HARTFORD – Turner Fire Chief Steve Fish and Hartford Fire Warden Norm St. Pierre approached the Hartford Board of Selectmen Thursday night asking to have the town’s geographical survey completed so emergency vehicles will know exactly where to go on calls.
Fish cited a carbon-monoxide incident that same day in which fire crews did not have a clear address. He also said there had been two calls that week in which road names were a not clearly designated.
The problems occur because Hartford’s E-911 mapping is not complete, and because Hartford is served by three towns on emergency calls – Canton, Turner and Buckfield. Canton’s Fire Department gets all the calls that come in to E-911; but without an adequate map, engines may be dispatched from one town even though the fire may be only a mile from one of the other covering towns, Fish said.
Since Zoe Cowett is the addressing officer, Fish said she was responsible for getting all the addresses. When Cowett took over the town clerk’s position last November, there were some problems with the E-911 addresses. Cowett said there were lots of errors.
Selectman Laura Marston said former Selectman Scott Swain had done a lot of work on the addresses, and that she would contact him.
She said she has been working on the maps since last summer, but the addresses are what are required. The board asked that people who don’t have a street address not call the town office.
In other news, the board voted to press charges for theft of stolen town property against those who removed the road signs for Goding Road and Green Acres.
They were discovered on a roof in Buckfield by an Oxford County deputy.
The board voted to order another load of winter road salt, and board members met with John Cleveland of Community Dynamics on the future of a town salt shed.
The next town supper will be Friday, April 1, at the Town Hall.
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