February 27, 2020
By: Dwayne Page
Although it has been the practice for a long time, the DeKalb County Emergency Communications District (E911) Board can now officially name public and private roads in the county.
During Monday night’s regular monthly meeting, the county commission voted to delegate that authority to the E911 Board.
The DeKalb County Emergency Communications District (E-911) Board is authorized by the state to assign addresses and to make changes when necessary to conform with state standards for 911 mapping but the authority to name public and private roads and streets, including those in residential developments, is exclusively vested in the legislative bodies (county commissions) of counties for unincorporated areas, and municipalities within their incorporated boundaries, in a manner acceptable to the US Postal Service.
However, the legislative bodies (county commissions) may delegate the authority to the Emergency Communications District, provided that the legislative body shall approve road or street name changes made by the district under such terms as the legislative body may determine.
“They have been naming roads and streets unless it comes from a subdivision that the planning commission approves. Most of these they are naming are private roads or driveways but they really haven’t been given that authority. I think that would be the proper thing to do is to give them the authority to name these roads,” said County Mayor Tim Stribling Monday night.
The action was taken at the request of DeKalb E911 Director Brad Mullinax, who addressed the commission during a workshop last Thursday night.
According to Mullinax, a problem arose recently when landowners could not agree on what name the E911 Board should assign to a private road into their properties.
“What we have run into recently is an issue with a private road. When we have a driveway with multiple parcels of land and two or more houses off that driveway it is in the best interest of public safety to name that driveway a private drive, not for the purposes of maintaining the road, but to be able to get emergency services there. In this type of case the road needs to be named with addresses assigned to it and a sign posted so the road can be identifiable as a private drive and shown on the 911 map,” said Mullinax.
“In this particular case, we asked the landowners to come up with a name but not all them agreed so we decided to bring this to your attention since we do not have the authority to name roads. But if you give us this authority we will continue to do our due diligence going forward to contact each affected property owner to try and make the name we assign satisfactory to them,” said Mullinax.
Before the commission gave its approval, fifth district member Jerry Adcock had a suggestion.
“I think they should put some historical weight into it such as if the road cuts through somebody’s farm where the family has been for a long time, they should consider naming it after that family,” he said