By Amy Vellucci, The Union Leader

ROCHESTER, N.H.  — For the past 13 years, city officials have worked to rectify the confusion caused by duplicate or even triplicate street names in the community.

While the end is in sight, the process could take another year or two to correct out-of-place addresses in the city.

Fire Chief Norm Sanborn, who has worked with a group of officials on the E-911 Committee for more than a decade, said the process could have been completed quicker if city officials had decided just to publish a list of changes, as in other communities.

Sanborn said city officials wanted to ensure residents and business owners had their say, especially when there were duplicated street names.

“In the past, people have had problems,” Sanborn said, adding that some people in Rochester were reluctant to go through the process of changing their addresses.

The next change could occur as early as April 2013 along parts of Route 125, which follows six different streets through the city.

Sanborn said the members of the E-911 Committee presented their recommendations to the Public Safety Committee during their Feb. 15 meeting. He said they hoped to simplify some of the street names – specifically where Charles and Hanson streets extend along Route 125 – to avoid confusion, especially since many people are unaware where roads begin.

Sanborn said the Public Safety Committee easily agreed with the E-911 committee’s suggestions to end Hanson Street at the intersection of Lowell Street and Charles Street at the Shell station.

He said the affected sections of Route 125 would be renamed as part of Columbus Avenue, which begins in the downtown.

Sanborn said the harder part was to determine how far south to extend Columbus Avenue: to the bridge at Brock Street or all the way to the Spaulding Turnpike overpass near Exit 12.

“The (public safety) committee batted it around,” Sanborn said, adding they eventually decided to have the overpass separate Columbus Avenue and Gonic Road, which follows Route 125 all the way to the Barrington town line.

Sanborn said the members of the Public Safety Committee will present the proposed changes to fellow members of the city council during their regular meeting, scheduled for March 6 at 7 p.m. in council chambers. If accepted, the council will schedule a public hearing in April to allow residents to have their say, Sanborn said.

If approved by the council, the changes along Route 125 would not take effect until April 2013, Sanborn said, giving the affected businesses and residents time to prepare.

Sanborn said the next challenge for officials is to renumber the addresses which are “out of sync” on some of the longer roads in the city. He recalled an incident where firefighters had trouble responding to an address during an emergency since the number was out of order.

“That causes a lot of safety problems on longer streets,” Sanborn said.

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