By Patrick Adrian
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SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — A number of Springfield addresses may be renamed or renumbered in the coming years to bring the town in compliance with federal emergency communications rules, according to town officials.
On Monday, the Springfield Selectboard unanimously approved a four-page resolution authorizing a town-wide process to rename a list of identified town roads that violate state and federal standards for emergency responses, a system Enhanced 911, or E-911.
E-911 is the system used across North America to automatically provide a caller’s location to emergency dispatchers. Whenever a local dispatcher receives a 911 call, the dispatcher’s computer also receives information from the telephone company about the physical address of the caller.
A current review of Springfield street names and numberings have so far identified about 30 categorical areas in which Springfield’s namings deviate from the state’s E-911 rules, according to selectboard Vice-Chair Michael Martin, who worked on the committee that drafted this resolution.
Martin said issues posing the greatest concern are names and numbers that could potentially confuse emergency responders or dispatchers when responding to a situation. Such issues include unnamed private drives or highways with three or more houses; roads that lack a defined beginning or end; and streets that share identical or similar sounding names.
“We have three Main Streets,” Martin told the board. “We have North Main, which is very similar to Main, but it’s not connected to Main.”
Springfield also has several similarly named streets, many of which are not connected or located in different parts of town, Martin said. Such examples include Randall Hill and Randall Street; Cutler Road and Cutler Drive; three School Streets; and Walnut Street, Walnut Hill Road, Walnut Court and a Walnut Way.
There also are unlawful numbering issues, Martin said, adding that such examples include dwellings with a fraction in the house number or inconsistent number orders on a single street.
On Eureka Road, for example, “the numbers go up and down as you move down it,” Martin shared.
Some roads change to a new name without reason, town officials found.
“As you drive up Juniper Hill Road, it becomes Deer Run Road without an apparent change in the road,” Martin said. “And then it transitions into Plain Hill Road without an intersection or a stop sign.”
The resolution’s intent is to provide a procedure for town staff and governing boards to follow to minimize the impact on residents, businesses and emergency personnel during the renaming and implementation process, Martin explained.
The process will take many months to accomplish, and will be broken into two phases. The first phase will focus on the privately owned roads containing three or more houses. These roads may have received a name from the private owner, but those names are not part of the town’s or public utility company’s registry.
The second phase, the renaming of duplicate or similarly named streets, will be “the more contentious issue,” Martin said.
“It’s very serious to change someone’s address,” Martin said. “A lot of people are going to be upset when we enact this resolution and there’s going to be a lot of pushback from the public. So I wanted to be very clear in this resolution what all the steps were.”
While the selectboard will have the final authority on the renaming of the streets, or whether to rename a street in question, residents will have an opportunity to propose new street names through the town Planning Board, according to the resolution.
The resolution also provides a criteria for cases of duplicate street names to determine which street should retain the original name. The deciding criteria will factor each street’s name longevity, length of route, traffic, historical records, geographic description and greatest number of residents.
Selectman George McNaughton expressed concern about conflicts that might arise in the naming recommendation process, such as residents unable to agree on a new name or residents proposing a name that might cause controversy or offense.
Martin advised against McNaughton’s suggestion to formalize rules in the resolution for how to select a name.
“There’s no rhyme nor reason to naming streets,” Martin said. “I don’t even know how to begin writing rules for how to rename streets and I don’t want to get into the weeds on that.”
The state E-911 also provides specific guidelines for street numbering, as well as for when to rename streets, which will also guide many of the selectboard’s final decisions, noted selectboard Chair Walter Martone.
“There will be a pretty good amount of guidance to the Planning Board when it comes to the renaming of a street,” Martone said. “But when it comes to coming up with a new name, I think we have to trust that the public process will keep us in line and that people will make appropriate judgments.”
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