Karma: Hippie Hydrant Defies Detractor

The fate of Franklin's `Hippie Hydrant' caught attention all over the internet, television, and even Boston radio in the last couple of days.

Part of the town’s second ongoing invitation to artists to submit and execute new paint schemes on the town’s fire plugs, Kelly Feeherry won the right to rework one of the structures on Milliken Avenue.

Inspired by the colors and styles of the 1960s, Feeherry completed her work only to discover the next morning that a graphics Grinch had taken a can of red spray paint in hand completely erasing her hours of effort.

Although the town has the option of forcing an artist to maintain their work, including vandalism repair, given its immediate obliteration, the powers that be took pity and, wisely no doubt, gave her the option of applying her design to a hydrant opposite the Fire Department headquarters.

And, according to a Milliken Avenue neighbor, crews returned to the scene of the crime Friday and repainted the hydrant there – again--- in standard Franklin colors since, they explained, the bright red used by the vandal is widely used for non-municipal hydrants, which could have confused maintenance teams in the future.

Nice comeback Kelly!