A road, by any other name. Why some Indian Land homes are getting a new address.

Maybe it’s a hassle having to change mail, tax records and personal information. But it’s a change one public safety expert says could save lives.

“We're trying to get the right resources in the right places, as quickly as possibly,” said Stephen Blackwelder, director of Lancaster County Public Safety Communications. “Livelihood and seconds count in an emergency. It's crucial.”

More than a dozen Indian Land addresses are changing. It’s a move aimed at improving public safety. The county is using a new computer-aided dispatch system. Blackwelder requested the change to help the map-based system better distinguish between Stirling Lane, Starling Lane and Sterling Court.

“We have three names of the roads that sound really close on the radio,” Blackwelder said. “They're all so close together that my 911 addresser has gone through the process to get them renamed.”

Stirling Lane runs off Cressingham Drive in the Belair subdivision. Stirling has 11 addresses, plus two corner homes on Cressingham with property along it. The proposed changes would rename it Hampshire Lane.

Starling Lane is in Sun City, off Oriole Drive. Six homes there soon could have Chickadee Lane addresses.

Sterling Court is a horseshoe shape off Ashley Glen Way, near the intersection of Henry Harris and Shelley Mullis roads. Sterline has almost 60 homes or lots along it. The county isn’t proposing a name change there.

“We took the one that had the most addresses on it, verifiable addresses, and it will stay,” Blackwelder said. “Trying to make it as simple as possible, to effect the lowest number of people.”

Not everyone is pleased with the proposal.

“If you were 75 years old and your whole life was tied up in your address — your bank, credit card, retirement, social security —how would you feel?” said Judy Jacobson, who lives on Starling Lane.

She said the one time she had to call 911, the first thing she told an operator wasn’t the street address but that she was in Sun City. Landline calls automatically put in the address, she said, though Jacobson sees where cell calls could be an issue. Still, the change coming isn’t warranted, she said. She sees the changes as a “five-way bypass when a (stent) would work.”

“They’re similar, but not the same,” Jacobson said.

Blackwelder wrote to the county planning commission asking for the changes. The similar names “create great potential for confusion in dispatching emergency calls for service.” Names said over the radio in particular, he wrote, are too easily misunderstood. A firefighter himself, Blackwelder knows first-hand how confusing it can be.

“I have literally gone toward the wrong address and got diverted,” he said. “Luckily it was not an emergency.”

A couple of years ago, a fire call came in for property on Stirling Lane. Trucks responded to Sterling Court. There wasn’t a fire, but had there been, the results could have been severe. The response time was delayed at least 10 minutes by the confusion.

“First responders have many pitfalls that can and do delay their response,” Blackwelder wrote. “Knowing a situation such as this exists, we have a duty to act to correct it.”

Residents have reached out to the county with concerns. Having to change a driver’s license is a common one. Residents asked about estate planning, and other areas where personal information is needed from banks to the post office to tax documentation.

“We have gotten some response back,” Blackwelder said. “My 911 addresser knows some of the these people on a first-name basis, quite honestly. There have been some upset with having to change their information.”

Jacobson said a neighbor of hers is 83 and just moved there. Now that neighbor will have to change all her information again if the changes happen.

“Because we’re old, change is hard,” Jacobson said.

Which doesn’t even include her concern for having to learn to spell “Chickadee” as in Chickadee Lane.

“I could see spelling that for the rest of my 15 years before I drop dead,” Jacobson joked.

The county planning commission meets at 6:30 p.m. tonight at the Lancaster County Administration Building in downtown Lancaster. Blackwelder said he understands why some might oppose changes, but he believes public safety is at stake and is big enough a concern to act.

“We’re looking for the best path to get there,” he said. “It’s part of a bigger picture.”

This story was originally published October 17, 2017 at 3:26 PM with the headline "A road, by any other name. Why some Indian Land homes are getting a new address.."