County council considers enforcing ordinance requiring street numbers

Ledger Staff Writer

Fire Chiefs Association members expressed concern to county leaders Monday that county residents weren’t placing their street numbers on their homes.

Fire Chiefs Association representative Reggie Petty told Cherokee County Council the Sheriff’s Deparment, emergency services and fire departments have trouble locating homes without a visible reflective street number.

Council chairman Hoke Parris empathized with the emergency personnel.

He offerered this advice to county residents whose homes don’t have the reflective street numbers.

“The life you save may be your own,” he said.

Petty asked council to consider enforcing an ordinance that requires homeowners to have their street address posted on their homes. He also suggested that county residents stencil their street number on their county trash cart.

But county councilman Charles Mathis said the ordinance requires the street numbers to be posted on the homes.

Petty said the Fire Chiefs Association recommends county residents buy a reflective street address sign. The signs are availabe at fire departments for $10. He also said that price is often waived for county residents facing financial hardship.

Councilman Bailey Humphries recommended a grace period before county officials begin to enforce the ordinance. He also suggested that council members delay action until they meet next week with the planning commission, which is studying the issue.