Middletown will soon be a bit easier to navigate for visitors.

The Butler County Visitors Bureau will be purchasing about 250 signs as part of its Wayfinding Program to be installed around the county, and Middletown will see about 50 of those signs. At its core it will be a 24-hour marketing project, said bureau Executive Director Mark Hecquet to City Council Tuesday evening.

“There was a true lack of signage throughout our county, first and foremost, linking our main cities and townships, certainly identifying some of the destination points (people are) trying to find,” Hecquet said about consultant’s report evaluating the county.

But at its core, he said, “This is fundamentally and simply a marketing project.”

Every community in the county is on board, said Hecquet, who presented the new sign examples to City Council.

“We are not blessed with the major attractions like King’s Island (in Warren County),” Hecquet said, “but we have a lot of smaller tier 2 or tier 3 attractions that don’t have the notoriety or mechanisms to draw visitors in.”

It will also remind residents of all the attractions around the county, he said.

The bureau will install a sign “for every single need,” including signs designed for traffic above and below 45 miles per hour.

Travelers will be directed to about 35 destination points around the county. Hecquet said the Wayfinding Program has been designed to where signs can be added or removed, and any future signs will be able to be purchased by the governments “at a greatly discounted price.”

In a time where practically everyone has a cellphone or a GPS unit, Hecquet said this is important to the county because of emotional attachments people can have with signs.

“Ultimately, one of the biggest concern a visitor has is being lost. Everyone hates being lost,” he said. “If you see a sign, you feel comfortable. And if you feel comfortable, you like the place.”

The Visitors Bureau’s objective is to bring people into the county, and this will help bring people into the city’s core.

“We’re bringing people in from the highway, to downtown, to Miami University (Middletown), to Cincinnati State, to Smith Park, the city building,” said Hecquet said.

Hecquet said the Visitors Bureau is at a point “where we can put these signs in the ground,” but when is not set though the company installing the signs would like it to be by Thanksgiving. Hecquet said “that’s very optimistic” but said it would be “soon.”

The signs will give the city a “fresh, new look,” said City Manager Judy Gilleland.

“Signage is something that we’ve periodically talked about as a potential project, but we haven’t had the funding as it’s a non-core project,” she said. “But it certainly adds to our community image.”

The Butler County Visitors Bureau will pay for the Wayfinding Program, which would cost roughly $581,000 for the signs and installation, but that doesn’t include additional signs for Hamilton and Middletown. Hamilton requested signs for its neighborhood districts and there will be signs created for Cincinnati State Middletown.