SCOTT CITY ADDRESSING DRAWS FIRE

SCOTT CITY -- A plan to renumber hundreds of houses in Scott City will proceed except in the town's Country Club subdivision.

But that doesn't set well with members of a committee who say they were kept from evaluating the renumbering plan for the town even though city officials appointed them to do so.

Members of the committee say it took them two weeks to obtain the original house-numbering study from a city councilman despite the fact that the city attorney ruled it to be public property.

Now committee members are upset because the plan was accepted by the City Council before they were allowed to evaluate it. The plan was voted in by a 4-3 margin.

"We promised the citizens of this town we were going to look at house numbers in this entire town and that's what we're going to do," said committee member LaDonna Phelps.

The committee is made up of residents of the Country Club subdivision and three members of the council.

Phelps and the others say they were charged with evaluating the renumbering plan for the entire town, but when they attempted to do that they were stonewalled by city officials, some of whom later told them they were only supposed to renumber Country Club.

"The entire town was pumped up about this committee," Phelps said. "They felt that the citizens were really getting the chance to do something for themselves instead of things being dictated by City Hall."

Another committee member, Fred Gramm, said members of the City Council who voted to accept the previous study without giving the committee a chance to evaluate it were "trying to blame us" for a renumbering plan that has been unpopular with some city residents.

"They were just trying to get the people off their back and use us as a scapegoat," he said.

Mayor Shirley Young said the committee is free to evaluate the renumbering plan that has already been accepted, but "at this point it doesn't make a difference."

Young said, "The council accepted the plan at the last meeting, so it's already in effect."

Residents in all parts of town except Country Club are now required to change their house numbers if they received a city letter in late July saying it is incorrect.

Young said the council is still waiting for the committee's renumbering of Country Club, and once they present one, renumbering there will no longer be on hold.

Although the letter states the residents have 30 days to make the changes, residents will continue to receive mail at their previous address for a year.

Committee members said they aren't sure when they will complete their evaluation of the town's numbering plan.

Ron Oller, a city councilman who is also on the committee to evaluate the renumbering plan, said the committee was only trying to ensure that the new plan is correct.

"We just wanted to make sure we wouldn't have to do this again five years down the road," said Oller.