County needs numbers to match addresses to
Sussex County officials have turned to the Internet to help complete a decade-old readdressing project that should make emergency response here more efficient. Officials have, as part of the project, readdressed almost every county property and now must match those addresses up with phone numbers to complete their work.
County residents can call county officials at (302) 855-1176 to file the needed information or enter it through the Web at www.sussexcountyde.gov. County officials need a 95 percent “match rate” to bring the project online. The problem: In late January, the last time the phone company Verizon calculated the match rate for Sussex, it sat at less than 55 percent.
“This is the last and final phase before we can become enhanced 911,” said county official Donna Pusey, who heads the re-addressing project. She added, though, that, “This is the hardest part, because you’re not going to go up to everybody’s door.”
Once officials bring the project online — and comply with similar work in Delaware’s other two counties — emergency responders will have the ability to respond to the location of an emergency even if the 911 caller can not speak. When a call is made from a registered number in an “enhanced” emergency system, the name and address pops up automatically for dispatchers.
The “Big Brother” nature of the program might be one of its turn-offs, though, Pusey implied.
“We’ve had people call up (and register), but those are the people that want to be found,” Pusey said. “Some people don’t want to be found. They will be the ones to call up for help and help won’t be able to find them. It’s sad, but it’s true.”
Pusey said county officials have all but completed readdressing the unincorporated portions of the county and have roughly 70 percent municipal support. Municipal addresses and phone numbers will also contribute to the desired, and necessary, 95 percent match rate, and town residents will enjoy the benefit of an “advanced” system, as well, when it is brought online, even though many municipalities did not switch to the county’s five-digit addressing system.
Pusey said that the county planned to tape a public service announcement set to run on local television stations this week. Mailings are also a possibility to help gather information, along with the new Internet campaign.
Pusey said she is wary about success through the Web, though. She could not confirm how many residents, if any, had already registered through the new site.
Chip Guy, Sussex County Public Information Officer, said turning to the Web is an obvious, and cheap, move in this digital age, when more people turn daily to the World Wide Web for work and entertainment.
Among other services offered through the site, Sussex County residents can already listen to archived meetings, learn how to read tax statements, study county financial statements and comment on the comprehensive planning process online.
“As we get deeper into the 21st century digital age, I just think more and more stuff is coming available that way because there is an expectation,” Guy said. “We want it to be as easy and painless (as possible),” he added of allowing residents to file information through the Web. “We want to make it as easy as we can so they can go about their business and not worry about it.”