By Alex Malm
The Londonderry Heritage Commission heard a presentation from Bryan Young the 9-1-1 liaisons for the Town.
He said that in his role he is a member of the Street Naming Committee for Town and one of the things that they have done is went through the different streets in town and tried to clean up the names to meet the E 9-11 standards so they can avoid things like conflicting names or conflicting sounding names in case of a emergency.
“When people are panicked they don’t speak clearly,” said Young.
Young said that now they have a process in place that allows them to screen the proposed names better before they are built.
He explained that they try to meet the guidelines from the State and try to please the general public saying that if they are paying for the road to be built they have a little bit of say in the name.
Young said that during the process one of the important things that they look at is the numbering of the different addresses saying that they want to make sure that the houses are labeled in an order that’s easy for first responders and others to follow.
He said that when they aren’t in an easy to follow order it can make things more difficult.
“It makes it a little bit more challenging for us when we are responding to an emergency,” said Young.
Other things that they consider are trying to not have people’s names and not having directions in addresses.
Young said that the State of NH also has their own guidelines and while they can’t enforce any of the rules they are able to make recommendations for towns to follow.
Heritage Commission Vice Chair Art Rugg asked if they could look into having a representative from the Heritage Commission on the Committee.
Young said that is something they can look into.
It was asked if the Committee would be interested in getting some historical names from the Heritage Commission so they could propose them to developers.
Young said that is something they would likely consider.
“I don’t think we would be opposed to that,” said Young.
He said that having more options for names to give to people wouldn’t be a bad thing and said he thinks it would be beneficial in the future.
Young said that when someone proposes a name in a development the road name goes on the plan that then goes to the Planning Department, the Street Naming Committee and the other appropriate people.
He said that once the Committee gives approval for the name based on the guidelines it then goes to the Planning Board, the Heritage Commission and other appropriate boards and commissions for their input.