Maybe New Jersey needs an inspector general for spelling.

In just the latest of what seems like a rash of misspellings on road signs and other highly visible locations, a green state Department of Transportation sign on the eastbound side of the Route 37 causeway, just short of Pelican Island, left out the third "L" in Lavallette.

The misspelled sign, previously reported by the Lavallette-Seaside & Ortley Beach Shorebeat, advises motorists: "Route 35 North, Ortley Beach, Lavalette, Keep Left."

The town name is spelled "Lavallette."

With the typo having been brought to his attention, Lavallette Borough Administrator Robert Brice said Tuesday he would ask the state for a correction.

"I'll give the DOT a call and ask if there's a cost-efficient way to fix it," Brice said.

A DOT spokeswoman, Judith Drucker, released a statement saying the spelling was being corrected.

"As part of the Mathis Bridge project, a Route 35 North sign was recently installed," the statement read. "NJDOT Crews travel the road daily, noticed the error, and reported it soon after its installation. The contractor has been notified and is in the process of correcting the sign."

The Lavallette case is only the most recent Garden State spelling mistake visible to the public. (And, no, it sure isn't the first one to appear on NJ.com.)

Last spring, Atlantic City's Hard Rock Hotel & Casino spelled "rhythm" wrong on the pickup selector switch of the huge Gibson Les Paul guitar marquee that is a signature feature of the chain, incorrectly inserting an "e" before the "m."

In the Camden County Borough of Bellmawr last year, observers realized that the "i" and "a" in a sign for Mount Ephraim were reversed.

In Parsippany, a typo lent a distinctively French twist to what a sign on Route 202 spelled as "Parispanny."

In Hunterdon County, motorists could be forgiven for wondering whether some little-known species of insect had been honored with the naming of "Pattenbug Road." It's Pattenburg, by the way.

And in New York City, there is the half-century-old controversy over the (mis)spelling of that vast span that connects the boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn -- the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge -- which omits one of the two "Zs" used by the Italian explorer of North America, Giovanni da Verrazzano, after whom the bridge is supposed to be named.

Back in Lavallette, with three Ls, June Schneider, manager of the Upper Shore Branch of the Ocean County Library, said the proper spelling of any place name is important to residents of that place.

"Obviously, if someone lives in a place, and has history in a place, they want to see it spelled correctly," Schneider said.

Ironically, Schneider noted that the official spelling of the borough's name is not quite the same as the spelling used by its namesake, Elie A. F. La Vallette, a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy during the Civil War. Still, the borough's founder, Albert T. Lavallette, the admiral's son, did anglicize his name -- and the borough's.

NOTE: This article was updated to include a statement from the DOT.

Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook

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