Young Shire Council’s general manager Peter Vlatko is on a mission to have work start on street numbering in the town by the end of June.
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He’s looking for a community group willing to take on the job of painting numbers on gutters, and council will fund the paint and brushes.
He said he’d rather see the dollars go towards a local group or charity, who could potentially raise money from the task, than to a company.
Councillor Stuart Freudenstein raised the topic at council’s budget meeting on May 6.
The councillor wanted to know the status of the work, which has generated public debate and desperate pleas from emergency services and community organisations for more than four years.
Calls for upgrades to street numbers can be traced back to mid-2011 when local businesses were urged by council and the then Young Rescue Committee to update their street numbers at both the front and rear of premises to aid personnel locating addresses during emergencies.
At the time council said it wasn’t something it could fund and onus was on the property owner.
But in May 2013 when emergency services and community organisations, such as Meals on Wheels and Home Care Service NSW, said they were fed up with the apathy of businesses and residents and wanted council to fix the problem before a tragedy occurred.
They called for council to fund gutter numbering, apply for grants to pay for it or enforce property owners to number properties themselves.
Council put aside funds for the work in the 2014 and 2015 budgets.
“We’re anticipating it to start before June 30,” Mr Vlatko said at the budget meeting.
“We’re trying to get a community group to do it so they can make money out of it.”
Mr Vlatko said they’re currently awaiting word from one community group, but added if those plans fell through he’ll be writing a letter to all groups in Young.
“There are funds available from last year and this year, about $10,000,” he said.
“That’s what we want to do (give the job to a community group) so it gets started by the end of the financial year.”
A similar case arose - instead with an unnamed street - a few months ago in a lane off Forsythe Avenue when an ambulance couldn’t locate a man believed to be suffering a heart attack.
The laneway - a private road - contains six homes and concerned Cr Freudenstein, who raised the incident at a council meeting at the time.
“It’s been like that (no street name) for a long time,” he said.
“It wasn’t as big an issue when there were two or three homes but now there’s six.”
Council’s planning director Craig Filmer confirmed there was positive news on that front.
He said there was communication between council’s planning staff and the owner of the private road regarding the name choice.
“It will be reported to council shortly.”