The refurbished Mississippi River Bridge will lose a little luster when work is completed later this year.

Earlier this week, we learned the Mississippi Department of Transportation has deemed aesthetic lights that illuminated the twin spans to be beyond repair after they had been removed to accommodate bridge construction earlier this year.

Apparently, once removed, 70 percent of the lights were found to be in poor condition and repair work was deemed too expensive to undertake.

MDOT should have publicized the problems before simply making a choice for the community. As prominent of a landmark as the bridge is such a decision should have been made after a community discussion, not simply as an afterthought thrown into a press release.

MDOT did a wonderful thing when the bridge lights were added; the bridge’s beauty and grandeur became an integral part of the splendor of the city’s picturesque overlook.

MDOT has wiped that out without providing any estimate of what it would have taken to fix the lights. Ultimately, it seems, MDOT is taking the easy way out and simply doesn’t want to have to deal with the maintenance of the lights.

The lights were added to the bridge in 2009 at a cost of $3 million as an agreement between MDOT, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and the Town of Vidalia.

Vidalia provided the electricity to illuminate the span of lights that gave the twin spans a multi-million dollar glow, the loss of which will take away a bit of the Miss-Lou’s luster.

Perhaps area leaders can take a second look at the loss of that shine that made our area’s bridge spans stand out and consider alternate means of bringing back the luster.

Ultimately, however, we appreciate that what matters most is the stability and safety of the bridge.

However, it would be a shame to lose the brilliance of the bridge lights without at least discussing how it could be saved.