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New Addresses To Help Improve 911 Service

Laura Shireman Staff writer

The city will spend $41,715 to correct addresses throughout town, eliminating problems ranging from inaccurate mail delivery to delays in emergency services.

“This is the first leg of it (the process) if we ever go to an enhanced 911 center,” said Mayor Gus Johnson at the City Council meeting Tuesday night.

The city decided to contract with Geo Research Inc., a Montana company, to do the work.

Fees for 911 service would provide $10,000 of the cost, the Post Falls Fire District may pitch in $5,000 - although the district hasn’t approved that expenditure yet - and the city’s general fund would provide the rest.

When a person calls for help through an enhanced 911 emergency center, the address and the agency that should respond pop up on the screen, Post Falls Police Chief Cliff Hayes said. Some upgrades to existing equipment will be needed before that is possible.

Now, when someone calls, only the phone number shows up, Hayes said. The department then must cross-reference the phone number with an in-house database that lists addresses. If the department doesn’t have the address, it must have GTE, the local phone company, search for it. That process can take one or two minutes, Hayes said.

“It’s significant in those few cases when people can’t tell us where they are,” he said.

Geo Research will examine Post Falls addresses and make suggestions to the city for corrections. Collin Coles, associate city planner, said that “probably quite a few addresses” will be changed.

The company also is changing addresses in Kootenai County.

“Essentially, that’s not to give everyone a new address but to take the existing address grid over the county and make sure everyone has the right address,” said Cheri Howell, planning director for the county.

For example, addresses could be out of order or on streets that haven’t been given official names.

The company started looking at county addresses in the fall and should be done with that task about next January. Post Falls hasn’t set a time line for the job.