St. Albert council unanimously approved an additional $102,000 to power the coloured lights on the children's bridge, bringing the capital project total up to $210,000.
The project was originally approved in 2024 as part of the city's repair and maintenance plans, with $108,000 being approved for undercarriage lighting, 'up' accent lighting and pedestrian walkway lighting on the Children's Bridge. But the original scope of the project did not include power to the bridge, as they had planned to align with the Millennium Park construction "for greater efficiency."
With Millennium Park no longer proceeding, additional funds were required to be able to get power to the bridge. The project would also help expand power availability by providing power on the north side of the bridge. City administration said there is power pretty close to the bridge on the south side, but that having another source helps considerably.
"There are other benefits in actually funding this because it's not only just lighting up the bridge, which is an icon, it will also potentially service other events that we host down on the river valley," Coun. Ken MacKay said.
The lighting would change colour in recognition of special events or milestones. MacKay said the bridge speaks to St. Albert's downtown vibrancy.
"This is an iconic structure in our community," MacKay said. "When you see a picture of St. Albert, you also usually see a picture of the Children's Bridge. And it would be really important, I think, to actually have the additional feature of having lights on that bridge and how it could be integrated with all the festivals that we currently have in our community."
He added that there could also be an additional safety component to the lighting, as the lights could be set to a bright white at night time to help guide pedestrians along the bridge.
Coun. Mike Killick said that if the project could help provide power to other festivals such as Rock'n August or Children's Fest, then it would be great from an environmental footprint standpoint.
Coun. Wes Brodhead called the decision a "no-brainer."
"We bought the lights. We need the power to run them," Brodhead said.
Coun. Natalie Joly was hesitant to support the motion, and said that the challenge was considering the funding in the greater context of other capital priorities.
"This is $200,000 for lights. We already spend $200,000 for lights for St. Albert Place. I can think of a lot of things that I'd like to do with half a million dollars of funds," Joly said.
