DIXFIELD – Discussion at Monday night’s 45-minute Planning Board meeting centered mostly on the town’s attempt to get Enhanced 911 coverage.

For the past several years, Dixfield has been trying to get the emergency telephone system installed by compiling correct E911 addresses. The vital data is needed to route emergency calls to the correct public safety answering point.

“We’ve been working on it for six years,” said planner Pat McBride.

Problems arose, however, bogging down the project, said Planner Ralph Clarke. He recalled one instance where Route 2 was reconstructed and a curve added that changed the residency of some homeowners from one neighboring town to Dixfield.

“Every time we sent something in (to the state) they sent it back and wanted changes,” he said.

That happened again this year when, after the town submitted its finished product, the state “kicked back” the 911 maps so that East Dixfield and Canton Point roads could be renumbered.

“That’s going to make it more confusing,” said Planning Board Chairman Craig Nash. “We followed the instructions (numbering addresses) from west to east and from south to north. We were the last ones to submit our data and that’s probably why we have to change, because Wilton said they would not change (their numbers) on Route 2.”

Planner Pat McBride said the state now wants Dixfield to number addresses along its roads in the opposite directions than what Nash claimed they were instructed.

“They want us to take the Canton Point Road and continue coming this way with the numbers from Canton and continue from Wilton to Carthage,” she added.

That, however, presents a problem from Nash’s perspective.

“The problem is our ambulance service comes from Mexico so all of East Dixfield’s ambulance calls will go to Wilton. That county (section) is going to be a problem. Our police still want to take care of calls there and (Dixfield Fire Chief) Scott Blaisdell still wants to be aware of what’s going on when East Dixfield and Wilton Fire (departments) get called out,” Nash said.

The problem with East Dixfield village is that the Wilton/Dixfield town line goes right down the middle of Route 2.

Parts of the village of East Dixfield are also in Carthage and Jay and split between Franklin and Oxford counties, further complicating the responder issues.

“The original plan was to have Wilton handle East Dixfield, but this (renumbering system) is going to make it more confusing,” Nash added.

Clarke agreed, saying that there have already been instances where Med-Care Ambulance in Mexico has been dispatched to calls in East Dixfield only to find that another ambulance service from another town handled the call.

In 1988, Maine voters approved the statewide deployment of Enhanced 911 service.

According to MEGIS’s Web site, this improved emergency communication system automatically displays the address of a caller at an emergency call answering center.

“If a caller is hysterical, becomes unconscious, or hangs up, the answering center will know where to send help,” the Web site states. “This is also true if the caller does not speak English or is unfamiliar with his or her location, such as an out-of-state visitor, or even a resident, might be.”

In 1994, the Emergency Services Communication Bureau was created as an agency within the Maine Department of Public Safety to oversee the development and implementation of statewide E911 service.

To provide the location of a caller, a telephone number must be linked to a physical address that clearly identifies the location of that telephone.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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