Dexter E911 committee to revise street numbering system

DEXTER – It’s time for Dexter’s E911 committee to regroup.

The Town Council was advised Thursday there has been some confusion among fire, police and ambulance personnel regarding the numbering system of fire lanes and streets that have similar-sounding names.

The committee will meet later this month to begin to make corrections and change the numbers of fire lanes to proper names, according to Town Manager Judy Doore.

Doore said she stressed to the council that the committee will work closely with residents on the affected streets to include them in the process. She also said the E911 committee did nothing wrong when it originally named the streets early in the process. It’s been a learning experience, she said.

“It’s one of those issues that you have to look at every year and we haven’t looked at it every year,” Doore said Friday. “There are some things maybe we should have done that we didn’t and maybe some things we did that we should have fine-tuned along the way.”

Dexter Fire Chief Melvin Wyman, who serves as the E911 chairman, told the council Thursday about the confusion that occurred during a recent call to a fire lane on Little Lake Wassookeag. It turned out that the matter was not life-threatening, but the time spent determining the exact location was troubling, he noted.

Doore advised the council on a recent visit by officials from the Bureau of Labor Standards who found the town in noncompliance with certain requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Among the issues raised was the need to update written policies. Doore said the safety committee that she assembled has corrected all of the deficiencies in three weeks.

A special council meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 16, to formally accept a $165,000 Community Development Block Grant for improvements to the Town Hall. Those funds and the town’s match provide about $200,000 to make adjustments to the furnace and make the building handicapped accessible, and for cosmetic repairs such as the replacement of windows, Doore said. The Town Hall committee will serve in an advisory role to the council for the project.