In 2006 the city of Ft Collins, Colorado came up with a plan to help mitigate graffiti, reduce maintenance costs and add art to the Fort Collins community. The plan was to select local artists to paint the transformer boxes with colorful murals that would make the boxes less desirable for graffiti and tagging. When the project began, local artist Amelia Caruso was commissioned to paint a group of transformer cabinets in Tenney Alley.

The program is proving to be successful and cost effective. The sanding, priming and repainting required to completely remove evidence of graffiti on one transformer cabinet costs about $250 and 20-30 man hours, according to Kraig Bader, Utilities Light & Power Standards Engineering Manager. While all three steps may not be required every time a vandal strikes, it still runs about $200 just to sand and prime a cabinet. By reducing graffiti, the city estimates savings could reach $130,000 over the life of a single transformer cabinet~fcgov.com