Questions answered by Lamar Paris, County Commissioner
Q. We live on a subdivision road that is private and we called the Road Dept. this week to ask for salting and snow removal assistance and they told us they could not work on a private road. What if we have an emergency and need to get off our mountain? What will we do?
A. This has been a very unusual weather event in that I can not remember when our roads were so severely impacted with such a small amount of snow for so long. Our Road Dept. has done an outstanding job under these very difficult conditions. However, unless we feel there is a particular public safety issue, or other extenuating circumstances such as special assistance required for medical issues, we can not go onto private roads. It is the law.
One suggestion is that subdivision owners get together and have a small supply of salt mix that they can individually spread on their private roads. Some utilize a community salt box and we will assist with providing small amounts of salt mix if you will contact the Road Dept.
Q. I am concerned that our new numbering address system for Union County has made us invisible to people that use GPS or Map Quest to find us. Medical personnel and home services staff utilize these mapping devices and a delay in an emergency situation could prove fatal! I am told it will take several years before GPS devices are updated and until then we will remain invisible. How are we going to fix this? Can we not continue to utilize both our new and old addresses?
A. First, the very problem you are concerned about is the very reason we have a new addressing system – so that emergency services personnel can locate any address in our county in a real emergency. GPS units, while a great asset and a relatively new tool, are not reliable for emergency services purposes and are widely inaccurate in rural areas. In addition, only a very small portion of the public currently utilizes GPS. Reliability will increase with time, but you have to know what you are doing with GPS and only utilize it where it will work. For example, many GPS units will route you through Gainesville to go to Atlanta instead of Hwy 515. Currently, if you rely on a GPS to find a local address in Union County, you will most likely not find it accurately. One key reason is that our old address system does not follow any current addressing standard.
B. Once our new address database is completely corrected, it will be delivered to the GPS companies, but it will take probably at least a year before they input the data. The problem with most GPS users is that once they purchase their unit, they never update their unit’s data, so for the most part, many existing GPS units may never have the new addresses. See C below.
C. We are not invisible. If you have a business or your own address labels or advertisements, simply add in parenthesis (GPS address 123 County Rd) .That way, anyone will get as close to you as they would have before the new addresses took place.
Additionally, you may leave your old address on your mail box as long as it does not bother the Post Office. The main purpose of the green address posts are to recognize home driveway entrances and business locations accurately, not necessarily mail boxes. (although many times they are the same)
Q. (Question from NGN reader) The night before Christmas, our family was unpleasantly surprised to view a bright red flashing light out our living room window which is partially obstructing our view of Coosa Bald. Can we not be protected from this invasion?
A. I agree with your complaint. That is exactly why we put in an ordinance to control cell tower construction to help minimize these structures and eliminate the necessity of lights flashing all over the valley. Unfortunately, this situation is a different issue all together. The radio communication tower for Georgia Forestry on the Pat Colwell Rd. was condemned and they recently installed a new tower with the assistance of FEMA and GEMA, (Georgia and Federal Emergency Management Agencies).
The tower is actually 20’ shorter than the original tower. Our contact information said that because the tower is within five miles of the airport (actually 2.45 miles), and because of a “slope test”, the tower requires this new lighting. However, we are going to follow up with the FAA to see if this requirement can be mitigated somehow.
Generally, lights are not required on towers less than 200’ in height, which is why our Cell Tower Ordinance requires towers to be monopole and less than 200’ in height. Apparently the previous communication tower had been in the same general location for many years and also had a red light, but it was not as bright nor as large, so maybe you simply did not notice it. We will update you when we have additional information from the FFA.