Ritter Park's pink bridge

On my way in to work this morning I had to swing by Ritter Park and take a look at the pink bridge. For those who came in late:

Officials of the Greater Huntington Park and Recreation District were surprised to hear a 26-year-old Huntington man was painting one of their bridges pink. Jason Sansom thought he was performing a public service. The bridge needed a new coat of paint. Park district officials have talked about how they don't have much money for maintenance. So Sansom bought a few gallons of masonry paint and proceeded to paint the bridge pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

But Sansom didn't get the park district's permission first. He has been ordered to repaint the bridge white. The park district chooses colors of its structures, and it wants its masonry bridges to be white, apparently.

The bridge crosses Fourpole Creek near 12th Street. It's over by the tennis courts. It looks a lot better now with Sansom's $50 worth of pink paint than it did before.

"I walk by that bridge four times a week and the west side hasn't been painted in the past five years, so I volunteered myself to do it, but I had no agenda to cause any trouble," Sansom said in today's The Herald-Dispatch. "I thought I would just get in, get out, and not get caught."

Okay, the park district has a good point. People shouldn't just take it upon themselves to paint public property. But what can we expect when the park district cries poverty and people want to do good deeds?

The park district is right, but it should keep the bridge pink anyway. It looks better than it did, and it's a good conversation piece. It's not a tourist attraction by any means, but it gives us something to think about when we drive past.

Now the park district has an opportunity to let people help make the parks better by doing community service. If that means painting bridges pink or whatever the color of the month is, why not?