Super Mario could be the next mascot for Marion. The names match. Or maybe the mascot could be Pete the Rhino, sporting a red hard hat.

The city council on Monday approved an art project that would give all Marion fire hydrants a makeover. Marion Pride proposed the project, which will likely take the form of a contest, open to local artists.

A stipulation of the project, from fire chief Mike Regnier, is that the caps of the hydrants must be correctly color-coded. Per National Fire Protection Association codes, hydrants are capped different colors depending on how much water flow they contain.

All Marion hydrants, except one near US-56, are class C hydrants, which have red caps. The class A hydrant near the highway has a green cap.

The city said designs would be subject to its approval, to ensure accordance with NFPA code and the city’s “stated family values.”

“I’m not opposed,” council member Chad Adkins said, “but I’d throw this out: When you start getting designs on them, then they need to be repainted, it gets to be looking a jumbled up mess at a certain point in time.”

Adkins was happy to approve the project as long as the city had some kind of approval on what people paint on them. “Not that we need to control everything,” he said.