(Orleans)– Orleans residents are now required to have address numbers physically attached to homes and businesses. The city council Monday evening formally adopted an ordinance to that affect. Mayor Bill Maas says many rely strictly on the 911 signs at the end of driveways…
“It’s to their benefit, you know, that we have this ordinance in place and requires kind of a uniform numbering that makes it easier for emergency services to find our addresses and stuff, so. You know, it’s kind of one of those things also, the only valid excuse I’ve ever heard, and it isn’t really that valid, but the excuse that was given to me one time was the fact that now, my relatives will be able to find me.”
Maas says the actual house numbers will reflect the already posted 911 address numbers…
“In part of our town we have houses that sit back, you know, not quite a football field’s length off the road and there’s no building sitting that close to the road and so they have to follow certain regulations as far as posting the number and we’ve given several options that they’d be able to do that. Ideally you’d just be able to say well you have to put your number of the building that’s closest to the road and numbers four inches high or greater and that should take care of it, but when you have buildings set a long ways off the road it’s just a little bit difficult to say it in that manner and stuff.”
Maas adds that he, himself, has had issues in the past in finding specific addresses in Orleans…
“I guess I was fortunate or unfortunate to be on the other side of the coin so to speak when I had to find people in an emergency and it was very difficult to find them and there’s nothing more than the helpless feeling you have when you know someone could possibly be dying and you’re trying to locate where they’re at.”
Maas adds they’ll give residents some time to get the numbers attached before any hard enforcement of the new ordinance gets underway.
