Haskell mayor: Address visibility vital
By JERRY BREEDEN Voice correspondent

MAILBOX MAZE JERRY BREEDEN PHOTO Mazes of mailboxes, like this example cited by Haskell Mayor Jeff Arey, can make it difficult for emergency personnel to find the correct address when responding to a call for help.

Mayor Jeff Arey has a message that just might save some Haskell residents a lot of pain and grief.

Arey is asking city residents to make sure their home addresses can be easily seen from the street nearest the structure.

"It may sound trivial to some, but when you consider how important it is for emergency personnel to be able to locate your home in a time of need, it becomes vitally important," Arey said.

"Those few extra seconds it takes for an ambulance driver, police officer or firefighter to find your home could mean the difference between life and death," he added.

He said house numbers should be clearly visible, day or night, to ensure a quick response by emergency personnel.

Arey said his intentions aren't to "scare anyone, and I know of no recent instances that have come to a bad end because of an incorrect or missing house address. But making sure your address can be seen is a simple thing, can be done in a matter of minutes and could pay huge dividends."

Many house addresses in Haskell are designated solely by numbers on a mailbox without a corresponding number visible on the house itself. Many others do have corresponding numbers on both the mailbox and the house, but some of the numbers are difficult to discern.

Some are faint because they're too small or are painted the same color as the house. Some are blocked from view by overhanging tree limbs or overgrown shrubbery. Still others are at ground level, too low to be seen from the street.

"I would like to ask everyone to walk outside and take a look at their house numbers from the street," said Arey. "If they are easy to see, great. If not, I would ask the home owner or renter to please remedy the situation."

Stick-on or nail-down numbers are inexpensive and available at nearly all hardware outlets. Arey suggests getting dark-colored numbers for lightcolored houses and vice-versa. They should be properly posi- tioned on or near the front door or attached garage, and large enough and high enough to be seen from the road under any circumstances.

A drive through the city with Arey behind the wheel resulted in the discovery of many addresses being obscured by groupings of three or more mailboxes standing side by side. Some of the boxes had numbers; most didn't.

And very few of the houses nearby had numbers matching those on the boxes. And the problem isn't restricted to just one or two sections of town.

"We find the same circumstances in the newest as well as the oldest neighborhoods," the mayor noted.