Dana Wormald, The Union Leader (Manchester, NH)

DERRY – On Tuesday night, the Town Council officially approved a request to move forward with having the state’s Department of Safety Bureau of Emergency Communications undertake an E-911 mapping program for the town.

In August, Kenny-Lynn Dempsey from the bureau and Fire Chief George Klauber spoke about the plan to address street naming and numbering issues in the town.

“This is only the first step in a several step process to get our community mapped for faster public safety personnel response in 911 calls,” said Town Administrator John Anderson. “This will trigger us to be put in the queue for the collection and verification of all existing addressing as it exists in Derry, and then they will provide the town with a complete set of maps and digital data for emergency response at no charge.”

Derry is one of the last communities in the state to sign on to the program, according to Dempsey.

Under the mapping plan, the Bureau of Emergency Communication will provide detailed mapping and information on every road, structure and fire hydrant in the town. It will also provide recommendations for street naming and numbering issues.

While the state will make the recommendations, it will be

up to the town to decide what type of action it wants to take as far as renaming streets or renumbering houses along those streets.

The mapping program is free, but Dempsey said it could take another year or two for the state to get to Derry because there are other communities waiting to have their streets mapped.

Once the state collects the mapping data, Dempsey said it will be reviewed and merged with data from the town.

Earlier in the summer, the Planning Board adopted regulations to have all new subdivisions and subdivision roads be numbered in accordance with state regulations.

The new Planning Board address standards provide a clear, unambiguous system that minimizes response time and errors, according to Klauber. He added that the goal is to establish priorities for numbers and roads that may need to be addressed once the mapping is completed.

There is no impact on the town’s operating budget for the program, according to Anderson, as all telephone users in Derry pay a surcharge on the existing phone bills to have the work performed.

“This is all about public safety and how quickly we can respond to public safety emergencies when necessary,” said Anderson.

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