The symbolic “K” on Kanab’s K-hill was vandalized around the weekend of Kanab High School’s Homecoming game in early September, rendering the light fixtures around the K inoperable. The lighting of the K, now part of the Homecoming Game tradition for Kanab, was foregone as the lights were damaged.
According to Kane County Assistant Event Coordinator John Jacobs, “Someone has gone up there and actually pried the anchors off the steel troughs where the lights are seated. There’s broken wiring, bent metal, the lights are out … there was thousands of dollars’ worth of effort, joint between Garkane, Kane County, NAPA Auto Parts and a lot of man-hours invested, and now there’s no way to power on the K. Only a few small sections still light up.”
Due to some production flaws in the existing lights, county officials hope to recoup some costs of the installation and repairs via warranties.
“We’re hoping those warranties will pay for new lights,” says Jacobs, “but that process is still ongoing. If and when it does get repaired, there will be a trail cam up there, so if people are caught they can be cited with vandalism and destruction of county property. That K is the property of the people of Kanab and Kane County … It would be nice to catch the people who did it, we called the police, but more important is kids understanding what sort of damage this does so it doesn’t happen again.”
