In the months since its creation, hundreds of people have signed the mural’s border. On Thursday, a man was seen removing it all with a can of white paint.

The Marshalltown Skatepark’s Graffiti Wall is owned by the city and maintained by the Marshalltown Parks and Recreation Department. The original idea for the wall also came from the City’s Parks and Recreation department, which wanted it to be a public wall of art with ever changing designs. The Alliance has worked hand in hand with the city to bring forward new artists and produce new artwork regularly for the wall.

“We intentionally kept the memorial piece up for an extended period of time to give the community the opportunity to grieve and heal together,” Amber Danielson, Executive Director of the Marshall County Arts and Culture Alliance, said.

The Alliance was in talks with the city and the families of the deceased about transitioning the wall back to a rotating wall of art. The idea was to paint over the central image in the middle of the mural and have the white border with people’s signatures remain. Work on this was to begin on Friday.

T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM The graffiti wall in the skate park was recently covered with white paint. A tribute to four Marshalltown teens who died in a car accident was on the wall for months. On Friday morning, fireworks-type graffiti was painted on half of the wall.

“Although this wall is open to the public to paint at any time, we were extremely hurt and saddened when we learned that the memorial piece was covered up,” Danielson said.

Marshalltown Police Chief Mike Tupper said that while the incident was disappointing, it did not constitute a crime.

This setback has not hindered the Alliance’s new plans for the wall’s transition. Fernandez, who painted the memorial mural, is looking forward. On Saturday, he started fresh on a new mural for the skatepark’s graffiti wall, and he hopes it will give the bereaved family some peace.

Although the memorial mural is now gone, the memories of 13-year-old Adrian Lara, 16-year-old Isacc Lara, 15-year-old Linette Lopez and 17-year-old Yanitza Lopez will never be painted over.