Road sign incident could net prison time for pranksters

By Laura Schiermeier, Staff Writer
Posted 1/22/20

There were a number of people who were trying to figure out where on the Maries River was the bridge located that was featured on the front page of this publication last week. It was not a trick, …

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Road sign incident could net prison time for pranksters

Posted

There were a number of people who were trying to figure out where on the Maries River was the bridge located that was featured on the front page of this publication last week. It was not a trick, although it was the work of pranksters.

The Advocate’s Jan. 15, 2020 edition had a fine “Snow, flooding all at the same time” photograph on the top section of the front page that showed a truck crossing a bridge with high water near the bridge deck and of snow covering the land in the foreground and on the levy across the river. It also had a sign saying, “Maries River” although the photo cutline indicated it was the Gasconade River at the Highway 42 bridge, which is located just east of Vienna.

The photo was taken by Jacob Warden who later said he thought, “Something was off with that.”

He was not the only one as this reporter was questioned about it by a reader while at a meeting on Wednesday, asking if it had been photo-shopped because the local people knew it was the Highway 42 East bridge over the Gasconade River because of the levy on the east side at Indian Ford.

At Thursday’s Maries County Commission meeting, Presiding Commissioner Victor Stratman questioned this reporter about it and Western District Commissioner Ed Fagre said the Maries River sign was wrong and it had been that way for a couple of weeks.

The Advocate reached out to Meramec Area Engineer Preston Kramer who contacted MoDOT’s Dirk Honeycutt about it. Honeycutt said they’ve been working on this signage issue as apparently “vandals have been working way too hard” and had stolen some Maries River signs and taken down the Gasconade River signs and put up the Maries River signs in their place. They threw the Gasconade River signs down over the bank. These were retrieved “or this would have been an even more expensive night of fun,” Honeycutt said.

MoDOT has been busy dealing with a recent winter event and drainage issues from heavy rain and didn’t get the right signs up until last Wednesday. They were not able to recover all of the signs that were removed or stolen over the past few weeks. He said they will order signs and continue to replace and repair them as needed. He verified the one on the Highway 42 E bridge near Vienna over the Gasconade River is now correct.

The Maries County Prosecuting Attorney’s office said if the sheriff’s office caught the pranksters/vandals damaging or destroying road signage charges would be filed.  If the cost to repair or replace the signs exceeded $750, it is a class E felony that carries a range of punishment of up to four years in the Missouri Department of Corrections. If the cost is less than $750, it would be a class B misdemeanor, which has a range of punishment of up to six months in the county jail and/or a fine of up to $1,000.