Blog: Misspelled Street Sign Leaves Editor, Residents Flummoxed

It looks like some folks over at the county could use a spelling lesson.

Now, far be it from me, a Patch editor, to step on any public officials’ toes (yes, that's sarcastic), but I feel I must point out a rather large oops posted right there on Goshen Road, just south of Lochaven Drive. Or, if you’re the Montgomery County Government Division of Traffic and Parking Services, Lochraven Drive.

Did Scooby Doo print this sign?

The sticker slapped to its back reads, “Vandalism, theft or a possession of a highway sign is punishable by law and perpetrators will be prosecuted.’’

What about careless spellers?

In the civic world of cavernous potholes, faulty traffic lights and congested intersections, a misspelled street name ranks quite low, I’m sure. And while I wonder what members of the Gaithersburg City Council think about their county counterparts' street-sign snafu, I must, in full transparency, admit that I missed it at first.

My parents and I moved to Goshen Estates in 1984, and they still live in the bucolic neighborhood just outside Montgomery Village. After college (WVU), I moved to Los Angeles, but try to get back for a few days at least once a year. Thursday marks the 11th day I’ve been home, and the first time Mom mentioned the sign.

“I just can’t believe they spelled the street name wrong,’’ she said, snipping back the azaleas. “It’s been like that for almost a year.''

Really? I know how I missed it, but what about city officials?

Pretty much every time I come home, I turn east onto Warfield Road and avoid Lochaven altogether. It's probably that emotional teen-age trauma from sliding on black ice and landing Mom's Mercury Cougar in the ditch that steers my rental car down an alternate route.

"Well, I'm glad I didn't know about that,'' Mom said of my 24-year-old secret. "But someone should write about the misspelled sign.’’

You got it – and thanks for the blog idea, Mom!