A lighted “Season’s greetings” sign that had been placed on a footbridge spanning Torrey Pines Road in La Jolla during past holiday periods has a new sponsor and unanimous support from the La Jolla Shores Association board. But whether it gets hung in time for this years holidays is up in the air.

The La Jolla Village Merchants Association decided in October that it would no longer put up the sign, saying it wanted to allocate its budget toward other decorations and enhancements.

Since then, the Kiwanis Club of La Jolla has offered to continue the tradition, thanks partly to money raised by its La Jolla Half Marathon and La Jolla Shores 5K event this year.

“The Kiwanis Club earned about triple the amount of money we usually make on the half marathon, so we have about a half-million dollars that we’re going to give away this year,” Kiwanis representative Glen Rasmussen said.

But hope of hanging the banner before the holidays depends on the status of an encroachment maintenance and removal agreement with the city of San Diego. Such an agreement grants city permission to encroach into the public right of way with private installations at the sole cost, risk and responsibility of the applicants.

If the Kiwanis Club is permitted to put up the banner, its focus would shift to securing new lighting fixtures and installing the sign.

Historically, the merchants association had paid for installation, maintenance and removal of the sign. However, it had been done without a permit and the bridge is not in the La Jolla Business Improvement District or the LJVMA banner district but rather is in the La Jolla Shores banner district.

The twofold issue of possibly needing a permit and the bridge being outside its jurisdiction led LJVMA to question whether it should continue to provide the sign, as did concerns about cost and liability.