News reported by the Asheville Citizen-Times' Clarke Morrison

A federal judge ruled Friday that a jury will get to decide who is at fault for the peeling directional signs erected across the city nearly three years ago.

Judge Martin Reidinger set March 11 as the date to start the trial pitting the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority against the company that made the faulty signs. ... TDA hired L&H Signs Inc. for the $1.5 million “wayfinding” project, completed in the spring of 2010. Public reaction to the blue and green signs was initially positive. But the signs quickly became an embarrassment as the surface images began peeling from the metal. ...