Lisle bridge work could end parade plan

Lisle might have to celebrate the Fourth of July without a parade this year.

Eyes to the Skies organizers are expected to decide Wednesday whether to cancel the festival’s parade for 2011 because of a planned reconstruction of Lisle’s Short Street bridge, which is part of the usual parade route.

“No one wants to cancel the parade,” said Roger Leone, the Eyes to the Skies festival chairman. “But if no group comes forward to have it, then it will be canceled for one year.”

Lisle officials said Monday that the nearly $1 million project to replace the bridge just west of Route 53 is slated to begin March 30 and continue to mid-September.

The bridge, which has been scheduled to be replaced for several years, spans the East Branch of the DuPage River between the Lisle Police Department and Lisle High School.

The bridge work will be done by Romeoville-based Herlihy Mid-Continent Company at a total cost of $961,032. Officials said the village will pay 20 percent of that cost with the remaining 80 percent coming from the Federal Highway Bridge Program.

With the bridge closed to both pedestrian and vehicular traffic, a detour will be set up along Route 53, Maple Avenue, Yackley Avenue and Ohio Street.

During Eyes to the Skies on July 1-3, visitors will need to use a pedestrian bridge to enter the festival from the east.

As for the Fourth of July parade, it would have to find an alternative location. The procession usually moves down Short Street, from Ohio Court to just east of the bridge.

Leone said one possibility that’s been talked about is moving the parade to Main Street in downtown Lisle. Still, he stressed a group is needed to plan and organize the parade. So far, no work has been done to line up parade entries.

“The minute we knew that we couldn’t do it in the park, people got mentally lazy about it,” said Leone, adding the parade usually includes antique vehicles, fire trucks and marching bands from area schools.

If the parade skips a year, Leone said he doesn’t believe it would lead to the end of the longtime tradition.

“It would just be a one-year break,” he said. “The parade will be back.”