City council abandons readdressing effort

Mountain Home's city council voted unanimously Monday night not to readdress the city.

After years of wrestling with the issue of how the city should be addressed in an efficient manner to allow for a rapid response in an emergency, the council decided to leave the city's addresses alone.

The greater Mountain Home area was to be the final portion of the county that would be addressed for the Enhanced 911 system.

The community presented a unique challenge for the board responsible for getting the emergency response system up and running. Many streets have similar names and there are multiples of duplicate intersections (such as the corner of 8th and 8th Streets) and house numbers are not always sequential. The city had asked for a proposal that would be the least disruptive as possible.

Councilman Mark Russell provided a brief history of the years leading to the proposal that was delivered to the council in May of this year.

Street names would be changed as required and house numbers should be sequential, with even numbers on one side of the street and odd numbers on the other. The baseline would be changed to American Legion Boulevard. Under the proposal, the city would be divided into quadrants with a directional prefix (NE, SE, SW, NW) given for each street name.

Russell explained the proposal called for a phased approach over 12-24 months. Assistance would be given to seniors to help them complete the change of their addresses and house numbers would be provided. The readdressing project was completely funded through the $1 per line added to phone bills for E-911 service.

Councilman Tom Rist said that he realized a large amount of money and time had already been devoted to the readdressing proposal. "But by the same token, it doesn't make an idea any better, just spending money on it," he said, adding that he was leaning against changing the current addresses, just from listening to the public.

Councilman Richard Urquidi noted that the very first night that he and Councilwoman Alain Isaac had joined the council, they had to make a decision on whether to proceed with the readdressing plan. "Listening to the people we heard 71 percent saying 'just fix what needs to be fixed.' "

Councilwoman Isaac said people seem to feel that there would be less confusion if the full street name were put on the street signs. "From the beginning, we were told there were only a few hundred house numbers that needed to be changed," she said. "We just need to make the signage uniform in town."

Russell pointed out that the readdressing proposal was consistent with the rest of the county and noted that new subdivisions were already being addressed in compliance with the proposal. He said that if the city elects not to conform with the rest of the county, he would not expect the E-911 money to be used to foot the costs to change the signs.

Rist suggested that sounded like the city was being blackmailed, noting that the majority of the money going into the E-911 fund came from the people of Mountain Home.

Mayor Dave Jett said he did not agree. He said if the city chose to continue with the current addressing, the E-911 funds should not be used to implement a system already in place. He pointed out the readdressing proposal was a result of a request by the city. "What we said repeatedly, is that we want a solution that is the least disruptive as possible."

He noted that changing a house number in the middle of a block would have a domino effect, creating a need to change addresses for neighboring properties in all directions. He pointed out the change of the baseline to American Legion Boulevard was necessary in order to give sequential addresses.

"We don't want to do anything that does not improve" the situation, the mayor said. But he pointed out, "If we scrap the plan, we will not fix anything."

Urquidi made the motion to leave the city addressed as it is. Isaac seconded the motion.

In the ensuing discussion, Rist noted he could see potential problems if we stay as we are, especially when we annex.

Russell pointed out once more that if the city accepted the proposal, each phase would come back before the council for final approval.

With the discussion drawing to a close, the mayor called for a vote. One by one each council member voted 'aye' to leave the city's addressing system as it is.