Photo by Dave Maxwell Planning Director Clint Wertz explaining new County addressing system.

By Dave Maxwell

Just by the way things have worked out, the upcoming U.S. Census in Lincoln County will be greatly enhanced by the new countywide addressing system being established by the Lincoln County Planning Department.

Department Director, Clint Wertz, spoke at the regular meeting of the County Planning Commission December 10 and explained that current addressing for Lincoln County is inadequate to give an accurate census. He said the U.S. Census Bureau has a new component for the 2010 census and is beginning to implement the process in 2008. It’s called the “Address Verification Program,” Wertz said.

Over the past 20 years, the Bureau has found that poor addressing systems have resulted in inaccurate figures. He said the Bureau will send to the County Planning Department, “what they have for addresses and our new addressing program will be able to allow us to give an actual site address.”

Based on the address policy for Lincoln County, that Clint and his staff have developed, addresses will be given out starting sometime after the first of the year. “The towns will be done first, the outlying areas will be done second. Pioche will be first and then Alamo, Panaca then the outlying areas. Clint has said that the City of Caliente already has a pretty good addressing system of their own and it can be worked into the new County system fairly easily.

He said when completed, there will be one location for all the addresses to be compiled, so that county telephone and 911 records can be updated at any given moment for changes or new addresses.

The information from the Census Bureau to the Planning Department will be coordinated by staff to identify dwelling units, “everything from a cabin in the mountains to multiple-dwelling units,” he said. “The benefit of getting the work done, and giving a new list to the Bureau is that we can challenge and work with them on the addresses,” he added. “It will also allow us in 2009 or 2010, in case there is great influx of new residents in the south end of the county, to add those in at the last minute and still get the numbers right.”

Most street and road names will remain the same, especially if there is a sign posted, but new numbers will be given to almost every location, even vacant areas. In the outlying areas, a county road number and name will be given if one doesn’t exist already. In some cases, road names will be changed. However, that will be worked out with the residents along that road.

Everything will be converted up until April 1, 2008, which is the deadline with the census for getting all the addressing done, Clint said. New dwellings after that will be charged $20 to have an address assigned.

Wertz also suggested that an official county road map be published that shows names and numbers of the road and what classification and sub-classification the road falls into. He said that is going to correspond with how much the road is maintained and the use on the road. The official map will also allow County officials to deal with questions and issues that might come up pertaining to the road, i.e, right of way, easements, and road width.