DENVER (KDVR) — Months after Black Lives Matter rallies slowed in Colorado’s Capitol, crews continue to bring the complex back to normal.
“There have been occasions when people tagged the capitol, but never to the extent that we saw this summer,” said Doug Platt, director of the department of personnel and administration.
After repeated nights of damage to the Capitol and surrounding buildings, Platt said Tuesday the repair work got into full swing once the unrest and protesting was no longer a daily occurrence.
“The first level of the building was completely peppered with graffiti,” said Platt, looking across the Capitol walls that are now, finally, clean of paint and other markings.
Glass and windows are repaired and the graffiti is gone, but on Tuesday the DPA continued to work on the granite walls, which require a special type of cleaning method. The repaired windows will remain boarded up as a precaution and the fence around the Capitol building will stay until crews finish the restoration.
“The graffiti clean-up alone cost around $160K.”
Colorado’s risk management fund is paying for the cost of cleanup. Platt estimates the total cost of repairs to the building and the complex to be about $1.1 million, but more money could be spent. The state is self-insured up to the first million dollars in damage, but there is some additional insurance money that will cover statues and monuments that were damaged as well.
Landscaping repairs could carry over into the spring. Platt hopes by the end of the year the department will be able to replace or clean signs that were marked or destroyed.
“It’s encouraging, I’m optimistic, to see where this building was a couple months and then to see it now it’s a dramatic change in the face of the building,” said Platt.