Fort Erie to spend $360,000 on wayfinding signage

New signage will be able to point Fort Erie residents and tourists in the right direction.

The Town of Fort Erie has said it will spend money on a wayfinding program that will cost taxpayers about $360,000 between 2019 and 2021.

“We’re looking at installing about 350 to 400 signs,” said infrastructure services director Kelly Walsh.

The signs are intended to shed light on trails, parks, beaches and other tourism spots.

At a town hall meeting June 17, Kramer Design Associates presented its proposed wayfinding program. The firm was retained by the town last year to develop a wayfinding program to replace the existing one approaching 20 years in age.

Walsh said signs will be “green and black” and will “represent our forests and our water feature in Fort Erie,” and complement existing decorative structures in the community.

“A lot of the supporting features we have in town are black, from benches to decorative poles, which already have black as a background colour.”

The goal of the program is to enhance Fort Erie’s image as a destination, help people identify and connect places, encourage more walking and exploration in the community, boost the local economy through awareness, and provide a consistent, intuitive wayfinding network between destinations.

Walsh said the town created a stakeholder group — members of local business improvement areas, Greater Fort Erie Chamber of Commerce, town staff and Niagara Region — to gather comments about the design of the signage and where signs should be placed.

Signage for parks and beaches will be installed this year, directional roadway signs will be installed next year, and Friendship Trail signs will be installed in 2021.

There is now $70,000 in the wayfinding program budget, leaving about $290,000 to complete the project. The town will set aside that money in the 2020 and 2021 budgets.