Since July of 2020, Havana Main Street has been focused on bringing art back to Havana, and this past summer, the main street organization formed a partnership with the Town of Havana to do just that.
A contest was born, inviting members of the community to submit designs that could be selected as options for the painting of selected fire hydrants throughout Havana city limits.
Artists were invited to submit their designs, and a panel of judges were assigned the task of choosing the winners of the First Annual Havana Fire Hydrant Painting Contest.
The panel of judges consisted of the Police Chief Tracy Smith, Fire Chief Patrick Coyne, and former Town Manager Brad Johnson.
Saturday, October 23, the work began.
Stones Family Center donated paint and Havana Main Street provided a bag of necessities, consisting of containers for paint and mineral spirits, some basic brushes, a bottle of drinking water and a roll of paper towels.
Havana Main Street volunteers helping get the artists set up were Diane Clevenger, Horst Wahl, and Jeanne Ruland.
Designs were assigned specific locations.
Artist nKimberly Bell’s design of a firehouse Dalmatian was a sure fit for a hydrant located in front of the downtown fire station on East 7th Avenue.
Not too far away, artist Paige Brown’s multi-colored sunflower hydrant design set off the sidewalk by the Hazel Baker Community Center, providing the police station a beautiful boutique of flowers now to see every day from across the street.
At the corners of 7th Avenue and Main Street, artist Joy Green recreated her iconic green tree frogs on a bright yellow hydrant background and artist Maggie Santamaria transformed her hydrant into a brightly colored bubblegum machine.
Not to be missed, at the curve of Northwest 1st Street, Kim Campbell painted a bright blue hydrant that is the perfect photo op for local and visiting pooches!
The Town of Havana has 121 hydrants; painting the hydrants is possible because the town owns the hydrants.
The town, along with Havana Main Street, plans to continue the collaboration of the beautification of the hydrants.
The town and main street are already putting in preparation work for the 2nd Annual Havana Fire
Hydrant Painting Contest, which will include painting more of the town’s owned hydrants.
Safety is a primary concern; all hydrants have an identification number that coordinates with a database between the town and the fire department; all of these numbers, located on the front of the caps of the hydrants, were repainted to remain visible.
Special to The Herald