Clean-up Pawhuska efforts expanded
It’s been seven months since GFWC Heeko volunteer Jenna Hague agreed to co-chair the City’s clean-up efforts. Since then, she hasn’t missed the monthly clean-up Saturdays.
She, along with husband August, also spearheaded Pawhuska’s big orange dandy dumpster project. Two brightly painted trailers are available for area residents to use at no cost to clean up their yards, including free pickup and delivery.
Last week Hague was spotted on Main Street painting fire hydrants. According to City Manager Paul McAlexander, Pawhuska has 300 assorted fire hydrants.
“Several years ago when the Boy Scouts had their centennial celebration, one enterprising young scout earned his Eagle by painting 30 fire hydrants on Lynn and Grandview to spruce up the town for all the incoming visitors,” said Hague. “I figured if he got 30, I’m on my way to beating him. I’ve painted 20 so far.”
When asked if she planned to paint all 300 hydrants, Hague answered, “I’ll paint all I can find.”
Hague said several people expressed their appreciation for her clean-up efforts and remarked how good the City is starting to look. She said she did get a new volunteer, Dr. Bob Chesbro.
“For the past two mornings, we’ve really been whipping them out,” said Hague. “I told Bob he really should be autographing his fire hydrants. When he said I should also autograph mine, I replied I could always put my X on it.”
When Hague realized she needed some type of signage to identify the clean-up efforts, she decided to recycle an old political sign.
“First I painted the sign orange,” Hague said. “Then, I wrote ‘Project Clean Up – Your Donation$ at Work.”
Hague said she purposely put a dollar sign in place of the ‘s’ and just got approval from the city to repaint the color-coded faded curbs.
Hague said she has been getting an education on the importance of fire hydrants and what the different colors mean. She knew they had something to do with pressure.
The newspaper contacted Pawhuska Fire Fighter Lieutenant Melvin Blossom who explained, “Hydrant tops and caps are painted using standardized color codes which give the fire fighters a reasonably accurate picture as to how the hydrant should perform. The green caps designate high pressure. Red refers to medium flow and yellow even lower. A combination of green and yellow means higher water flow. The red and yellow combo designates medium flow.”
Anyone wishing to join Hague and the GFWC Heeko Club’s efforts in cleaning up Pawhuska is asked to call her at 918-287-3862. Monetary donations to help expand the BODD fleet and/or help defray clean-up supplies should be made out to GFWC Heeko.