Adam Shaw’s job is to make sure parks and public places in Manteca stay as clean as possible.

On Thursday afternoon, that took him to downtown where there was graffiti to make disappear in several  locations the city had been alerted to by the public — or municipal employees have reported — including the mini-plaza in the 100 block of the North Maple Avenue.

Shaw — a 7-year Manteca  parks maintenance worker who has spent the last two years in his current position in the dedicated  city’s “Mr. Clean” assignment — had started tackling the graffiti in the early afternoon.

He had pulled up in a city truck pulling a trailer with trash cans nearly filled plus a large mattress he had retrieved from his last stop at Lincoln Park.

Although other parks maintenance crew workers also help keep parks clean among their other duties, it is Shaw’s primary job description that also includes other public places.

His task at the plaza was to remove graffiti from a metal electrical panel, some brick work, a hard plastic utility cover and stone.

“Personally,” Shaw emphasized, “I find it wrong to deface areas meant for everyone.”

The task before him required four different approaches.

The brick could simply be handled by power washing.

The one on the industrial plastic cover required a specific solvent and being careful not to “eat” into the material. The electrical panel graffiti was the job for a different solvent.

The stone around the ornamental water feature was more of a challenge.

It involved using an expensive solvent that costs as much as $75 for a small bottle.

It also requires numerous applications and for it to soak in followed by a quick power wash and then brushing with a push broom whose bristles have an extreme short lifetime thanks to the abrasive chemicals.

The type of spray paint used also plays a factor in what is needed to try an erase all traces of vandalism.

And if all traces can’t be effectively erased, the last step may be using paint — as close as possible to the color of the surface that vandalize — to make the damage less intrusive.

What a vandal or tagger — the choice of vernacular 100 percent tied to the perspective of what a person’s view of the unlawful act of defacing public property — may take a minute at tops to do.

But removing all, or as much as possible, of what they leave behind while keeping surface damage to a minimum can take hours.

It is a point of personal and civic pride for Shaw to play a frontline role in keeping Manteca from being trashed whether it is with graffiti, garbage strewn about, furniture under ceremoniously dumped at hot spots such as Northgate Park, or removing the No. 2 — for want of a better word — left behind primarily by the homeless.

Shaw said he takes “pride in being able to walk down a street and not see trash” in Manteca.

He makes it clear that keeping Manteca as clean as possible by making sure graffiti and trash lingers for the shortest time possible is not a one man job.

Not only do other parks maintenance workers pitch in as needed, but volunteers with the Manteca Police SHARP unit also help paint over graffiti.

The city several years ago started contracting with Manteca Property Services to help police the streets and downtown for trash dumping and such.

The firm also power washes pavers and sidewalks on a regular basis downtown, something that never happened until the end of the last decade.

Manteca Property Services as well as city crews also tackle illegal homeless encampments working in concert with the Manteca Police Department.

When it comes to the city’s 70 plus parks that Shaw visits during the course of 10 hour days Monday through Thursday, the cleanup turns often to more minute litter.

The city’s part time parks maintenance employees often work in concert with full time staff when parks are mowed. They follow behind retrieving litter.

Other times, if Shaw has made a visit to that park before mowing day to address graffiti and or remove large items, he will have already policed the area.

Shaw is pleased when he can do that and the part-time workers have minimum litter pickup to do.

The reason is simple. It means there is less time that litter marred a city park that week.

The biggest graffiti target in Manteca is not tagging on the sound walls. Arguably, it’s the one most likely to draw the least attention as it is done in a  fairly rampant manner on concrete tables at parks.

While such vandalism involves those writing their name, initials and such on the table surface is not “in-your-face” like spray painting large visible places like walls and fenced, it still takes away from ambiance and is addressed just as aggressive by the city.

As for the trailer he pulls around, he sometimes can  fill it three times with debris during a 10-hour shift.

Shaw said he’d like more people to use Manteca’s government outreach app to report the location of graffiti.

Currently, the city gets an average of five messages from citizens each week pointing out graffiti problems.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com