To the Messenger: I was stunned to read in the April 19 Messenger that “along with street name changes, all of Brandenburg will be receiving new numerical addresses” as part of the E-911 (emergency 911) implementation. However, this was confirmed to be true by both Karen Kennedy, who wrote the article, and E-911 director Mark Bennett. My question is why? Why should every person in Brandenburg have to change their address with banks, relatives, credit cards, insurers, driver’s licenses, schools, etc.? If this is necessary to implement E-911, why hasn’t every town across the United States done the same? Because it is not necessary. Meade County is one of only about 20 counties in Kentucky that have not fully implemented E-911. According to the director of the KY Commercial Mobile Radio Service Board, there is no requirement to change addresses to implement E-911. The decision is made at the local level. So why is our city government going to inconvenience every member of the community? Could it be that the city of Brandenburg is being sold a bill of goods? Clearly, the city of Brandenburg could achieve no hassle E-911 compliance for both wire and wireless phones by simply doing what has been done in other communities. Existing addresses can be used unless there is duplication of street names or street numbers that causes confusion to emergency response personnel. The vast majority of addresses would remain the same. According to guidebooks for E-911 addressing, re-addressing should only focus on problem areas. To my knowledge, there is not a single town or city in the United States where there has been a wholesale overhaul of addresses and the vast majority of the United States already has E-911. Wake up, Brandenburg! You are about to be subjected to a totally unnecessary waste of your time and money. Ann Lewis-Russ
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