SPRINGFIELD – Mayor Domenic Sarno clearly couldn’t resist the joke. He told reporters and city officials gathered on April 26 to hear about the start of the city’s new wayfinding program, “Sorry I was a little late. If there was signage, I wouldn’t have gotten lost.”

The city unveiled the first step of a program that will place 46 permanent signs in the downtown area that will guide walkers to various city landmarks and attractions. Sarno picked one of the temporary signs near 1331 Main St. for the announcement.

That sign noted what direction to walk to find the Springfield Museum, City Hall and Symphony Hall, Riverfront Park and the Basketball hall of Fame. It also noted the approximate time it would take to walk to each location.

The permanent signs should accomplish two things according to the city’s Chief Development Officer Kevin Kennedy and Commissioner of Health and Human Services Helen Caulton Harris. From Kennedy’s viewpoint the directional signs will provide necessary information to the thousands of visitors the city will host when Union Station is operational later this year and MGM Springfield opens in the fall of 2018.

Caulton Harris said the signs will make downtown Springfield a more walkable environment. The more people walk the healthier they become, she added.

The program received $60,000 from a state Department of Public Health grant, which will pay for the consultants who will develop the final signs. The consultant, selected through a Request for Proposal process, is Applied Wayfinding, whom Principal Planner Scott Hanson called  “the gold standard” of the wayfinding industry.

Hanson said the consultant’s job of developing the signage and the locations will take three to four months and then the city will seek funding for the creation of the permanent system. The company will also be surveying people for their reactions to the system.

Got a comment about this story? Go to http://speakout.thereminder.com and let us know.