STARKVILLE — A woman who recently called 911 had to wait an extra 25 minutes before help arrived.
She was on White Drive in Starkville.
Emergency responders headed to White Drive outside of the city.
In the coming months, such confusion should be eliminated.
Oktibbeha County’s ongoing 911 readdressing project could be completed in two months. And Starkville’s White Drive, located at the north end of campus near the highway patrol building, will be renamed Maroon Drive.
The Board of Supervisors Wednesday met with Golden Triangle Planning and Development District Geographic Information Systems Manager Toby Sanford to finalize names for a dozen county roads that were either duplicates of city streets or had similar spellings.
The board resolved all but three roads — Hartness Lane off South Montgomery and Lydia Lane and Valley Road in University Lane — but expect to have different names for the three roads after speaking to landowners and agreeing on a name.
The board will officially adopt the new road name changes Monday.
“It’s a big issue for 911,” said Jim Britt, 911 director. “I think this board’s gone to great lengths to do whatever they can to ensure there wasn’t anything that sounded similar that might create issues. They did a great job with it.”
Britt said emergency responders have struggled with duplicate addresses while the GTPDD has tried to finalize addresses. During the work session, Britt said multiple problems have arisen from operating on two systems, which are based on landline phone numbers.
County roads Burney Lane and Chism Drive were renamed Burney Walker Lane and Emma Drive, respectively.
Court Lane, due to existing roads Courtland Road and Court Square, was renamed to Samuel Lane.
Gaston Lane was renamed Low Beat Lane, while Henry Lane was changed to Bradford Lane to create enough distinction between it and city street Henry Drive.
The new 911 system needs enough difference in street names to avoid confusion, Britt said.
“So far we’ve been fortunate that we’ve been able to work through it and get to people at the right place,” Britt said.
The address changes also will benefit the post office, which uses an automated sorting system and has struggled with duplicate addresses and cardinal directions at the end of some addresses.
Placing cardinal directions at the beginning of addresses also aids 911 responders because people will likely forget to mention the direction at the end address during the emergency, Britt said.
The stretch of Reed Road that begins at Babylon Road at the county-city limits line was changed to West Reed Road.
The new system brings Oktibbeha County up to the 911 national standard. Now, addresses are assigned fluidly on each road, as odd numbers are on the left side of the road and even are on the right, beginning at the at the western or southern end of a road. Each address is a measured distance from the start of the road. For instance, if a home address is 5000 Highway 82, it’s exactly five miles from the start of the road.
The board is responsible for name changes being forwarded to the National Road Registry, which is used to set GPS maps. Sanford will also have to inform phone service provider AT&T so the new road names will show up when a 911 call is placed.
“It should take 30 to 45 days to get numbers switched over,” Sanford said. “We have to look at every phone number and address and must match it in the system with new addresses. It may take Intrado (company in charge of national 911 databases) another 15-30 days. We’re in good shape.”
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