Graffiti mars the state line

Ron and Pam love each other.

How do we know?

They wrote it on the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge.

Like a bathroom stall, picnic table or high school locker, the iconic bridge linking Omaha and Council Bluffs is a graffiti magnet.

After the bridge opened in September 2008, the marker messages were limited to bridge railings and benches, said Brook Bench, Omaha's park maintenance manager.

But a new target has been found: the black line that was sandblasted into the concrete path over the summer, showing where Nebraska and Iowa meet. The line now is the meeting place for names such as Brianne, Charlene and Megan.

When told by The World-Herald on Monday about the graffiti on the concrete path and curbs, Bench replied: “Oh, great.”

“They haven't been doing that on the concrete itself,” he said. “Our goal in life is to make (the bridge) graffiti-free. We're trying to stay up on it and discourage it.”

The graffiti was cleaned off today with a power washer.

Graffiti isn't the only vandalism to strike the 3,000-foot bridge. Vandals kicked out about 150 glass plates on the lights lining the bridge path. Earlier this year, the lights were fitted with metal plates to make them harder to break.

Parks Director Steve Scarpello said the city has considered placing security cameras on the bridge. But the big questions, he said, are where the cameras would be mounted and how much such a system would cost.

“Obviously it's crossed my mind,” Scarpello said. “We haven't ruled it out, but we're estimating (the cost) between $75,000 and $100,000.”

Funding would come from a bridge maintenance fund set aside by Omaha and Council Bluffs. Leaders in both cities would have to sign off on installing them.

Cameras already monitor the bridge plaza on the Omaha side, to ensure that the plaza's art and landscaping aren't disturbed.

Private fundraising paid for that equipment. The cameras are monitored by the 24-hour security desk at City Hall.

The city strives to remove graffiti as soon as it's spotted, Bench said. Cleaning graffiti is a daily task during the summer.

“We don’t want that to start,” he said. “We don’t want that (bridge) to be a big ‘I love ... .’”

Omaha had a worker assigned to bridge cleaning during the summer, but with cooler weather and budget cuts, one person now monitors city property along the entire riverfront, not just the bridge, Bench said.

Duane Chunka of Bellevue, who regularly walks the bridge with his wife, Mary, had noticed the broken lights and the city's efforts to clean up graffiti. A security system may be a good idea, he said.

“It's a nice-looking monument there — you want to keep it that way,” he said.

Gayle Malmquist, president of Back to the River, said keeping the bridge clean is a high priority. The nonprofit group helped raise private funds for the $22 million project. Federal money covered $19 million.

“We have lots and lots of visitors there, and we need to present a good face for both of our communities,” Malmquist said.

Although the graffiti seems to be of the “sweet” teen variety, Malmquist said there's no place for it on the bridge.

One message reads: “I swear that I Will Always Love U.”

Malmquist and other leaders can't say the same about the graffiti.

Contact the writer:

444-1149, tom.shaw@owh.com