Water district invites residents to paint fire hydrants

by Kathleen Steele Gaivin

July 11 trustees meeting

Sagamore Hills attorney Jeff Snell told township trustees that the North Hills Water District will provide paint for any volunteers who will paint one or more fire hydrants around the township. Snell also serves as the water district’s fiscal officer.

“We [the water district] are not going to paint the hydrants this year. We may not paint them next year. They’re very expensive to paint,” Snell said.

However, Snell said the district has the paint for the fire hydrants, noting that he and Sagamore Hills resident Carol Lewis, a trustee of the North Hills Water District, have personally painted some hydrants in their area. The paint was donated by a previous water district board member and has been stored in Snell’s office. He said one gallon of paint will cover at least 12 to 15 hydrants.

Not to worry, Snell said, you don’t have to paint a dozen hydrants. Residents could elect to paint the hydrant in front of their own home and return the unused paint to Snell at his office at 253 W. Aurora Rd.

“The paint is rather thin. It is water soluble, but you really have to scrub your hands when you’re done. … You don’t need chemicals, but you really need to scrub yourself and your brush,” said Snell. “But it does a beautiful job. It probably needs two coats to do the whole thing because it is kind of thin.”

Lewis said that prepping the hydrant can take up to 20 minutes of scraping with a wire brush, but the actual painting takes about 10 minutes.

The paint is red as to be readily seen by emergency workers. At one time, the township hydrants were green so they would show up in the wintertime, but according to Snell, the problem was they were too hard to identify the rest of the year. Ultimately, the fire department determined red was the best color for the hydrants.

“I probably have another 40 to 50 gallons,” Snell said. He said that when someone wants to use paint for the hydrants, he would take it to Lowe’s and have it shaken for them.

For more information, call the North Hills Water District at 330-468-0198. ∞