Duluth city officials say they will now be lighting the Aerial Lift Bridge in support of Ukraine, a reversal from a previous decision.
LED lighting installed on the Lift Bridge in 2020 allows the bridge to be lit in different colors, a practice the city used several times in 2020 first “to spread joy” during the early days of the pandemic and later to honor health care workers and high school and college graduates.
But the city said in a news release Monday that the reason for installing the LED lighting was to save on energy costs and not to change colors.
The city had announced in April 2020 that it would not take requests to light the bridge.
In 2013, years before the LED lighting was installed, the city council passed a resolution that established a procedure for people to request alterations for bridge lighting. The city says the current administration has determined that the process is outdated now that the new lights have been installed.
Meanwhile, the city has honored requests to light Enger Tower various colors since the Rotary Club of Duluth donated money to install a new lighting system in 2011. The city now says it will honor all existing 2022 lighting requests for Enger Tower but will stop taking new requests until it adopts a lighting policy, which will include only Enger and not the Lift Bridge.
