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Sometimes the best laid plans go awry.

That seems to be the case with the town of Oromocto.

The model town was once dubbed "the town of the future" because it was painstakingly planned in the 1950s. The old shipbuilding hamlet was transformed into the anchor municipality for CFB Gagetown.

But somewhere along the way, the best planned town took a wrong turn.

Last week, the Oromocto Chamber of Commerce and the Town of Oromocto announced a formal study to address signage and find out why people keep getting lost in their town.

The lack of adequate signage and the Trans-Canada Highway that cuts through the town are complications and issues the town can no longer afford to ignore.

There's probably not much that can be done about having only one exit for west-bound traffic, but with the highway now bringing thousands of potential customers past their town every day, many of those drivers are bound to be hungry, thirsty and low on fuel.

The fact that you can see all those businesses that cater to travellers right from the highway is a bonus, but the bonuses end there, because getting from the highway to the town is a convoluted, confusing maze of too many road choices, not enough clear signage and a peculiar fondness for traffic circles that could throw off the best geographer's sense of direction. The last thing any town wants to do is confuse visitors to the point where they remember you for only one reason - frustration.

The other aspect is the many military families that visit and move to town. Their first impression might not be positive when the first thing they do is get lost. They might well wonder what sort of place they relocated too, especially given the 'model town' motto, which might at times seem like a cruel joke.

It's taken a decade of consultations to get to the point where a decision to act has made the news, which in itself is more than mind boggling.

Perhaps because they were somewhat hidden from view, there was no rush. But with all those cars now driving by each day, gazing at Greco, McDonald's, Tim Hortons, Esso and all the other businesses you can see from the highway, there is most definitely an urgency to get this signage problem resolved sooner rather than later.

Businesses are suffering in the meantime, which means a risk of losing some of them, particularly in this economic climate.

There are many gems in Oromocto - the downtown and its waterfront, the busy Restigouche Road area services, the base and its military museum, the many green spaces, to name a few - so it's not a matter of having little to offer.

We encourage the community to get on with the study and make improvements so Oromocto to grow as a service centre and even as a tourist destination.