Council OKs contract for new wayfinding signs

Public meeting on salary study set for June 14

Samples of the wayfinding signage approved by the City Council
Samples of the wayfinding signage approved by the City Council

New wayfinding signs will start to be placed around Jefferson City in the next few months, but not everyone is happy with the plan.

At the Jefferson City Council meeting Monday, council members approved a contract with Fercon Construction, out of Jefferson City, to install wayfinding signs in downtown and from the Katy Trail head in North Jefferson City to the Wears Creek greenway trailhead at Dunklin Street, by a vote of 8-2, with 1st Ward Councilman Jim Branch and 4th Ward Councilman Carlos Graham voting against the bill. The contract with Fercon Construction is for $210,772.

The signs are part of a regional wayfinding plan, which seeks to help visitors and residents locate districts, landmarks and other venues in town through signs and informational kiosks. Last year, the city was awarded $214,000 in grant funds from the Transportation Alternatives Program to implement a wayfinding plan, "including fabrication and installation of wayfinding signage for downtown Jefferson City and from the Katy Trail leading into Jefferson City."

The plan also includes three signs on Lafayette Street - one at East McCarty Street, one at High Street and one at Capitol Avenue. As it stands now, the plan would have the two signs on East McCarty Street and High Street classified as being in the east side district, with a small heading at the top stating that. But the sign on Capitol Avenue will have a heading of downtown, which does not sit well with the East Side Business Association.

Donna Deetz, representing the association, said several city plans and documents cite Lafayette Street as being part of the city's east side and they would like to see it represented that way.

"I know this sounds like a small issue to you all," Deetz said, adding that it's an important issue to those who invested in that area and those who are interested in city history. "It was the east side and we want to keep it that way."

Public Works Director Matt Morasch said the consultant who assisted with the wayfinding plan tried to classify areas as best possible, with lots of public input, but Lafayette Street is something of a district boundary. In the case of a boundary, Morasch said the consultant looks at the information on the sign, like the locations it's pointing to. 

If most of those are located downtown, it's classified as downtown.

In discussions, some council members questioned what the process would be to change the signs later, noting that the area might one day be called something like prison redevelopment area. Second Ward Councilman Rick Mihalevich said it's a 99 percent great project and he'd like to see what can be done to address the concerns.

"I respect the process it's gone through," Mihalevich said. "But there is a community we answer to."

Fifth Ward Councilman Larry Henry said the current plan is a compromise between the East Side Business Association and the Downtown Association and it's important to keep in mind that the signs are primarily for tourists.

"There's also a thing called compromise," Henry said. "Now this is where we are."

The total cost of the project was projected to be $267,500, and the grant funds cover 80 percent. The majority of the 20 percent local match has been provided by several groups, including Capital Region Medical Center, the Jefferson City Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Discover Jefferson City Foundation, Downtown Jefferson City, the East Side Business Association, the Historic City of Jefferson and the parking division of the city.

But a portion of that money has already been used on the consultant contract to design the project and other project expenses, such as advertising. Because of that, $16,717 will be taken from half-cent capital improvement sales tax funds to complete the project.

Morasch said the signs are expected to be installed by winter.

In other business, City Administrator Steve Crowell announced a public meeting will be held next week on the city's classification and compensation study.

Last month, the council approved a contract with Kansas-based Austin Peters Group Inc. to do a comprehensive classification and compensation study on city positions for just under $39,000.

An open meeting to seek input and allow people to learn about the process will be held at 5 p.m. June 14, followed by a 5:30 p.m. City Council work session on the same topic.

The city's last outside study of employee salaries, which was done in 2003, found they were compensated below the average of other state organizations and gave four different plans to address the issue. At the beginning of 2004, city officials adopted the plan with the least financial impact, which still had a cost of more than $350,000 to implement.

The current study is expected to be finished in time to be incorporated into discussions on the 2017 budget, which generally happen in mid-summer through early fall.