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Calhoun's 911 Director Gary Buchanan told the Calhoun Commission Monday that some E-911 addressing changes are "not sitting well" with a number of Grantsville area residents.
"I certainly understand their discontent, but some of the former addressing was incorrect," he said, with the current addresses linked to the correct model.
About 95% of the addresses done in the Grantsville area are incorrect, Buchanan said.
"The good news is that holders that have been assigned new addresses have up to one year to change their mailing address."
The rest of the county will not likely experience a problem.
"We certainly had to clean it up and make the changes, as painful as they are for some citizens to change their mailing addresses again," he said.
E-911 is a location-mapping system that allows emergency responders to quickly respond to a specific location.
The mailing address is hooked to the locater system.
Problems have haunted E-911 addressing in West Virginia for the past several years, with the state hiring contract companies to do the job.
One of the last outfits failed to complete their contractual obligations, likely costing taxpayers several million dollars.
Calhoun did make significant progress a few years ago with E-911 mapping, but it has not been until this year the addressing component has been completed for the county.
Residents can begin using their new addresses as soon as they receive their notification letter.
Creston (26141) and Brohard (26138) will be the first areas notified, followed shortly by Grantsville (26147), Big Springs (26137), Munday (26152) and Nebo (25141).
Other areas will be approved, hopefully in short order, said Buchanan.
Calhoun is one of a few WV counties that is ahead of the loop with addressing, with all zip codes submitted to Charleston earlier this year.
Addresses were assigned starting at the nearest intersection with even number addresses (those ending in 0,2,4,6,8) on the right side of the road and odd number addresses (those ending in 1,3,5,7,9) on the left.
The number represents the location's distance from the intersection. For example: the number 1500 would represent a structure located on the right side of the road and approximately one and one-half miles from the intersection.
Anyone who receives a notification letter and believes there may be an error in their address or anyone who has a question about the project should contact Buchanan at 354-0911.
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