NEDERLAND — There were several controversial decades-long legacy projects that I had to dive into as a newcomer covering Nederland news for The Mountain-Ear five years ago. 

Big Springs emergency egress, downtown redevelopment plans, the Cross and Caribou Mines, Nederland’s Annexation Policy and the Bobcat Ridge development—and the Nederland Downtown Development Authority’s (NDDA) Wayfinding project. 

The project involved the design and installation of informational signage throughout Nederland’s main tourist corridor that would indicate shopping and parking opportunities in an effort to promote foot traffic to local businesses. 

Wayfinding has been heavily scrutinized by the public over the years, in part because of the community’s demonization of most tourism-based initiatives. The majority of the public’s dissatisfaction stems from the NDDA using their tax fund-based budget to hire a non-local design firm, as well as a non-local company to fabricate and install the signs. 

The design firm Merje, and Ohio-based construction company Geograph Inc., were hired by the NDDA by a vote of the Board during public monthly meetings. The Wayfinding budget, which at one point was set at $400,000, was also discussed and approved by vote of the Authority during public meetings. 

I first reported on the Wayfinding project in my very first article for The Mountain-Ear, covering the NDDA meeting on January 12, 2022, during which Board members voted to table a vote regarding Merje’s proposed budgets for the next phases of the project. This was due to a lack of public input and concern about the scope of the project. 

On Tuesday, May 5, 2026, work crews were spotted beginning the final steps to the last stage of the long-awaited, much-maligned signage initiative. 

Over the next few weeks, crews from Ohio-based company Geograph Inc. will be installing signs, maps, and kiosks at specific locations throughout Nederland's tourist corridor.

Photo by Christopher Kelley

NDDA Executive Director Kate Masingale detailed to The Mountain-Ear that Geograph’s crews were installing some of the smaller signs that would be less affected by the coming storm, and bolstering and preparing the areas where stone is required to be set for some of the more elaborate kiosks and area map signage. 

Continue to follow The Mountain-Ear for more details on the history and financial reality of this project, on the voices who jeer the influx of more invasive signs and the tourists who read them, on the voices who cheer the potential for more sales tax revenue for the Town, and on the updates as the Wayfinding project comes to its final result.