CHICORA — Sidney Callihan is almost always cooking up some kind of big idea, said his wife Elaine.

“He’s always been very busy,” she said of the Chicora native. “If he’s not out the door in the morning, that’s not a good sign.”

So it’s not surprising the 77-year-old Callihan is out the door these mornings working on another big project: cleaning and re-painting fire hydrants in Chicora.

The self-described workaholic — Callihan’s always worked two jobs, Elaine said — came up with the idea while doing one of his favorite things, having coffee with friends.

Callihan, who after retirement looked to his family, community and church for inspiration and motivation, took the project to borough council members, and pitched it as something he wanted to do for his hometown.

“Chicora’s been awful good to me over the years, and this might give me a way to give something back to the town,” Callihan said.

Before Callihan knew it, he was learning about mandated color coding, hydrant flow monitoring, and just how many hydrants — 52 — he had signed on to spruce up.

“It kind of got into a big project,” Callihan deadpanned.

Callihan realized he was going to need help.

Chicora resident Joseph Farone, a retired steel worker and former borough council member, shakes his head and chuckles over his friend’s ability to rope him into these undertakings.

Last summer, Farone ended up helping Callihan refurbish a home. This summer, the pair is mixing paint and cleaning up fire hydrants.

“He couldn’t have waited until September or something,” Farone joked. “Nope. We’re out here in the hottest month of the year.”

Farone considers the work a small way to help Chicora look its best.

“There’s a lot of stuff in the town we’d like to do, but it won’t get done because there’s no money for it,” Farone said.

Rick Craig, assistant chief and president of the Chicora Volunteer Fire Department, said the painting and hydrant upkeep affects every borough resident’s pocketbook, too.

The department is responsible for maintaining the hydrants, which are inspected regularly by the Insurance Services Organization. The hydrants’ appearance factors into a final rating that can affect residents’ insurance premiums.

Craig, who is also part of Callihan’s team, said it’s probably been more than 20 years since the borough’s hydrants were all cleaned and painted.

Callihan’s efforts mean a lot not just to insurance companies but to emergency volunteers.

“Most of our line officers and members know the best hydrants,” Craig said, “but in a mutual-aid situation, outside departments may not have the same knowledge.”

The color code is a state-mandated system. Hydrants with the highest flow are topped in blue. In Chicora, those with the lowest flow are topped in black.

Other than their tops, the hydrants are painted “Safety Red” using a special, oil-based paint that costs about $80 per gallon, Callihan said. The borough is buying the paint.

It takes Callihan and his team, which also includes borough maintenance worker Ed Price, about an hour to clean and repaint a single fire hydrant.

“It takes a bit of prep to do this right,” Callihan said.

The men carry gas-powered generators in their vehicles and use wire wheel grinders to clean the hydrants before Callihan paints them himself.

“Sid’s a very, very meticulous type about his painting,” Elaine Callihan said. “It’s one of the skills he’s done all his life.”

So far, the team has cleaned and repainted about half of Chicora’s old hydrants. The newer hydrants added as part of the borough’s infrastructure improvement project, which can cost as much as $1,500 to install, don’t need cleaning at this point, Craig said.

Two weeks ago Callihan’s team got some extra help from the county’s community service program, which sent several people to aid the project.

One participant, David Bracken of Manorville, liked working with Callihan so much he begged to be asked back.

Bracken, who is performing one and a half weeks of community service as part of a DUI sentence, said he used to be a volunteer firefighter himself.

Bracken served in Natrona Heights and enjoyed the rush of responding to structure fires the most. The experience left him with an understanding of how important Callihan’s project is to many volunteer firefighters.

“Everybody’s always nice and respectful, and I like getting outside and staying active,” Bracken said when asked why he requested to come back.

Elaine Callihan said her husband’s initiative has her hoping more people help out. There’s been talk of looking for volunteers to help paint curbs throughout the borough as well.

“It’s tough. People, they don’t see the value in the volunteer,” she said. “But I don’t care who they are or what they volunteer for, they bring so much brightness and joy to the community and the world.”