F-CK WHITE P".

“It was not completed, whatever it was going to say,” he said. “That person may have seen there were people around and stopped doing it, I don’t know. Maybe they ran out of paint.”

LaPoint said that he was notified of the graffiti at around 8 a.m., when The Dalles City Manager Matthew Klebes texted him to ask if they wanted city help to clean the graffiti. Shortly after this, MCCAC reported the crime to the police.

According to LaPoint, residents of The Annex were frustrated to see their home had been vandalized.

“The people here were mad,” he said. “These folks have seen the work that’s been going on here. While we did a grand opening last week, we have clients that have been here since Aug. 28, so they were pretty unhappy that someone did that to the place they live. They were probably more unhappy than we were.”

LaPoint said the City of The Dalles was incredibly helpful with the cleanup process, sending facilities maintenance workers to assist. They brought graffiti remover spray for the stucco and sanded down the fence.

The stucco on the building will need to be redone, LaPoint said. While the graffiti remover did get rid of the paint, it pulls silica out, which leaves a line in the stucco which will need to be repaired.

The stucco repair should be fairly inexpensive and simple, LaPoint said, but MCCAC will also be purchasing and applying anti-graffiti paint over the building to prevent any future incidents. This paint can be very expensive, at roughly $130 per gallon, and they’ll be painting the entire building.

Between materials and labor, LaPoint estimated the cost to be around $15,000. He said MCCAC is hoping they will be able to pay for the anti-graffiti paint using some of the funds from Project Turnkey, which allowed for the construction of The Annex in the first place, but they will need permission from the grant-issuer, the Oregon Community Foundation, to do so. He believes it will qualify, as renovation costs are part of the grant, he said.

The ultimate hope is that by doing this now, MCCAC will be able to save themselves a lot of trouble in the future.

“This paint is like a silicone paint that goes over the top of the stucco. It’s basically rubber, so if somebody does this again, you can wipe it off with a rag,” he said.

LaPoint said the idea for the anti-graffiti paint came from the city’s facilities workers, and that he and the MCCAC team were grateful for all the help and advice they were able to get from the city.

“They’ve been great partners to us,” he said. “And we really appreciate that.”

For more information on The Annex, MCCAC and their work, visit mccac.com.