WATERVILLE (AP) — A bronze plaque that’s been missing from a Waterville bridge for decades has been recovered.

The 2-by-3-foot plaque reads, “Thayer Memorial Bridge, Erected 1934 by City of Waterville Civil Works Administration and Emergency Relief Administration, Hon. L. Eugene Thayer, administrator and mayor.”

It refers to former Mayor Lorenzo Eugene Thayer, who died September 1934, at 51 and is the only city mayor to have died in office.

The plaque was turned in anonymously a few weeks ago by someone who found it while razing a house.

A little research determined that it was once attached to what’s known as the Gilman Street bridge.

Police told the Morning Sentinel (http://bit.ly/1J55QHq ) it may have been stolen in the 1960s or ’70s.

The plan now is to put the plaque back where it belongs.