The Lennoxville Borough Council is asking the community to dust off its sleuthing skills after the one half of the “Lennoxville” sign at 150 Queen Street has gone missing.
“The veterans’ park out here has been completely redone, but in order to do it we had to take down our Lennoxville sign,” explained Borough President David Price, “during the weekend half of it disappeared.”
The sign is meant to be composed of two panels mounted facing north and south along Queen Street, but right now only the north-facing side appears as it should.
“We’re very, very disappointed,” Price said. “We want to keep that sign there.”
The Borough President explained that the sign had been refurbished in recent years by the Lennoxville Residents’ Association (LRA) after the city of Sherbrooke refused to pay for its upkeep.
“Sherbrooke’s plan is that when that sign is finished, they’re not going to put any money into it,” Price said, noting that the city prefers to keep with its unified signage. “Speaking just for myself, I don’t like Sherbrooke’s signage; it does not fit in this area,” he continued. “The carved sign that we had there, that is Lennoxville.”
Tim Belford, a member of the LRA, shared that the significance of maintaining the sign lies in the fact that it dates back to before the community’s amalgamation with Sherbrooke in 2002.
“That’ll probably be the end of it all then,” Belford said, when told about the theft.
“It’s very, very unfortunate,” Price said, adding that he also had to replant several flowers that had been torn out of the beds around the borough office and thrown into the street last Saturday night.
The majority of the park beside the borough office is under camera surveillance, but Price said that the missing sign lies just outside of the camera’s field of vision. The borough has put in a request for cameras on the front of the building, in part to help improve security at the nearby crosswalk, but that request has yet to be granted.
“It’s not something you could pick up and walk away with in your pocket,” Price said. “Whoever walked with it had to be very visible.”
Anyone with information regarding the missing sign is encouraged to contact the Lennoxville Borough Office at 819 569-9388.
