RUMFORD – The 10 families living on what is now the East Bethel Road in the oldest section of Rumford will soon have their addresses changed.
Selectmen, after nearly an hour of discussion and virtual consensus with those residents Thursday, agreed to make the change at the request of the Bethel E-911 addressing officer, Sarah Tucker, and Rumford Fire Chief John Woulfe.
“I’ve lived in the same house for 60 years and I haven’t moved, but my address has changed three times,” said Edmond Leonard.
With Thursday’s decision, that will be four times.
At issue is a different road name and differing numbers for the same road that connects Rumford Corner with Route 26. The Rumford portion has been known as the East Bethel Road for nearly 10 years. That name change came about when the first emergency response system was put into place.
The Bethel section of that same road is named Intervale Road. More than 30 families live on the Bethel section. Within a month or so, the Rumford residents will also have an Intervale Road address.
Geneva Leonard said that when she first lived on the road, it was called the Bryant Pond Road, then simply Route 232, then the East Bethel Road.
The problem, said Woulfe, is that the East Bethel Road numbers start in Rumford and the Intervale Road numbers start in Bethel. Not only are they the same road, but sometimes, the same numbers. Some odd numbers are on one side of the road while others are on the other side of the road.
Such numbering can be confusing for emergency vehicles that respond to E-911 calls, Woulfe said.
Tucker said the state also wants the entire length of a road to have the same name.
She said the maps of Rumford and Bethel would not be approved by the state if the same road didn’t have the same name, adding that the Intervale Road has also been renamed at least three times in the past 50 years.
“That (Rumford Corner) is the heart of Rumford. That’s where Rumford originated. This is the biggest kick in the butt,” Gabrielle Moore said.
Woulfe said Rumford’s East Bethel Road residents will have a year to change their postal addresses. In the interim, mail will be delivered to both the old and the new addresses. The numbering should begin, along with installation of new signs, within a month.
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