Whatever paint was on it when it was put in will last for several years at best. What do you propose they do when the coating starts wearing? Advances in coating technology and the laws regarding them change every few years, so will you guarantee the coating used will be available to them the next time they need to apply it? What budget will they take money away from to strip the hydrants when that time comes so they can be repainted? Painting a hydrant is more than a few hundred dollars for the coating. You have to pay to have the previous coating removed. You have to pay for the new coating and any two part additives it needs, like hardeners or accelerators. You need to pay for the painters with the experience with whatever type of coating you’re repainting them with. For a hydrant, it would probably be some kind of industrial oil-based alkyd. Hopefully a direct to metal, although they might need a suitable primer for the coating they’ve picked if they don’t go with a DTM. That’ll be another hundred or so per gallon. You also have to pay for hazmat disposal of any leftovers from the job.

If you haven’t guessed, I work in the painting industry, specifically dealing with commercial and industrial grade architectural coatings. A job like painting all the hydrants in a town would be many thousands of dollars. In a city, it would be hundreds of thousands. A five gallon bucket of the product I would recommend for the use would retail about $900 per five gallons, although the sales rep would work with the city and whatever painter they hired for the job to negotiate a lower price based on how much they needed.

I’m not writing all this to put you down, or try to make you feel stupid. I’m doing it to point out that things that might seem like they have simple, straightforward solutions oftentimes turn out to be a lot more complex and expensive than people realize. Especially when it comes to maintaining critical infrastructure. This picture might be from a small town that doesn’t have the money to afford repainting their hydrants. It’s a lot cheaper to toss a plastic bag with some zip ties over it. If I’m being honest, it’s probably better for the environment too.