EATON — Currently at Hueston Woods State Park, if there is an emergency situation at one of the picnic (or other) areas there is no address for emergency responders to pull up when dispatched there.
Preble County Commissioners are working to rectify the situation.
During their meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 1, the three commissioners met with County Engineer Kyle Cross and County Auditor Lavon Wright to discuss adding addresses to Hueston Woods.
“It has come to our attention that there are some issues around the Hueston Woods area with addresses on the 9-1-1 side of things. We’re trying to get things corrected,” Commission President Chris Day said. “In trying to correct those we’ve found a man who can come in and do this as a project.
“We’re looking at possibly having this gentleman take care of these issues to try to further move GIS down the road here. What we’re asking is for some input from you guys on what you think.”
“Is this something that is beyond Brad [Kramer’s] capabilities?” Cross asked. “Is this something that is beyond our personnel to do this?”
Commissioner Rodney Creech answered, “I think it is more of a workload issue. If we did it in house, we would have to hire somebody to help do it.”
“We’re not looking so much at the buildings as at the roads of picnic sights and camp things and that sort of things,” Commissioner Denise Robertson clarified.
“So those do not have an actual address at this time and they’re looking at adding them?” Wright asked and the commissioners verified her statement.
“If I’m at a picnic area and I have a medical emergency, this will make it easier for them to get to me,” Robertson said.
The public will still be able to refer to their position as “the beach” or whatever area they are in, and the responders will have the exact address, eliminating error and increasing response time.
“It is more about getting a location based on where that caller is at and they can get somebody there. If somebody calls in and says they are at Hueston Woods with a medical emergency then there are a lot of possibilities. If someone is from Columbus, they have no idea where they are at,” Day said.
“What we are looking at is, we asked Kramer to bring us a project and somebody who can take care of it to see how it will work out, having someone else do small projects for us. This is just something to try and get an issue taken care of.”
