Questions Regarding County Ordinance Of Displaying House Numbers Arise At Fiscal Court

Edmonson Voice Staff
Sheriff Shane Doyle said he was recently made aware of a county ordinance passed several years ago regarding the proper displaying of street address numbers on homes in Edmonson County in today's Fiscal Court meeting. Doyle wanted to know specifics and what the law said in regards to his office handling enforcement of the ordinance.

County Attorney J.B. Hines said he was aware of the ordinance and that citations could be written for ordinance violations, however, he also said it would take some research and meeting with the Sheriff to determine a more common sense approach.

Both Hines and Doyle have said on numerous occasions that the county has never taken a priority on simply writing citations, but rather that citizens know and follow the law.

Doyle said he thought the ordinance said street numbers were supposed to be 4 inches in height, and displayed either on the home or mailbox. Several questions regarding placement, what material, and others were asked. 

County EMS Director Keith Sanders said trying to find some addresses in Edmonson County can be a nightmare. "People sometimes put the numbers on their mailboxes, but can be on the opposite side of the post than what an ambulance driver sees when we're on a call. In order for it to work for emergency purposes, it needs to be displayed on both sides of the mailbox."

Sanders also spoke to the fact that some subdivisions have a group of mailboxes at the entrance and that homes within those subdivisions have the same street address, just a different mailbox number. This is easy for the postal service to accommodate, but emergency services can't find these homes sometimes from just addresses on mailboxes alone.

Judge Cannon mentioned the blue reflective signs that fire departments sold a few years back and that they were highly visible from the road, however, the placement of those signs were not uniform and they were hidden at some homes because of a poor choice of display.

County officials said they would first research the current ordinance, look into it's enforcement, and then educate the population on the findings. "We're not interested in writing a bunch of tickets for somebody not having a certain size house number displayed" said Sheriff Doyle. "We just want to be able to find street addresses when we have to. No citizen wants us to have to stop and ask directions to their home when there's an emergency."