Washington’s City Council is waiting until early next year to make a decision regarding funding of the city’s wayfinding project.

That decision likely would come as the council begins developing the city’s 2016-2017 fiscal year budget, which would begin July 1, 2016.

During its Nov. 9 meeting, the council balked at allocating $101,606 for 24 signs that are part of a recommended overall sign project consisting of 84 signs — including gateway, directional and parking signs. The project would be split into three phases because of its cost, according to a presentation made to the council Nov. 9.

Currently, the city has $130,000 available for the signs.

Councilman Doug Mercer questioned spending nearly $2,000 each for parking signs he said could be purchased for much less — under $50 each — from a source other than the one included in the wayfinding plan developed by Deep Fried Creative, a Washington-based company. John Rodman, the city’s director of community and cultural services and who discussed details of the signage component of the plan, warned Mercer that going the cheaper route could be a “get what you pay for” situation, meaning the cheaper signs likely would not match the quality of the proposed costlier signs.

Mercer did not buy Rodman’s contention, saying he would vote against authorizing a purchase order for the signs, not when there is a cheaper, viable option.

Earlier this year, Deep Fried Creative spokesman Adam Feldhousen told the council the wayfinding project calls for replacing and relocating existing wayfinding signs with new signage at important gateways and other strategic locations in the city. Each of those locations would determine the type of sign(s) that would be erected there, he said.

“This is going to be a solid piece of work that’s going to last a long time,” Feldhousen said about each new sign. Should the need arise to change information on a sign, that can be easily done by replacing the vinyl sheet on which the information is printed with an updated vinyl sheet instead of having to replace the entire sign, he said.

“This (design package) has a lot of good flexibility to it,” Feldhousen said.

The wayfinding strategies designed for Washington would improve traffic circulation (vehicles and pedestrians) in the city and direct visitor dollars to where they would have the most economic impact, according to Rodman.

In an effort to reduce costs, new signs would be erected on existing utility poles, especially the decorative light poles in the historic and waterfront districts, Rodman said.