Fundraising underway to update bridge in Northern Kentucky

  • 2019-03-27
A GoFundMe campaign has been launched by the Newport Southbank Bridge Company (NSBC) to raise money for needed improvements of the Purple People Bridge, a bridge for pedestrians between Newport and Cincinnati.

The bridge is owned, operated, and maintained by the NSBC, a nonprofit organization. It is looking for support of a financial nature from the Northern Kentucky/Greater Cincinnati community, of which Southgate is a part, to repaint and take care of the bridge. The bridge was last repainted in 2003 and is now a faded purple color.

The goal of this capital campaign is to raise at least $1 million. NSBC is using sponsorships and partnerships with foundations, corporate citizens, philanthropic individuals to raise these funds. Banner printing can also be used throughout the area so that people become aware of such fundraising efforts and how they can make their donations.

President of the NSBC, Jackie Moreland, said that the misunderstanding in the community is that the city or state owns the bridge, but it is privately-owned. It is crucial, he added, to raise these funds to repair, repaint, and maintain the bridge so that it can remain open to the public.

The NSBC sponsors fundraising several events, including its fireworks on Labor Day, “Boom on the Bridge”, and its weekly concert series over the summer, which help to pay for some maintenance costs but these events are not enough to raise the needed funds for a major capital campaign.