PARIS – Residents without street numbers on their homes will be fined $25 per day after the holidays.

Code Enforcement Officer Al Holden said he will soon be mailing postcards on his efforts to step up enforcement of the town’s enhanced 911 ordinance. Under the ordinance, buildings are required to have street numbers.

Holden on Wednesday guessed that about 10 percent of Paris’ properties are lacking easily spotted numbers.

“We have tried to address (the problem) before in different forms,” Holden said. He has driven around town and notified property owners of the need for numbers, then had to go back to see if they had been placed on buildings, he said. “It seemed like it was a never-ending battle.”

So Holden’s latest effort will be via the mail. All property owners will be notified by postcard of the ordinance requirements, and therefore may be held responsible for violations, he said.

Holden’s postcard, which was approved by the Board of Selectmen on Monday, states: “This is to inform you if your 911 house numbers are not posted by __ date, there will be a fine of $25.00 per day as of the date of this notice.”

Holden said he has not set a start date for the enforcement because he is waiting until the holidays are over and until people have had a chance to pay their tax bills.

Al Gervenack, director of the state Public Utilities Commission’s Emergency Communications office, said Paris’ problems with enhanced 911 requirements are not uncommon.

Success in having people place numbers on buildings as been “spotty,” he said, adding that “there are still a number of areas where that’s a constant problem.”

“It’s up to the community to pass an ordinance to require that they put up those numbers,” Gervenack said.

Numbers on homes and buildings are intended to help emergency services personnel, such as police and firefighters, locate properties after a 911 call. When a home is not numbered or has an old number, it can delay response, said Rob Tarbox, director of the PACE ambulance service.

The issue “certainly isn’t isolated to Paris,” Tarbox noted, calling it a statewide problem. He said people “shouldn’t complain about services (arriving late) if they don’t identify their houses.”

Residents also should be sure to post numbers on both sides of signs or mailboxes marking their driveways or residences, he said.

Paris Police Chief David Verrier said there haven’t been many problems due to houses going unnumbered. “Most of us have been here awhile,” he said, speaking on behalf of himself and his staff.

“But I do have some new people, too, and it would be a help if everybody had a number on their house and we could find them,” he added.

Holden said that after postcards have been sent, he will start issuing fines when he spots buildings that are not numbered.