By Veronica Nett
Charleston Gazette
WINFIELD, W.Va. — Within the next year, some Putnam County residents will get a new address.
The county emergency services, in conjunction with the U.S. Postal Service, will begin a project in the next few weeks to map and get the address of homes, businesses and roads in the county.
The project will eliminate all rural route addresses and duplicate street names, Putnam EMS Director Frank Chapman told county commissioners Tuesday.
The commissioners approved a request from Chapman to contract with Thrasher Engineering for $75,000 to complete the addressing project.
The state started the process in 2003, and this will complete it, Chapman said.
MicroData GIS, a Vermont-based company, mapped out about 70 percent of the county during a state-funded project to replace rural West Virginia box and route numbers with consecutively numbered street addresses.
Verizon provided $15 million for the project through an agreement with the state Public Service Commission.
Putnam EMS personnel have continued with the project and have completed about 85 percent of the county, Chapman said.
“I just want to get this done. It would take us another two years on our own,” Chapman said after Tuesday’s meeting. “We’re working on it daily, but we just don’t have the manpower available.”
The new addressing system will allow EMS, police and fire crews to respond to emergencies more quickly, he said.
“Dispatch can relay how far an address is down the road [so an ambulance] is not just driving slow down a street looking for numbers,” Chapman said.
Once the project begins, EMS personnel will meet with mayors and community leaders to address duplicate street names, Chapman said.
It’s a common problem in the county, and the names of streets with the least impact will be changed, he said.
The 911-mapping project will be done in conjunction with a $72,000 federal aerial photography grant the county received earlier this month.
Commissioners expect to have the aerial shots taken before spring.
Chapman said Thrasher Engineering should begin the addressing project within the next few weeks, and should complete it within the year.
Residents will receive notification if their address or street name has changed, and will have 12 to 18 months to comply, he said.
Copyright 2010 Charleston Newspapers