Travis County Commissioners Court

April 3, 2012 - Item 20
Agenda

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Number 20 is Consider and take appropriate action on two street name assignments for private easements who have Hamilton Pool Road to be known as Imagine Way and Fox Trot Lane in Precinct 3.

>> steve manila, t.n.r.
this is continuation of an item we brought before you last week and we needed to have staff consult with the addressing committee to try to answer some questions that were raised at that time.
and with that I'd like to go ahead and have gala go through what she has accomplished this week.
I believe mr. Wood is here also to speak on his own behalf.

>> gala with t.n.r.
we left you last week with one property owner out of nine that was asking some pretty good questions so hi to take it from Tuesday and confide with some of our team members in the addressing committee.
stephanie is here to help me explain the part that I'm not as apt to explain about how e.m.s.
is notified, is dispatched and what they do from there.
so still we have a majority of people that need to have -- that feel they have the need to have their easement named.
and it's not just a simple one way in, one way out easement.
it's an intersection.
so there's got to be some decision-making whenever emergency people go -- locate that.
and how it's located is what I hope stephanie can explain and the necessity for street names as opposed to the unit numbers and letters that we had considered.

>> good morning, judge, Commissioners.
my name is stephanie jensen, Travis County addressing coordinator, employed with city of Austin.
we do addressing for pretty much the entire county including city of Austin.
I work very closely with the emergency responders for 911.
the communication supervisors in particular are -- my office is responsible for updating the addressing information in the 911 system and we work closely with them when there's addressing issues to fix that and the data in order to help emergency response.
in this particular instance, in working with gala and my staff, we -- I requested that Austin-Travis County e.m.s.
and also esd 6 take a look at the area and give me the recommendations and both of them recommended that the easement should be named in order to locate the residence faster and easier.
the way that the 911 system works is based on the street center line and the address ranges that are assigned to that street center line.
so without those easements being named, they are not in our 911 system.
and when a call comes in at that address, that 16922 hamilton pool road, it will show on the map to the responders an approximation on that segment of the street that has that address range.
so it doesn't take it exactly to the location of 15922, it interprets according to the range.
the -- when a call comes, a 911 call comes in, it would direct the emergency responders to that named easement segment and put them closer to the actual incident.
so it's my recommendation from the 911 addressing office and it's the recommendation of Austin e.m.s.
and e.s.d.
6 to name those easements in order to provide quicker response.

>> did we give some thought to appropriate signage if we, in fact, named bows of the easements?
we talked about that a little bit last week.

>> these are not county maintained streets.
the -- the owners of the easement or the people who live there do have some flexibility in what they can use as street signs just as they do on private streets.
so if they want to propose something for us to look at, we would be glad to do that.

>> miss jensen, in addition to the names of streets, does your office recommend signage?

>> we always recommend signage, posting of addresses.
that's very key in locating addresses in an emergency response.
in this instance, the way it's currently addressed, it's with unit numbers.
it's one address and unit numbers.
the two easements, there's an intersection of the easements, and the allocation of the units throughout the area are not consistent.
they are not in a sensible order, a, b, c, d, e.
it's kind of jumbled.
what we like to do you want sequential numbers or sequential units so that when you come to unit a, you know unit b is next.
and unit c is next and so forth.
even with proper posting of the unit numbers on these homes, there still so scattered around it would potentially delay response because the emergency responder wouldn't know which unit is next.
so it would be difficult to locate that home in that manner.

>> any other questions for miss jensen?

>> I'd like to -- I'd like to --

>> would you all come forth, please?
we have three residents here on it.
mr. Wood, you too.
please come forward.

>> I'm lisa roden and my husband are the actual owners of the easement.
I had an answer to your question about the signs.
we have agreed wee will pay for signs to be put up.
I've been informed they cannot be green or broken so we'll get a nongreen or brown sign, one to go on hamilton pool road that says imagine way on top of the stop sign that's existing and at the corner we'll put another one that has both streets named there.
in addition we're going to stress to homeowners how important it is that they do put visible numbers in front of their house.
and I think they will be very receptive to this.
and we'll help them in any way if they need help.

