EMERGENCY PERSONNEL HOPE TO SEE COMPLIANCE WITH HOUSE NUMBERING

Firefighters were dispatched one night from Fire Station No. 4 to a home in North Cape Girardeau for a report of a woman having a stroke.

They headed to the scene -- lights blazing, sirens blaring -- ready to do what they could for the woman until an ambulance crew arrived.

But in the dark of night, firefighters had difficulty locating the home because of the number system. There was one final catch -- the house was not clearly numbered so that the address could be read from the street.

In July firefighters did a random poll of 816 Cape Girardeau homes, and found that only 494 homes -- about 60 percent -- had street addresses correctly posted on the front of the home or above the garage door.

A secondary poll was taken in September following a media- and public-education campaign orchestrated by the Cape Girardeau fire and police departments. When firefighters revisited the original 816 homes, what they discovered was disappointing.

"We found about 63 percent compliance with the ordinance the second time around," said Fire Chief Robert L. Ridgeway. "I had hoped we would achieve better results. The results don't surprise me; they disappoint me."

Residents are required by city ordinance to post Arabic numbers at least 4 inches high and in a color that contrasts with the building. The numbers should be posted above or near the doorway or above an adjacent garage door.

For homes set off the street or rural homes considerable distances off the main road, markers should be placed in the front yard or mailboxes should be clearly marked with 4-inch numbering.

"What is really hard for us to understand is that the largest areas of non-compliance we found are in the newer sections of the city," said Ridgeway. "In some areas you can literally go blocks without seeing a house number.

"In the older areas of town, there will at least be a mailbox with a number or a name on it," said Ridgeway. "The new areas have these cluster mailboxes so we can't even use those as guides."

In August the fire department teamed up with the police department to launch a huge public-information campaign to coincide with bringing online the new Emergency-911 system.

"The question now is, where do we go from here?" Ridgeway said. "As we continue to build new neighborhoods all around Cape Girardeau, we're going to have to re-evaluate how we will approach this problem."

Cape Girardeau building inspector Rick Murray said that his office has already taken steps to eliminate the problem of house-numbering on new homes.

"We are not issuing certificates of occupancy until the homes are properly numbered," said Murray. "That's really the only tool we have right now to ensure that homes are properly labeled," he said.

"The fire and police departments appear to have undertaken the project to get existing structures properly numbered, and I wish them all the luck in the world in doing so," said Murray.

The city ordinance does carry a penalty for non-compliance -- a small fine -- but Murray said it is seldom, if ever, enforced.

Although it was hinted at in the August press conference, police have not yet issued any citations to homeowners who have not complied with the city house numbering ordinance, despite their own frustrations in finding non-numbered homes.

"It can be a major problem," said Sgt. Carl Kinnison of the Cape Girardeau Police Department. "If a home is not properly numbered, it increases our response time. At night the problem is just compounded."

Kinnison said residents benefit most from having their homes properly numbered. "When you are in need of emergency response people, they are going to find you all the faster if they can read the number on your house," he said.

Murray said: "People are doing themselves a great service by spending a couple of bucks to number their homes. It can aid the speedy arrival of police, firefighters, ambulances -- not to mention the pizza guy."