The push to have address numbers displayed on every home and business in the City of Houston took another step toward fruition last Saturday.
A dozen members of the Houston Community Betterment and Arts Council’s Y.O.U.T.H. group (Youth Organization Understanding Tomorrow’s Houston), several adult community betterment representatives and some City of Houston volunteer firefighters canvassed the town to determine where address numbers were either hardly visible or nonexistent. Project director (and former Houston police chief) Jim McNiell said observing about 1,200 buildings on about 90 streets revealed a significant lack of adequate numbering.
“It’s quite a high percentage,” McNiell said. “And it was interesting that we found a lot of businesses that didn’t have numbers.”
The idea behind the address number project is to ensure that first responders, utility workers, delivery drivers and anyone else who might be interested can more easily locate a home or business. Houston Police Chief Tim Ceplina said address numbers can be crucial in situations involving health or fire.
“When you need emergency responders, you need them,” Ceplina said. “You don’t want them having a hard time finding you. If you have a fire, you want the fire department there quickly. Similarly with an ambulance crew – seconds matter when a loved one is having a heart attack or bleeding.”
The project’s next step is making contact with the residents and business owners whose buildings needs numbering, and they will be offered the chance to have their buildings numbered by the project group. A work day is set for May 6 when McNiell and company head out to do the work.
“That will be at no cost to them,” McNiell said, “and it will be done with a very professional look. We will be asking for a donation to help defer our costs, but no work will be done without the peoples’ consent.
“And we’ll work with them regarding where and how they want numbers placed.”
McNiell said that once the data from last week’s outing is tabulated, he expects the project’s next phase will result in visits to hundreds of homes and businesses.
“There is a problem with this in Houston,” he said. “You might know a general location, but it can be hard to find someone if you don’t have an address number to go by.”
Why don’t more homes and businesses in Houston have adequate address numbers?
“People don’t think about it,” McNiell said, “and a lot of senior citizens just can’t do it.”
McNiell said the project seems to be well received by Houston citizens.
“I haven’t had one person say it’s a bad idea – everyone has been very positive,” he said. “And numbers are required by city ordinance; we’re not trying to make a big issue out of this, but we’re offering these services to improve the community. I think this is a big plus.”
For more information, call Ceplina or Community Betterment representative Elaine Campbell at 417-967-3348.
“We know there’s a lot of work ahead of us,” McNiell said, “but we’re willing to do that work to help out the community.”