>> okay.
mr. Wood.

>> yes, sir.
judge, panel, can you see it?
can you see that?

>> I can.

>> this is a four inch letter.
this is a five inch letter.
I've built all over the country large projects.
how many apartments in Austin are there?
have any idea?

>> how many apartments?

>> how many apartment complexes.
how much is in our district.

>> more than a dozen.

>> how are they numbered?
the same way.
these letters are required by most e.m.s.
and fire marshals throughout the united states.
they are required.
I pulled one off the internet yesterday when I bought these from home depot just to show you.
I built three buildings in sarasota, florida.
they required me to use that number.
they required me to put tonight a place where it was visible from when that person, e.m.s., fire, sheriff, whoever, pulled up there without getting out of their vehicle, they can see that that's the right address they are supposed to be at.
irregardless, I've got a gps truck, that thing is accurate just like that, but sometimes it will make a mistake too.
but it won't make a mistake if a fireman is sitting there looking and he sees that number and he knows that's where he's supposed to be at.
I do not object.
that street was named by charlie perkins a long time ago.
I think I'm the oldest resident out there.
I've been out there the longest.
the map they have of my property is wrong.
I've got four pieces of property there, not one.
I've got four accesses, not one.
and in order at my stage of life, if have I to unscramble every piece of mail I get for the next two years because we all know what the postal service is in right now.
so you put two more sets of numbers out there, they are going to mess up every one of them at least once.
some of them twice.
it's going to be a real problem.
but that's not the biggest problem.
even with naming the street, and I don't care what you name it, that does not bother me a bit.
I've named so many streets it's not funny.
but they are still going to have the problem talking about a minute ago about getting people to put these up where they are supposed to be.
so I suggest if you want to change the street names, change them.
if you want to readdress them, readdress them.
but then put some criteria on the location and size and visibility of the things that you are trying to stop.
what you are trying to do is solve the problem for e.m.s.
and fire and everybody else.
not for comfort or for somebody's ego.
those things don't enter into it.
what enters into it, and this happened to me in November, after 68 years I wound up in i.c.u.
well, who come out to get me?
e.m.s.
that's the point is they might not have gotten there quick enough if that wasn't visible.
when they got there.
so we need to make some criteria and give some time limit on everybody that lives in there to have a visible address irregardless of what it is to where these things can come.
and then if you are going to name the whole street, there's a privacy gate going into your property needs a -- if we're going to make access to people for emergency services and that's what we're doing this for, then it should have all of the avenues should be accessed and accessed equal.
so they should have a

>> [indiscernible].
the biggest thing is have where the ruling is effective and helps somebody.

>> Commissioner?

>> I think you raise a good point here from a standpoint of an implementation plan.
and this -- this -- these streets are private streets.
they are not county roads.
so the county can't require legally that something occur on a private street.
it's up to the neighborhood to set the standard and see that they take place.
but I do have a question related to that.
do you have an implementation plan?
and quite frankly, I live out in western Travis County and we named our street a number of years ago and I had to deal at my advanced age with everything you dealt with from the standpoint of all the changes of address, but your neighbors will be going through the same thing.
and it sort of seems to me like no pain no gain because you have to move to the next level.
but it needs to be calculated like you are talking about.
I have a question about the implementation plan.

>> well, I don't know how we can go and tell the homeowners, well, you have to put numbers up.
I mean, you know, go knock on their door and require that, but I think I can say that the Commissioners have agreed to let us name this and we need to put numbers.
if you want to get an ambulance, you need to have a number.
now, you know, I'm thinking of a subdivision very near there, destiny hills, nobody has numbers on the houses, on its the mailboxes.
it's on the side of the mailbox.
you know, is that good enough?
does the county have guidelines that says what numbers should be that we could say, well, the county has these guidelines and if we say they are just making us do it, but nobody else has to do it, I don't know how well that's going to go over.

