@BlixGoblin @asabaida @ippigThere seem to be a few different buggy problems with it. Sometimes it's all fine, sometimes the meter doesn't work properly (or there isn't one at all) but you can still find the gnome because the pile & its green column of light are there and other times it's hopeless because the pile isn't there at all.
Earlier this morning I had the broken meter & no pile. I eventually tried reloading Giddy Park & after waiting a few minutes the Trolley Target range popped up (the event before Gnome Knight).
I completed that, waited another 5-10 minutes & the gnome event came up & everything was ok this time.
Don't know if it was pot luck, or whether reloading the park helped, but it might be worth trying??
(Note: my park is always private with AIs)