Prospects brighten to illuminate Rainbow Bridge

Turning 60 could mean brighter nights – if not brighter days – are ahead for iconic Rainbow Bridge.

Town officials are again weighing options to light the much photographed, though faded, orange Skagit County span that links La Conner and Fidalgo Island.

The bridge, opened amid much hoopla 59 years ago this month, but in recent years has remained dark after nightfall.

That could change in the future.

More and more folks, including County Commissioner Ron Wesen, are seeing the light, so to speak, when it comes to Rainbow Bridge illumination.

“We have to maximize what we have,” explains La Conner Mayor Ramon Hayes, a downtown business owner. “Many people view the bridge as one of our more underutilized assets. Lighting the bridge is something that, like the boardwalk, can be good first and foremost for our residents and also good for business.”

Hayes told Town Council members last week that a basic illumination project could be realized for as little as $1,500 to $2,000, and be up and ready for next year’s anticipated 60th anniversary celebration.

Hayes said he has already received a pledge of $500 from anonymous donors to start work.

But, of course, it may not be quite that easy.

Skagit County retains jurisdiction of the bridge and thus an agreement between it and the Town addressing liability and maintenance issues would be in order, Hayes says.

Still, he has reason to be optimistic.

“Commissioner Wesen is supportive of the concept at this point,” says Town Administrator John Doyle, “but what’s going to have to happen is an exact proposal needs to be put forward.”

That, Hayes says, could happen within the next few weeks.

While lights have previously been strung across the arches of Rainbow Bridge, a long-term suggestion going forward is that a set of scopes or arms bearing lights be attached from the railings to reduce protracted maintenance costs.

Business owner Don Scott and Denny “The Roof Doctor” Barker have hung lights on Rainbow Bridge in the past. Scott headed the effort for nearly a decade and would like to see the bridge lit once again.

He told Town officials in June that hotel-motel tax revenue was utilized to jump-start bridge lighting in the mid-90s and that he covered the cost of replacing old bulbs.

Any new project, Doyle notes, would have to comply with present state Labor & Industries safety mandates.

It’s also likely that funding would have to be funneled through a foundation or special surrogate entity since the bridge, though historically identified with La Conner, is not Town property.

The actual fundraising, says Town Councilman Bill Bruch, should cause little heartburn.

“It wouldn’t be a big deal,” he said last week, “to raise $1,500 or $2,000 for this.”

In Hayes’ view, it would be money well spent.

“The numbers don’t lie,” he says. “Last year was a banner year for us in terms of sales tax revenue. We went back to 2007 levels, before the crash. But we still have to maximize what we have.”

Rainbow Bridge opened in July 1957 and was formally dedicated at a ceremony whose participants included Town and Swinomish Tribal Community representatives. Of them, Milo Moore, Ralph Nelson, Ray Charles, and H.E. “Red” Reynolds returned to observe the bridge’s 30th anniversary in the summer of 1987.

It was the recently deceased civic leader and former Mayor Fred Martin who led a successful local drive to retain the bridge’s orange primer color rather than have a standard green finish applied.

Now another chapter in the bridge’s colorful story might soon be written.

“We would be able to colorize the illumination,” Hayes says, looking ahead, “and we may be able to do both sides of the bridge for the amount of money we’re talking about.”