AUGUSTA -- The names of two scholarship awards offered to Augusta-area students changed within weeks of each other in 2008. In 2009, the name of a downtown bridge could follow.

Rep. Patsy Crockett, D-Augusta, has filed a bill proposing to rename the city's Father John J. Curran Bridge. The downtown fixture, under Crockett's proposal, would become the Calumet Bridge at Old Fort Western.

The bridge is named for the Rev. John J. Curran, the St. Augustine Church priest who died in 1976 and was posthumously accused of sexually abusing children.

"I think people can find something in the name that sort of fits Augusta," Crockett said.

In "Calumet," Crockett said, the bridge will recognize Augusta's Franco-American heritage. The nod to Old Fort Western, the historic landmark located by the bridge's eastern end, acknowledges Augusta's English origins.

"It's such a treasure," Crockett said of Old Fort Western. "We're lucky to have it."

The bid to rename the bridge, which connects downtown Augusta with the city's east side, gained momentum in July when Augusta city councilors unanimously backed a resolution urging legislators to rename the bridge.