Enforcement for Address Display Likely After All Property Owners Are Notified
By Ryan Schlehuber

Property owners on Mackinac Island had until Saturday, July 1, to have their address numbers displayed, but the city is yet to push enforcement as roughly 30 percent of the Island's property owners have yet to receive their new addresses.

Kelly Bean, assistant to the mayor who has been handed the task of getting official address numbers to more than 1,000 parcels, said the job has been difficult, especially in locating summer residents who have property on the Island but do not have post office boxes.

Mackinac Island has never had addresses and is only now assigning them so it can participate in Mackinac County's enhanced 9-1-1 program.

Ms. Bean is asking any property owner who does not have an address by Friday, July 14, to call her for it at 847-6556 or e-mail her at assistant@cityofmi.org.

Otherwise, residents can pick up their address numbers in person Monday through Thursday, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

"Those who have their new address numbers now must get them up as soon as possible," she said.

There has been some debate among residents about where address display signs should be placed in some neighborhoods, such as the West Bluff and East Bluff, where the city has directed residents to place their address signs behind their homes on the service roads, rather than from the front of the house.

"These numbers are more for identification for emergency responders than for actual street addresses and they need to be in places where it is easiest for a responder to get to that particular home," explained Ms. Bean. "For houses on the bluffs, the service roads provide better access. That is why address signs need to be placed there, on from the main road."

Resident address numbers are four numbers long, which Ms. Bean said correspond to the Geographic Information System (GIS) technology that was used to plot the address numbers for each property. The large numbers allow the city to reserve addressing for future development, as well, she said.

Local emergency responders have relied on their familiarity with the area, and, up until a couple years ago, received dispatching assistance from the Michigan State Police in St. Ignace. That system was beginning to break down, however, as condominiums, dormitories, and other new housing sprung up and the Island lost its ability to operate as a small town. Tourists were especially disadvantaged, with no addresses to guide them.

When the State Police transferred all dispatch responsibilities to trained 9-1-1 dispatchers in Negaunee, Mackinac Island either had to operate its own around-the-clock dispatch system or join the rest of Mackinac County in an enhanced 9-1-1 program.

Mackinac Island now has basic 9-1-1 service, where a caller must give specific location directions to responders, but with the new addressing system completed, the Island will have Enhanced 9-1-1, with addresses keyed to telephone numbers reaching computers at Negaunee, so dispatchers will be able to pinpoint a caller as soon as a call is made to 9-1-1, without the caller even speaking.