By Rob Scott
NORTHUMBERLAND -- Several Point Township roads will have to be renamed so emergency responders can find them, causing a serious inconvenience for dozens of homeowners.
Through a contract with Northumberland County, Union County provides satellite mapping of Point Township, so firefighters, police and ambulance crews can quickly locate a home in an emergency. But according to township Supervisor Justin Dunkelberger, when calls are dispatched, the computer system only uses the first word of the road name.
So firefighters looking for a fire on Oak View Road could end up on Oak Road, causing significant delays while they try to find the home.
Zoning officer Roy Sulouff said there are 10 to 12 road names that will have to be changed, as well as dozens of land parcels that need to be identified so emergency responders know where they're going.
Supervisor Randy Yoxheimer said he's frustrated because five years ago the township went to the trouble of changing all its rural delivery addresses to road names.
"We were being proactive. Rather than wait till the county did it ... we thought we were doing something civically responsible," he said. "But now it's come back to bite us."
If the township doesn't rectify these issues by the end of the year, the state Department of Transportation will withhold its liquid fuels tax money -- used for road work -- and it possibly could lose out on federal money, Dunkelberger said. "So it's very important we get these issues taken care of."
Yoxheimer said the township can't afford to lose state or federal funding and will have to pay for new road signs, but "who it really causes an inconvenience to is the residents who have to change all their mailing ... It's a big pain in the butt frankly."
For example, he said, there are about 30 homes on 15th Street in Priestley Terrace. But because there's another 15th Street in Kapp Heights that doesn't connect with Priestley Terrace, every one of those homeowners will have to change their addresses.
"At the end of the day, this is going to inconvenience some people and make some people unhappy with the township," Dunkelberger said. "But when that first responder gets there on time, they're going to be thanking their lucky stars."
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