911 Addressing Is Moving Forward In Pocahontas County If Ever So Slowly

Marlinton,WV – 911 mapping and addressing was on the mind of at least one listener during the September edition of Commissioners Corner, a live call in program with the Pocahontas County Commissioners on Allegheny Mountain Radio. Commissioner Reta Griffith says the Counties’ 911 office has already turned the Durbin area zip code over to the post office and will be ready to submit the Bartow zip code soon.

“We still have some more GPS work to go, it should go more quickly now” says Griffith. “I know it’s taken forever, and it’s very long and slow; we’ve gone through several vendors at the state level.”

Matt Taylor is the Pocahontas County 911 mapping and addressing coordinator. He has been diligently working on this project for over two years. The work requires him to verify county addresses using Global Positioning Satellite technology. Commissioner David Fleming asked Griffith for further detail on the project.

[Fleming] “Reta, what does that mean when a zip code is turned over, exactly?” [Griffith] “That means that the county has finished their portion of the work with it and it’s been turned over to the post office to synchronize the mapping that we have with the addresses they have so they can kind of merge those, so that we’re all talking about the same houses” says Griffith.

She says that synchronization process may be the source of some of the delays.

“They’ll have to match our mapping and in some counties that’s been a problem because there is a little bit of push back from the postal service” she says.

Griffith says the work done by the post office doesn’t match the ordinance passed by the County.

“The number structure that the post office wanted to put in place didn’t match the ordinances because we tried to do it so that it would match up with with miles. So if you’re at five tenths of a mile from the end of the road you’re going to be in the 500 range.”

Griffith says they are also working on addresses throughout the rest of the county. Taylor is submitting the addresses as he completes each zip code.

Commissioner Fleming also shared some news about a proposed tower on Sharps Knob. The tower will be part of the West State Trauma and Emergency Medical System.

“The issue was concerning the height of the tower” says Fleming. “Somewhere around 200 feet or higher there has to be a blinking light, or a beacon or a strobe [light].”

“The tower was originally proposed at 240 feet. They reassessed the situation and determined they can get by with a tower of 190 feet, I think, which is below the lighting requirements, so the project can move forward now without a need for a strobe or a beacon of any kind.”

Fleming says the National Forest Service has already approved construction of the tower on their land on Sharps Knob. The state must still coordinate with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory to ensure that the frequencies used by the tower will comply with National Radio Quiet Zone requirements.