Soft white LED lighting soon will illuminate the bridge connecting Burlington to Illinois, and the Lightscape Committee has a plan to keep the lights on in perpetuity. 

The committee already has raised $500,000 to purchase 66, 170-watt light fixtures for the Great River Bridge, which now is dimly lit by 48, 400-watt fixtures. 

"You can hardly see it, especially the H part," committee member Donna Logan told Burlington City Council members on Monday. "The new LED lights will project up into the columns, so it will be lit up with soft LED lights."

Logan said the lights have been ordered and are expected to arrive this month, with a lighting ceremony at the Port of Burlington tentatively set for sometime in October.

The lighting around the bridge, initially purchased for about $250,000 in the 1990s, has been dim for some time, and fixtures have been damaged, in part by corrosion. 

"Our bridge, really, it's almost like it's on an oceanfront because we have so much salt on the roadways in the wintertime and then we have all the moisture coming from the river," committee member Ann Menke said. "The new fixtures actually are built for oceanfront property."

Mischief has also caused damage.

"Way back when in the old days, when people used to come back from Gulfport, they had a little game to see if people could throw their beer cans and hit a light fixture," Logan explained. "Unfortunately, they were very successful in doing that."

The lights, Logan said, will be set to automatically dim at 10 p.m., quelling concerns raised by councilwoman Lynda Murray about light pollution that may interfere with stargazing.

The committee also is working to raise money to start an endowment fund that will cover maintenance costs for the light fixtures well into the future.

"We don't want someone else to end up here again in 30 years," said Menke, who works as an accountant. "We want to make it so that you guys have the money to be able to replace bulbs, replace fixtures, fix fixtures, whatever kinds of things you might need there, so that's where the endowment fund comes in."

Menke explained that the endowment fund will be set up so that 4.5% of the money in it can be paid out to the city via a trust fund to be used on the bridge each year. 

The Lightscape Committee already raised about $37,000. Starting with $37,000 and assuming an 8.5% growth rate, by year 25, the fund would be worth $85,000, with $70,000 in a city trust fund designated for light fixture maintenance, Menke explained. 

Logan said the committee hopes to raise a total of between $150,000 and $200,000 for the endowment. 

The endowment will be held with the Community Foundation of Des Moines County. When the Lightscape Committee disbands, the Community Foundation's board of directors will control the endowment. 

City councilman Robert Critser expressed enthusiasm for the lighting project, as well as the committee's past efforts that resulted in the lighting of six historic churches, the Des Moines County Heritage Center and Majestic Estate. 

"One of the cool things about Burlington is when you're driving over from the Illinois side, we can already see all the church steeples and everything's lit up, so when you drive and you see that bridge and all the steeples and Burlington has this peaceful glow, it's neat," Critser said. "It feels kind of European. It looks like a destination, it looks like a place you're traveling to."

Critser asked whether colored lights will be considered, but Logan said the committee has settled on soft white lights to keep with the look of the existing lighting project. 

The committee plans to raise money to light Snake Alley in the future. 

Michaele Niehaus covers business, development, environment and agriculture for The Hawk Eye. She can be reached at mniehaus@thehawkeye.com.