First disturbance more than a month before official start of 2024 Atlantic Hurricane SeasonPainting rain barrels for a good cause
Purple LED lights can be seen at nighttime on Midpoint Bridge. They are unintentional and part of a bad batch of LED lights that other cities nationwide have also purchased. The company responsible is expected to replace them free of charge. Credit: WINK News. A purple glow shining along the Midpoint Bridge that connects Fort Myers with Cape Coral has caught the attention of drivers. Lee County says these lights are a part of a bad batch of LED lights distributed nationwide. “I don’t remember when I noticed it but when I noticed it, I thought it looked really cool,” Mary Macchiaroli said. “I like it.” “I just thought it was kind of different, and then, the kids that I was taking back and forth were telling me, ‘No, they’re blue. No, they’re purple. No, they’re blue!’” Danielle Bengston said. Midpoint Bridge is not the only place where drivers are seeing purple. Street lights around Greenville, South Carolina and in some other cities are shining the same color “I thought maybe it was like they weren’t working properly at first,” Macchiaroli said. The company to blame for the bad lights will replace all 115 of them free of charge to taxpayers, but the two drivers we spoke to told us they wouldn’t mind keeping the purple theme. “I think it’s sort of a softer ambient light,”” Macchiaroli said. “Better than the glaring yellow-orange lights that were there before.” “It’s just something cool to look at actually, a different color,” Bengston said. Lee County says it has spent years replacing inefficient lights with new LED lights to save energy and taxpayer dollars. Those lights do have a “cool blue” glow. Lee County Department of Transportation will replace 75 of the bad lights on Midpoint Bridge during the first week of May, and it will complete the rest of the replacements when it receives more from the company.