A beautification project unveiled in downtown Pauls Valley this week celebrates United States service members using the unique canvas of repurposed fire hydrants.
“It’s a great way to restore or reuse something, and it gives Pauls Valley a way to have a little something where our veterans and military members are remembered and honored,” said Pauls Valley Tourism Director Becky Ledbetter, who coordinated the project using a $2,000 grant from Keep Oklahoma Beautiful and donations from the community.
The retired fire hydrants were slated to be declared as surplus and disposed of by the city last year, when Ledbetter approached the city manager and city council about setting some aside for an art project she had in mind for the downtown area. After presenting her ideas, she received permission and began working on an application for a KOB Roadway Grant to fund the project.
Ledbetter said she initially had a larger sculpture project in mind for the hydrants but had to change course due to the time constraints of the KOB grant, which only allowed six months for the project to be completed.
“We had to work fast and think of something we could accomplish in that time frame,” Ledbetter said.
The inspiration for the current project came after Ledbetter took a family vacation to Pensacola, Florida, where she saw a public art project in downtown Pensacola titled “Pelicans in Paradise.” The Pensacola project includes 60 fiberglass pelicans, all decorated by local artists, mounted on cement perches around the downtown area. Some of those pelicans are painted to pay homage to various branches of the U.S. military.
“I thought, ‘You know, we have a lot of veterans and families of veterans in Pauls Valley,’” Ledbetter said. She decided she’d like to create an art project that honored service members, and from there it quickly became a community driven project.
Pauls Valley’s Fleet Maintenance Supervisor Eric Kanaugh helped Ledbetter devise a plan to place the hydrants on 2-foot-square cement pedestals. Local businessman Jeff Paine built the wooden forms for the pedestals, and Jacobson’s Concrete donated and poured the cement.
Kanaugh and other city employees worked to disassemble the hydrants and sandblast them in preparation for paint.
Ledbetter said it was decided each hydrant would be painted to represent a branch of the military. The local Sherwin Williams store helped with selecting a paint product that would adhere and weather well, providing a discount on the materials, and River Steel fabricated medallions to be mounted on each pedestal.
Ledbetter and her family painted the Army hydrants, in service of her father-in-law, the late Pastor and Army veteran Charles Ledbetter, and the family of Air Force veteran Joshua Gutierrez painted the Air Force hydrants. Pauls Valley High School art teacher Bailey Stufflebean volunteered to paint the remaining hydrants.
The finished project consists of 12 hydrants mounted on the concrete bump outs that flank the alleyways along a three-block stretch of Paul Ave., between Santa Fe and Walnut Streets.
The Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Navy and Army are each represented by two hydrants. There is also a hydrant painted to represent the Oklahoma Flag and one representing the U.S. flag.
“It brings color to downtown. It brings people that drive by and want to get out and take a photo and send it to their loved ones, or who just want to look at it and remember their loved ones, maybe talk about the war or talk about who served,” Ledbetter said. “The idea was to keep it clean and classy. But I think at the same time, it will definitely stand out, and that’s what we wanted. Something like that should not be hidden. I hope the community loves it. We’ll see.”
Ledbetter said once the concrete pedestals have cured, the city plans to stain them. She also plans to offer citizens the opportunity to purchase small placards to commemorate loved ones or family members that have served in the military, which can be mounted to the pedestals of a specific military branch.
Anyone interested in purchasing a commemorative placard can contact Ledbetter at 405-238-3308 ext. 157 or bledbetter@cityofpaulsvalley. com.
