Pedestrians walk Wednesday near Las Vegas Fire Station 3 on Washington Avenue near Rancho Drive. Graffiti offenders tagged a mural on the side of the station. Clark County commissioners are considering a program to crack down on such vandalism. Photo by Clint Karlsen.

If two Clark County commissioners have their way, minors who scrawl graffiti around the valley will soon be required to clean up such vandalism as part of their community service punishment, and their parents will be billed for the cost of the cleanup.

Clark County Commissioners Rory Reid and Myrna Williams said they will push for the proposals to become law, believing that might help curb an ever-growing epidemic of graffiti.

"We are so tired of this, I believe that's a direction that we're going in," Williams said Wednesday during a news conference with other officials at Joe Shoong Park, near Charleston and Lamb boulevards.

The county spent about $3 million on cleanup efforts last year at parks, on public buildings and along public rights of way, officials said, but they estimate that graffiti cost homeowners and business owners as much as 10 times that amount.

Officials are considering a "Graffiti Offender Program" that would require juvenile offenders to paint over graffiti in the community. A pilot program for the initiative could be unveiled as early as next month, officials said.

Another plan of attack is to bolster existing laws on graffiti committed by adults, Clark County District Attorney David Roger said.

Although juveniles account for much of the valley's graffiti, officials said many of the culprits in the valley's approximately 360 "tagging crews" are 18 or older.

Prosecutions have been hampered, Roger said, because current statutes allow adult graffiti offenders to avoid jail time for at least their first two offenses, no matter how egregious their vandalism.

"Regardless of whether it is $5,000 to $100,000 (in graffiti damage), the court must sentence them to probation," Roger said, adding that his office will appeal to state legislators to allow for harsher punishment.

Las Vegas police said gangs -- usually for promotional reasons -- produce much of the unsightly paintings, insignia and symbols that mar buildings, signs, highway sound-barrier walls and utility boxes.

Private funding will be used for a television and billboard campaign urging residents and neighborhood groups to call the Southern Nevada Graffiti hot line at 455-4509. The hot line can be used to report graffiti, request paint for cleanups or volunteer to join anti-graffiti efforts.

"Generally, it's faster for citizens to clean up graffiti that they see themselves," Reid said, adding that the longer graffiti is left up, the more it encourages additional vandalism.

Clark County Undersheriff Doug Gillespie said his agency received more than 3,000 calls about graffiti last year and made about 200 graffiti-related arrests.