Address changes in final stage
BY ALYSSA MEIER
A county-wide shift to the Burkle addressing system is near completion, with state officials advising that final steps will be wrapped up within the month.
GIS Section Chief Phillip Peterschick advised this week in an email shared with the Independent that McLean County, the last county in the state to shift to an Enhanced 911 system, will be fully transitioned within the coming weeks.
“McLean is the last county to perform this clean up and go to Enhanced 911 services in the state,” Peterschick said. “Many many other (counties) all have completed the same process in recent years.”
The change involves ensuring rural addresses are numbered systematically and with directional indicators, a standard that has been law since 1993 but was treated with more urgency in recent years as 911 addressing systems evolved.
“With the current enhancements in Enhanced 911 and Next Generation 911, the importance of ensuring a consistent and statewide standard became more important because addresses are now stored in a GIS format (rather than a flat table/database) in the statewide seamless basemap,” Cody Schulz, Director of Homeland Security said.
Schulz said that the primary motivation for the change is in public safety, as the Burkle system sets specific guidelines for consistency.
“Burkle requires that the numerics on the address have 100 per mile, (for example, 3700 1st Street NW is one mile from 3800 1st Street NW) and can be easily calculated,” Schulz said.
