NATCHEZ, Miss. – Aldermen approved the purchase Tuesday of decorative lights for the Mississippi River bridges with state funds provided in 2022 that would be taken away if not used soon.
“We are under a time limit to spend this money or it goes back,” said Mayor Dan Gibson.
Facing a deadline to spend all of the $500,000 the Mississippi Legislature appropriated to Natchez three years ago for illuminating the two bridges, the Board of Aldermen agreed to buy LED bulbs from a Jackson-based supplier for nearly $283,000. Other expenses have already been paid for engineering and design work.
“This will allow us now to go back to the Legislature and request for assistance in the installation costs,” Gibson said.
The Mississippi Legislature is holding a special session today to fund state government, but it’s unlikely any money would be earmarked for the bridge-lighting project now. The Legislature will not reconvene until January for its annual regular session.
Gibson expressed hopes the Louisiana Legislature will also allocate funds for fully illuminating the bridges. That state assembly is in session until June 12.
“We never give up. People thought it couldn’t be done. Wait for it to happen,” Gibson said of his pet bridge-illumination project.
Some engineering and design work has been done for the new bridge-lighting display, which is a scaled-down rendition of the special-effect, multicolored luminosity Gibson earlier envisioned at an estimated cost of more than $5 million.
The revised plan calls for lights to be placed on the north side of the bridge exiting Natchez and the south side of the one coming from Vidalia. Lights might also be placed on the bridges’ piers.
Necessary permits have been granted from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Coast Guard, which regulate structures and navigation on the Mississippi River. The lights would be dimmer to ensure they aren’t too bright and not interfere with birds’ flight paths during their migration seasons.
Alderman Curtis Moroney and others had some concerns about this–
“Some people will say why on earth are we buying these lights if we have no way of putting them up?”
Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/live/jh4m66Up9aM?si=uqHuW-2ANQK4vax1&t=3500
Good questions! So, why did they all vote for it?
I think this is a waste of money and the lights will deteriorate in storage before we get the $5 million in order to put the lights up all because the Mayor doesn’t want to send the money back (we make interest money off of the deposit), even though he knows the bridge lighting project will never happen and should send the money back.