Regular visitors to Meadowbrook Park in Prairie Village may have noticed something missing recently.
The sign marking “Mt. Meadowbrook,” which had sat atop a prominent hill in the park, was stolen last month, according to the Johnson County Park and Recreation District, which manages Meadowbrook Park.
The sign was a tongue-in-cheek homage to the park’s highest point, which was created when a giant mound of dirt was pushed into a pile during construction of Meadowbrook Park on the grounds of a former private golf club in 2018.
The “Mt. Meadowbrook” sign cheekily denoted the elevation as 970 feet. The man-made hill it sits on top of is a popular sledding destination in the winter.
Richard Smalley, marketing and communications manager with JCPRD, said officials discovered that the sign was missing on Monday, Sept. 27.
They guess it was likely take taken over that previous weekend.
Smalley said there are plans to replace the sign, hopefully by next spring.
The new sign, he said, will be made of steel instead of aluminum, which will allow JCPRD workers to anchor it more securely to the ground.
The bolts that connected the aluminum sign to the concrete were cut, which is how it was stolen, Smalley said. A steel will sign will be able to be embedded into concrete.
Smalley did not immediately respond to an additional request for comment about how common it is for park property to be stolen, nor how much a new sign will cost JCPRD.
When contacted by the Post, Prairie Village Police said they had not been made aware of the incident, and no reports regarding the theft of the sign had been filed with the department.
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