RESIDENCE RENUMBERING PUT ON HOLD IN SCOTT CITY

SCOTT CITY -- A plan that would establish new house numbers for nearly 300 residents of Scott City has been put on hold and will be re-evaluated by a committee of city officials and city residents.

LaDonna Phelps, saying she represents residents of the Country Club subdivision who are against the renumbering, presented a petition containing 183 signatures at Monday's meeting of the City Council.

Phelps said the petition represented 102 of the 128 households in the subdivision that would be affected by the plan.

In addition, about 150 houses in the rest of the city would have been affected by the renumbering.

Phelps said most of the people who signed the petition would not be against the renumbering if it was being done throughout the entire town.

She said many residents feel the proposed system of numbering is no more correct than the old one.

"If you're going to do it, do it right," she told council members.

The council approved the renumbering last month as a way to make it easier for emergency vehicles to find homes during emergency calls.

At the council's Aug. 5 meeting, about 70 people showed up to protest the plan. Council members said at that meeting the residents would have to present a petition before the plan would be called off.

But Monday, after the petition was presented, council members hesitated to discard the plan.

One resident of Country Club, Randy Newell, told council members that if they went ahead with the renumbering, "You're going to go against what the people want."

Another resident, Mark Castleman, suggested that if the council wanted to go ahead with the plan, the numbering system in the entire town should be evaluated first.

Councilman John Rogers, in referring to the petition, said, "If we took a vote on this, it looks like 90 percent of the people would be against it."

But he said it's been apparent for years that the city's numbering system was flawed.

Rogers said renumbering should have been done years ago when Scott City was consolidated.

"But nobody wanted to fight the battle," he said.

Councilman Jerry Cummins suggested that a committee be formed to evaluate the present renumbering system and recommend changes throughout the city.

Other council members agreed that before the present plan is scrapped, an attempt should be made to improve it.

Councilman Jim McClintock, who said he had already changed his house number, added he is still in favor of re-evaluating the plan.

Council members Cummins, Jay Cassout and Ron Oller said they would serve on the committee to evaluate the renumbering. Phelps, Newell, Castleman and another resident, Fred Gramm, also volunteered to be on the committee.

Council members said other residents are encouraged to be on the committee and said a member of the police department would be included in the evaluation. Oller was made chairman of the committee.

Council member Brenda Moyers said she was concerned about people who have already complied with the city's request to change their house numbers. She urged members of the committee not to put the plan on hold for a long period of time.

"We can't just leave these people in limbo," she said.