Editorial: Sign, sing, sgin, whatever, fix it now

Friday, June 28, 2002 | 4:30 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: June 30, 2002

Normally, it's an honor to have a street bear your family name. For Italian Count Robert Deiro, however, the street named after him has become an embarrassment. Fifteen years ago developers of the street south of Sahara Avenue at Hualapai Way mapped out their street as "Count Diero Drive." The signs went up that way but were later fixed by the city. Afterward, the county lengthened the street and made the same mistake the city had originally, inversing the two letters on the signs along the portion it maintains. That caused the city to paste over its correct spelling to make the whole street uniformly Diero. Uniform, but wrong.

Now every time Count Deiro drives by, he can't help but feel a bit aggravated. And justifiably so. We're sure the old Wild West wrangler and soldier William F. Cody would be turning over in his grave if Buffalo Bill Avenue were spelled Buffalo Blil. There's no excuse for misspelling a street sign, and there's certainly no excuse for not correcting it when it is pointed out.

The Deiro family has informed the city of Las Vegas and Clark County of the problem. Their response is maddening, something about petitioning all the abutting property owners (there are no homes on the street) and wending their way through a paperwork maze. Our response is simple: Have the boys down at the metal shop pound out new signs and get a crew out there and replace them.