SAFETY

Safety, no laughing matter for emergency personnel !

Originally Reported in the Community Press
by Brandi Brown
Staff Reporter. 

Driving through the affluent Hunt Club area of Miami Township, I smiled as I thought about the people in their homes, preparing for work the next day or putting away the dishes from supper. I wondered if they saw the police spotlight on their homes and asked what the police were doing in their quiet neighborhood.

The reason for my visit was not funny, however. I was riding along with Chief R. Steven Bailey of the Miami Township Police Department. After a few weeks of listening to concerns about the difficulties of locating homes, I went with Bailey to look at some of the problem areas for the township. Bailey said officers often spend valuable time searching for the right home in cul-de-sacs with four mailboxes but no indication which box goes with which home or in neighborhoods like Hunt Club with community mailboxes. “The post office requires it (the community boxes),” Bailey said, but the practice creates problems for emergency personnel. Bailey allowed me to ride with him on patrol to see how difficult it can be at night to identify houses. In Hunt Club, for example, we drove through with Bailey spotlighting the homes. We found only two homes in the entire neighborhood with highly visible numbers posted on their homes above the door. Many of the homes had small numbers next to the door or decorative numbers that match the exterior of the building, but cannot be seen easily. On several of the homes, Bailey and I could not identify numbers at all. Emergency personnel must try to find homes quickly. If someone is having a heart attack, for example, seconds really do count. Looking for the home could mean the survival of the victim is at stake. A surprising number of people call 911 and then do not make an effort to let the police or paramedics know from which home the call originated, Bailey said. People should turn on a light or come outside when possible to make it easier to identify which home is in need.

As we drove through other parts of Miami Township, such as down Loveland-Miamiville Road, I understood exactly how problematic it must be for firefighters and police officers. Along Loveland-Miamiville, some mailboxes are small, unstable and not well marked. 

In other neighborhoods along Wolfpen-Pleasant Hill Road, mailboxes may have numbers faded to the same color as the post or partially torn off. It looks as if some people put numbers on their boxes when they move in, but never check them afterward.

When I asked Bailey whether the township could do anything about it, he sighed. “It’s in our zoning code. It’s an issue of enforcing it.” Enforcing the requirement for residents to post numbers on their homes or mailboxes is indeed an issue. Community Development Director Larry Fronk said while the property maintenance code has a section calling for every home or business to display the building’s address, a very large staff would be required to enforce the resolution. Staff members would have to visit every home in the township and then revisit to make sure the numbers remain up to code. The township simply does not have the staff to enforce the code. 

So, emergency personnel are left scrambling to find the right home. 

Brandi Brown (248-7683) is a reporter with The Community Press. 
She can be reached by e-mail at bbrown@communitypress.com.