by Mary-Kate Roan
Staff Writers
Imagine a member of your family has an emergency at home – a fire or a heart attack. Dialing 911, all that comes to mind is your loved one is in trouble and needs immediate help. But what happens if the fire department or the ambulance can’t find the home?
That’s the scenario addressed in the 2002 ordinance introduced by former City Council member Faye Rustin to help improve the public health and safety for citizens. The ordinance calls for home addresses to be changed if the numbers are out of sequence.
“If we get a call to (this street) and we show up there, we assume the emergency is there,” said Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department Senior Public Information Officer Tom Francis.
Now, Dist. 1 Council member Clay Yarborough wants people to imagine another scenario.
Imagine that your home is one of those targeted to change addresses because of Rustin’s 2002 ordinance. Francis added that JFRD dispatchers are trained to know “every street” in their assigned territory, which is why some out-of-sequence residences can be found by emergency services.
From that situation came an idea.
Instead of having to go through the headaches accompanying changing addresses, Yarborough is supporting an ordinance that would eliminate the correction process for certain homes.
The catch is that emergency services must be able to currently locate the homes using the incorrectly sequenced number. Yarborough claims that if the emergency services can find a home, then the house’s address number has no need to be changed.
“If a person changes their address, it’s a hassle,” said Yarborough. “It takes them talking to the bank, the post office, and everything else that gets mailed to them.”
Yarborough cited a case where a woman lived on the south side of a street. According to Yarborough, this should make her house an even number since houses on the south and west sides of roads are given even numbers while houses on the north and east sides of roads are designated as having odd numbers in the sequence.
Despite the fact that her residence was an odd number, emergency services could easily locate her.
It’s a limited problem. According to Yarborough, about 50-60 residents have had to change their addresses and three appeals have been filed over the past year and a half.
Yarborough said he just wants to make the process less “overly burdensome” on people.
A public hearing on the proposed ordinance will be held at the Nov. 10 Council meeting.
356-2466