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Sunday, November 24, 2002

By Lawrence Walsh, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Classic road questions often asked by impatient passengers confined in vehicles for extended periods of time:

"Are we there yet?"

"Where are we?"

A public-private partnership has an answer to the second question for those travelers trying to find their way along the two-lane back roads of southwestern Pennsylvania:

Look for the blue and white signs.

And look for the yellow circle, green triangles and blue bell-shaped logo of the Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau that sits atop some of the signs. The logo depicts the sun, mountains and rivers of that region. Although the sun can be fickle about making a daily appearance, the scenic mountains and rivers are always present.

The distinctive new signs, 224 in all, have been placed throughout Fayette, Somerset and Westmoreland counties and parts of Allegheny and Washington counties. The signs, which vary in height from 3 feet to 5 feet to 8 feet, were installed by Green Acres Contracting Co. of Scottdale.

Among other things, the signs welcome visitors to the Laurel Highlands, the Laurel Highlands Scenic Byway -- Routes 381 and 711 -- and the Historic National Road. The latter, Route 40, has a red, white and blue shield-style logo.

The goal of the new Wayfinding Sign program, which eventually will be in use statewide, is:

"To develop a systematic network of signs to efficiently and effectively guide the traveling public from major highway gateways to key attractions within the signing region with a minimum number of signs."

What a novel concept.

But why did it take five years?

The short answer is funding, rounding up participants, selling the concept to businesses large and small, design, development, implementation and installation.

The state Department of Community and Economic Development (CED) supplied $250,000 to the program. The Fay-Penn Economic Development Council (Fay-Penn) provided $500,000.

Participating businesses paid a one-time installation fee of $900 for a 3-foot-high sign, $1,125 for a 5-foot sign and $1,425 for an 8-foot sign. Businesses will pay a $225 annual renewal fee for each sign.

In addition to site-specific signs, the blue and white signs steer visitors to the trailheads of the Great Allegheny Passage bike trail, whitewater rafting in Ohiopyle and skiing at Hidden Valley, Laurel Mountain, Mystic Mountain and Seven Springs.

Michael Ryan, PennDOT's deputy secretary for Highway Administration, said the agency has been helping to guide tourists to a variety of businesses throughout the state since the 1970s. In the early 1990s, PennDOT set up the TODS program -- Tourist Oriented Directional Signs.

Ryan said those signs are scheduled to come down in May 2006.

A lot of other signs also should come down, especially those installed by businesses that didn't get permission from anyone to put them on public or private property.

Ryan and other representatives of the new signing program task force gathered at the entrance of the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort & Spa Nov. 15 for the mandatory ribbon-cutting ceremony.

In addition to PennDOT, the CED and Fay-Penn, the group included the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Southwestern Pennsylvania Signing Trust, the Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau and the PA Tourism and Lodging Association.

In remarks delivered before the scissors work, Ryan said Pennsylvania is the fifth most-visited state in the country and accounts for 4.5 percent of all leisure travel and 4 percent of all business travel in the nation.

He also said tourism is the second (behind agriculture) largest industry in the state. He said there are 563,440 jobs generating more than $11.5 billion in payroll -- and more than $4 billion in local, state and federal taxes -- that are directly attributed to tourism.

Ryan said direct and indirect spending by tourists totaled $34.1 billion in 2000, a 7.1 percent increase over 1999.

Now that tourists have a network of signs to help them get where they want to go in the Laurel Highlands, it will encourage them to return "again and again," said Rose Mape of the CED.

The signs also might reduce the number of times drivers hear:

"Are we there yet?"