(Source: MIRS.news, Published 02/20/2025) The Mackinac Bridge will have a special "key facility" status under legislation by Sen. John Damoose (R-Harbor Springs), making it a $2,500, four-year felony to climb up its structures without permission. 

Right now in Michigan, such facilities include chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing sites, hazardous waste storage locations and electric utility premises. Specifically, it focuses on facilities enclosed by physical barriers against pedestrian access and surrounded by signs.  

Thursday, Damoose's SB 71 received testimony in the Senate Civil Rights, Judiciary and Public Safety Committee meeting.  

It is linked to a November 2020 trespassing incident that the Mackinac Bridge Authority (MBA) flagged upon discovering social media photos from the top of the bridge's south tower. The bridge's main towers are 552 feet tall.  

At the beginning of that month, two alarms were activated within several hours of one another. After local law enforcement couldn't find the person at the time, Ohio resident Issac KENDALL Wright was arrested and charged with a trespassing felony in February 2021. 

According to MBA Director Kim Nowack, who's served in the role since 2002, he trespassed in the "dark of night" from the Mackinaw City area, moving to the bridge's suspended portion to climb up the tower. However, she said when the MBA brought the issue to the courts in Cheboygan County, the judge ruled that the bridge couldn't use the key facility statute against him "mainly because we were not totally enclosed." 

"We were enclosed by water on two sides, by our toll facility on the north, but we were open on the south, and so that was the reason that she felt the key facility bill didn't apply to us," Nowack said.  

The MBA's recourse was to have Kendall Wright charged with a $250, 30-day misdemeanor, but he had already spent more than 30 days in jail "because he was also wanted in several other states for similar crimes."  

Although a settlement was landed on through a civil lawsuit – dealing with individual disputes instead of lawbreaking – Nowack expressed still wanting the seriousness of the crime brought forward.  

"He didn't use those pictures and videos in his own family photo album. He took that opportunity to broadcast those all over the world because he is an acclaimed climber," Nowack said. "A year or so after that, we had two copycat incidents of two separate individuals…they were caught way before they got anywhere onto the bridge and were prosecuted using a misdemeanor charge."  

She said a $250 fine is very small.  

Similar legislation to make the Mackinac Bridge, as well as any of Michigan's movable bridges – like the MacArthur Bridge going to Belle Isle in Detroit – and international crossings key facilities passed in the Republican-led House in February 2022, with six no-votes. However, the past legislation was not voted on by the Senate.  

Alongside Nowack was Patrick "Shorty" Gleason, chair of the MBA. In the past, Gleason was a journeyman ironworker, installing steel and iron structures. He said quite often in his trades career, he's seen people freeze in scenarios they're not familiar with.  

"If you can only imagine, somebody going up that main cable and (freezing)…when you drive across that Mackinac Bridge, the natural beauty of it itself can be distracting," Gleason said. "Can you imagine if an individual actually froze on that main cable and had to be brought down or escorted down?"  

He considers such a scenario as a "very unsafe" situation that could become a reality someday.  

Damoose's SB 71 has been backed by Northern Michigan's Native American community, as the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians wrote that they have assured the change wouldn't interfere with their culture.   

"We agree that identifying Michigan's bridges as key facilities is critical to deterring trespassing and keeping the connection between our two peninsulas safe," said Austin Lowes, the tribe's chair.  

In December 2024, there were 232,689 bridge crossings, with crossings for that month alone growing from 211,803 in December 2021.