New ads feature city’s ‘stout single’

These fliers were recently put up in neighborhoods like Jamaica Plain and more
are expected to go up this week in other city areas.

If you’re in a local coffee shop or business this week you might see some bizarre fliers on the community bulletin board: “Stout single … 2’8’’, 150 pounds,” reads the description on one flier, which comes with a detachable portion directing people to a website.

They’re not ads for romance, but they do seek out caring Bostonians.

The fliers are part of a new effort by the city to reach residents and draw attention to its recent online venture www.adoptahydrant.com.

The website allows neighborhood residents to “adopt” a fire hydrant for the winter and commit to shoveling it out. It was an issue last year when city workers had to shovel out as many of the 13,000 hydrants that they could. Because the responsibility of shoveling out the hydrants doesn’t fall to anyone in particular, unlike sidewalks, the snow-covered lifelines became an issue.

This year the city is looking to get ahead of any issues by launching the program. While it’s based online, officials said they turned to the fliers as a way to reach residents while avoiding technology overload.