The money is raised and ready to light the new Tacoma Narrows bridge.

All the project needs is a public agency to sponsor construction and installation of the project, then turn it over to the Department of Transportation.

That’s the word from Narrows BridgeLights.org, the volunteer group that’s been working to illuminate our twin suspension bridges.

A year ago, the group organized at an open meeting called by stalwarts Desa Gese Conniff and William Beecher. In the group are engineers, attorneys and experts in solar energy and superefficient lighting.

Members set two goals: to get funding to light both bridges in 2007, and to get the work done in 2008.

They’ve done remarkably well for 14 volunteers working without government backup.

They’ve met with scores of government and civic groups. They’ve won endorsements from Pierce County, the cities of Tacoma and Gig Harbor, the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers local, even the Sixth Avenue Business District.

They’ve earned, and measured, public support. Of the 1,400 people who filled out surveys on the day the bridge opened, only a handful said they did not want lights.

Opponents prefer a calm view of the bridge, worry about light pollution or don’t want to spend a penny more of public money on it.

Proponents loved the lights on the catwalks during construction. Lights, they say, would illuminate the bridges’ landmark status and draw sightseers.

With that support, NarrowsBridge Lights.org won a $1.5 million grant from the Puget Sound Economic Development Fund.

That’s enough to light the new bridge, but not the old, Conniff said.

“The committee has decided that we will go forward to light one bridge,” Conniff said. “We have the money.”

“We need a public agency to set it up for bids and see it through construction,” Beecher said. “We need an agency that will take this and run with it, then hand it over to the Department of Transportation.”

The DOT will take possession of the lights, just as it took possession of the bridge from Tacoma Narrows Constructors. It will operate and maintain them. Maintenance should cost no more than 32 hours of labor a year, according to DOT estimates. Electricity generated by solar panels feeding into the grid would more than pay for running LED lights, said committee member Richard Thompson aka Solar Richard.

The panels, which measure 11 by 14 feet, could be set up anywhere, provided there are no trees, he said. It could be a field, a park, a campus or the roof of an office building, and the panel could remain there for its 25-year life span.

If you have such a space, expect a call from Solar Richard. He’s looking for sites that are not in the shaded, forested rights of way near the bridge.

Meanwhile, the committee will be looking for a city, county or public department to sign for that $1.5 million and get the work going on the lights.

What might seem a natural sponsor – Tacoma Public Utilities – is begging off.

“We just don’t feel it’s our role to be the lead on this project,” said spokeswoman Chris Gleason. “I don’t know that perspective is going to change. We’re not in the lighting business. We’re in the power business.”

Still, she wishes them luck.

“This group is so passionate, and I so admire that,” she said.

It will be a travesty if no public agency steps forward.

That $1.5 million will not go back into taxpayers’ pockets. It will be spent somewhere.

It should be spent here, where people worked hard to raise it for a project that has such broad public support.

If we want it, it’s time to tell our elected officials to step up and take it for us.

It’s time to hit the phones, letters and e-mail.

Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677

kathleen.merryman@thenewstribune.com