E-911 dispatch board meeting focuses on private road naming process

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Tuesday, June 10, 2014, 4:42 p.m. — The process to rename private roads in Nelson County was the main topic of discussion at Tuesday morning’s meeting of the E-911 Dispatch Board.

In order for the dispatch center to meet state E-911 standards and continue to receive 911 funds collected on landline and cellphone bills, the dispatch center must have an accurate database of every address in the county. The county faces a Dec. 31, 2014, deadline.

Accurate addressing is critical to first-responders’ ability to locate an individual needing help, be it an ambulance, fire or police response. County residents on private roads usually have a mailing address — often based on their mailbox location on a larger county or state highway — but that address doesn’t help first-responders locate the residence if its one of several located on a private road.

Dispatch Director Debbie Carter said the majority of private county roads that haven’t been surveyed are in the Boston area. Carter said she or other first-responders have contacted other private road residents about the need to name their roads.

“I have talked to several residents, and most people understand the reason why,” Carter told the board.

Private road residents are being alerted to the need to name their roads and consulted for possible name choices.

After discussing the first group of private road names, the board discussed the need to include Josh Cammack, a City of Bardstown employee, in the flow of information. Cammack is the board’s expert on address mapping, and the board agreed he should have a chance to check the proposed names for possible conflicts with existing road and street names.

After consulting with road residents, the proposed name will be vetted by Cammack before going to the Nelson County Judge Executive Dean Watts. Watts will then rename the roads by executive order. The E-911 Board will notify residents of the coming road name changes.

In other business, the board:

— heard an update on a grant application for $215,250 from the Kentucky Commercial Mobile Radio Services Board. Carter told the board that CMRS received fewer grant applications this year, which can improve the chances for board’s grant application. The grants will be announced in August.

— discussed interference problems with the new narrow-band radio system. EMS Director Joe Prewitt noted that most of the county’s frequencies are shared with other agencies, which can create conditions where one radio transmission can be heard clearly and the second transmission not.

— discussed the need to schedule special meetings to approve private road names in an as-needed basis.

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