Readdressing survey finds need for more study

Wednesday, June 4, 2003

The citizens of Mountain Home will have another opportunity to express their thoughts on a readdressing proposal when the city sets a hearing date for next month. Response to a survey included with water and sewer bills reflected a lack of understanding of the E-911 proposal. Now the city will ask for additional public input before sending its intentions to the E-911 Board. As Elmore County moves toward an Enhanced 911 emergency response system, it has become obvious there are glitches and problems in some of the addresses for the city of Mountain Home that must be fixed. Similar house numbers, street names and intersection combinations are phoned in to the dispatch center. Street signs are confusing because they do not fully identify the street name. For example, the signs on North 10th East Street say only 10th East, making the quadrant of the city ambiguous. The address could refer to N. 10th East or S. 10th East. The E-911 Board has proposed readdressing businesses and residences of Mountain Home including the rural area to correct the problems. Citizens have proposed other options. Now the Mountain Home City Council finds it must make a decision which direction the city will go -- should (1) the street signs be redone to properly identify the street, i.e.., East 10th North, North 10th East, etc..; or (2) the street names be redone, with streets heading east and west changed to alphanumeric names, i.e.., East 10th Street becomes Hines Street, and renumber streets heading north and south, and quadrants being identified by adding NE for north east quadrant, NW for the north west quadrant, etc. The goal of the E-911 Board is to assign street names and building numbers within Mountain Home city limits and impact area in a manner consistent with the remainder of county and all areas served by the Elmore County Enhanced 911 program. The readdressing would be completed in 18-24 months after a memorandum of understanding between the city and the E-911 Board is issued. Some areas already conform to the addressing method proposed.

All costs to implement the readdressing will be paid from funds managed by the E-911 Board of Directors. Senior citizens will have assistance provided by the E-911 program by preprinted mail labels, address change cards, and other assistance as necessary. The readdressing pattern would use a phased approach based upon the 13 mail routes beginning with the farthest route outside the city center and working towards the center. The city will have final approval for all street names and addresses within the city limits and impact area. The intent of readdressing is to create a consistent addressing scheme that accomplishes several objectives: to improve response time to emergency locations; promote quadrant consistency; provide for logical consistency (numerically and alphabetically); aid unfamiliar address searches; provide sequentially numbered houses/buildings along streets; reduce address, street, and intersection duplications and triplications; standardize designators (Way, Lane, Place, Street, Circle, Center); provide for historical area names. The entire county, with the exception of Mountain Home and the impact area, has been addressed and completed. The E-911 Board points out that businesses and citizens will be impacted regardless of the decision of the city council.

The response to the recent survey mailed along with the water and sewer bills was overwhelming, especially considering how many comments expressed a difficulty in locating the survey form.

A total of 245 responses suggested to redo the street signs to properly identify the street; 87 responded they would prefer to redo the street names and building numbers, changing streets heading east and west to alphanumeric names, renumbering streets heading north and south and adding quadrant identifiers; 11 responded without indicating a preference for either option.

But, Mayor Dave Jett pointed out, the comment section of the survey reflected a clear lack of understanding on the E-911 proposal.

He noted there were numerous comments indicating citizens believed tax money was being used to readdress the city. The funding is not from tax money but comes from the $1 added to an individual's telephone bill each month, explained the mayor. People should understand that.

Any proposal that could mean a disruption or change often faces a difficult challenge to convince people it is beneficial or necessary.

While the proposal to readdress the city is tied to emergency response times, it is not because the emergency services cannot find locations. The problem arises from callers not properly identifying an address. The numbered streets can be easily confused when quadrant markers are not included.

Addresses themselves should follow a sequential standard and be consistent with the rest of the county. The council proposes to set a hearing date, allowing the public yet another opportunity to express opinions and concerns before taking any action. Notices of the date, time and location of the meeting will be included with the utility bills.

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