Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 10, 1991 TAG: 9103100161
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: E-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Associated Press
DATELINE: LUCKETTS LENGTH: Medium
After years of discussions, Loudoun County has started a pilot project this month to give an address to each home and business in Lucketts. They hope they will learn how to conduct a countywide effort.
John Colway, the county's 911 coordinator, said the project is critical to the future of emergency care in Loudoun County. Emergency calls have risen about 10 percent a year to 91,000 a year. More than 30 percent of the calls come from rural areas and housing developments with address systems dispatchers don't understand, Colway said.
In one incident, David Tulip tried to direct a dispatcher to his home in western Loudoun County after he was shot. Tulip, 52, was watching his wife, Barbara, die from a gunshot wound, and gave rescue workers wrong directions, Sheriff John Isom said. Their son Joshua, 18, was charged with murder.
In most areas, a dispatcher could have looked at a computer screen and the caller's address and phone number would appear. Loudoun County has the equipment and it works with homes that have street addresses. But most rural homes show up as post office boxes or rural route numbers that tell dispatchers little.
Loudoun's Department of Natural Resources, which develops maps for the county, will lead the effort in Lucketts. Although only 200 houses are involved, the first step will be like a door-to-door census to get each address, said Richard Weber, department director.
A public hearing is planned Monday before the Board of Supervisors on the idea of establishing addresses and new street names.
by CNB