Why Change to City Style Addressing

Time is of the essence when relaying address information and directions to
emergency response personnel.

The Mineral County E 9-1-1 system was created to consolidate all emergency
alerting and communications systems under one system to enhance our
overall response capabilities and with one purpose in mind and that is to
save lives during emergencies. The addressing system in use at the
implementation of the county wide E-911 necessitated that the 911 center
create a computerized database system that listed each and every residential
and/or business structure throughout the county.  This system has meet the
needs of the 911 center however it is time consuming and expensive to
maintain.

With the implementation of county wide city style street names and physical
addresses Mineral Count is embarking upon a new era in emergency
response. This addressing meets all postal requirements of the U.S. Postal
Service. The city style street naming and numbering system has been
adopted state wide as the preferred addressing system for West Virginia

The initial committee charged with designing the Mineral County addressing
system contained representatives from local emergency management, law
enforcement, fire, rescue, and Post Office heads, municipal and county
elected officials. This was accomplished during the late 1990's.

Street Naming

It was decided by the Addressing Committee to use road names as opposed
to road numbers, similar to the State Road numbering scheme which is still
recognized for maintenance or historical purpose. All roadways with in
Mineral County will be assigned a road name and all structures (residential
and /or business) will be assigned a number.

There are numerous roadways in the County that require a name but not all
roadways (driveways) will be named. Many of the State maintained roads
where historically known by some name, for that matter, the public
recognized a "name" for many of the State numbered roads. For this reason,
the Committee determined that it would be better for emergency response to
"name" rather than "number" all roads in the County.

Today, road naming is governed by the state guidelines as adopted in a
Resolution dated May 12, 2004 by the Mineral County Commission and
normally only after a petition signed by a majority of the effected property
owners, has been secured. It is Mineral County Commission's desire to allow
the property owners along a roadway, to establish the name of their road.
However, some considerations must be observed.

1.  No two roads which lie within the same Fire District can have the same        
 name.

2.  Road names should not be too similar, thus creating confusion (eg               
 Beech LN, Beach DR).

3.  Roads should not have the name of a business unless it is a none                 
public road. Special circumstances must be in place for none public              
roads to be named and adopted by Mineral County E 9-1-1.

4.  Person's names should be avoided in most cases however there are            
acceptable situations.

5.  Unless there is extenuating circumstances, a road must provide access      
 to three or more residents before it can be issued a road name and              E
9-1-1 addressing. In those instances where there are only two                     
residential or business structure located along a roadway and one of           
the structures is not visible from the intersecting roadway then that             
road may be given consideration for naming.

6.  The Mineral County Addressing Office does not determine if the Postal        
Service will deliver mail on the road you live on. You must contact your        
Postal carrier or Postmaster of your community to work out the delivery       of
your mail.

Address Ranging

Roads in rural Mineral County are addressed from North to South and from
East to West For instance, Highway 972 is numbered or 'addressed' from the
intersection with US Route 50 to the South to the intersection again with US
Route 50, with the numbers ascending as you drive South. Knobley Road
which runs North and South, is considered to start at State Route 956 and
ascend in addresses as you drive South to the county line.

Some roads can be confusing such as Loops or roads that turn off one road,
only to return to the same road. Generally, roads like this are addressed the
same direction as the road they begin and terminate to, from North to South,
East to West.

Address ranging is accomplished in rural Mineral County by dividing a mile by
1000. Thus, one mile equals 5,280 feet. Divide this by 1000 gives us 5.28 feet
per address. This may sound a little overboard, but considering how
structures can be situated in rural settings, this scheme allows us to produce
an address regardless where you decide to build.

Another reason for using this type of address ranging is simple. Addresses
correspond to the mileage of the road you are driving.  For example; an
address of "700 Knobley Rd" would be 7 tenths of a mile from the beginning
of the road.  An address of "1000 Knobley Rd" would be 1 mile from the
beginning. Using this method of addressing makes is a lot easier for
emergency responders to locate you by giving them and idea of the distance
they need to travel from any given starting point, or even which direction
they should turn at an intersection.

Additionally the range of addresses is divided into Odd and Even numbers.
Odd number addresses are on your left if you are driving southward or
westward, even addresses are on your right.
WHY ADDRESS
Mineral County Commission
911 - Addressing & Mapping Office