>> we don't have the authority to require that you put numbers -- we don't have that authority.
but I -- I echo Commissioner Huber that we are reliant and have been more than a century on individuals like yourselves to exert some peer pressure.

>> absolutely.

>> because it's one thing about ambulance response, yeah, the ambulance won't know which unit to go to without a number out, but also as we've seen with with the fires.
you know, if we don't know what the unit number is to deal with that, it can be very problematic.
so I echo what Commissioner Huber is saying.
it's peer pressure we're asking to you exert.

>> and we will.

>> the other thing I'm asking about when I say implementation plan is at what point would the name changes go into effect, giving people a certain amount of time to send out notices of their address change and things like that because this is a hassle.

>> you know, you got the thing before here by doing a petition and getting people to sign.
and in order to make something effective for people where you don't really have the authority to do so, you got to do the same thing.
it's got to be by individual consent.
so if we make it predicated on visual inspection by e.m.s.
or the fire people that this is done prior to a name change or changing anything.

>> there are sometimes we do follow up and it's through the city of Austin personnel, and they go out there and they double-check, make sure they get the numbers up and in one instance have gone out there and given property owners the numbers to put up and it finally got done.
that doesn't happen all the time.

>> we keep in stock actual reflective letters that when we do in certain circumstances we will when we send our address change packet, we send those numbers to the residents.
now, it's important to note that if a house is further -- is set back and you post your address and you can't see the house or the address from the street, it needs to be posted at the driveway.
post office boxes are good.
or mailboxes are good.
however -- and I don't know if this is the case in the rural areas, oftentimes mailboxes are closer together and they are on one side so you may have even and odd addresses post odd the mailboxes on one side which for knowledge services could be confusing as well.
to speak about our responsibility, when a decision has been made to name a street, my office sends out letters to all the residents and part of that letter encourages posting of addresses and proper placement of those addresses.
we also notify the post office.
you don't have to do that.
we do that.
we have a direct line to the regional post office in san antonio and they make those updates fairly quickly.
we try to give at least a month if not six weeks' notice of an effective date of the address change and so we try to make it as painless as possible when we do this.
we don't want to ruin anybody's lives and, you know, making things for difficult.
and I'm sure, as you've experienced, I'm sure probably what didn't go as smoothly as you had hoped.
there's always a wrinkle here or there.
and we try to -- we try to manage that as best we can.
but as far as we absolutely make sure that the mail is delivered and that e.m.s.
finds you.
within the 911 system, we make sure that the old and the new address are in there for a certain amount of time so that there is no confusion to that point if residents haven't conformed or they've forgotten their new address and they use their old address, 911 can certainly still get as close as possible.

>> I'd like to say something.
there is interlocal agreement with the county and the city for this addressing committee.
and it's been in place since the '80s.
so as far as when it goes into effect, whenever the vote vote yes or no, yes.
and that's whenever -- the only step have I to have after that before notifying, I think there's 35 people that are within the -- every one of the edss and the firefighting, everybody in emergency response is notified.
and that's as soon as I get the signature page from the agenda that I send to you guys.
and they have a year to deliver the mail to both addresses is what the post office usually does.

>> I was going to say, as soon as the order becomes complete, then we will order the signs and the signs will be put up as quickly as we receive them.
a couple of them have had problems with emergency services.
if you live out there, the only way you can get emergency service is if somebody goes and stands by the road because they can't find it.
quite frankly, these are one, two --

>> [one moment, please, for change in captioners]

>> they're unmarried and old and they may need help.
I don't want them up on a ladder.

>> Commissioner Huber?

>> I move we approve.

>> any more discussion on the motion?
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
thank y'all very much.
we appreciate it.
ms. Wood, you've got a good group of neighbors there.
give us a picture of those numbers and signs once they get up.

>> all right.
will do.
move that we recess until 1:30.
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.

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