AUBURN — A sign identifying the Auburn side of the Bernard Lown Peace Bridge was knocked down last week, but police don’t suspect foul play.

“There was some work going on at a parking lot nearby, and it looks like the sign was just knocked over,” Auburn Police Chief Phil Crowell said Wednesday. “It looks like it was an accident, not like someone meant to do anything.”

Crowell said the Auburn Public Works Department was alerted Friday that the sign had been damaged. Public Works crews took the sign to their shop until state Department of Transportation crews could come out and install a new pole for the sign.

“They need to get Dig Safe out to check the area because they need to bury a brand-new post,” Crowell said. He said he expected the sign to be back up early next week.

The bridge, formerly Lewiston-Auburn’s South Bridge, was rechristened in 2008 to honor 1985 Nobel Peace Prize winner Bernard Lown. A former Lewiston resident, Lown went on to work against nuclear proliferation and to invent the defibrillator.

One of the men who led that effort, Auburn’s Allen Harvie, noticed the missing sign Monday and notified police and other city officials.

“I think he was worried that it was some sort of vandalism, but it wasn’t,” Crowell said. “It looks like it was just an accident.”

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