Transition period for new addresses set to expire soon

Many of Saline County's residents have had two addresses for nearly a year because of changes in road names and addressing grids put in place by the Saline County E911 Commission and City Inspector Mike Morgan, but the date is approaching when old addresses will no longer be valid.

Rural residents must display new address numbers on their mailboxes -- and begin using the new addresses exclusively -- beginning April 1, said Postmaster Timmithy Horner. He and Morgan determined that the majority of address changes within Marshall took place in June 2009, so Marshall residents will have until July 31 to post and exclusively use their new addresses.

After that time, mail marked with invalid addresses will be returned to the sender, Horner said.

Because some of the town's residents already use new address numbers, mail delivery has been made more difficult, said Horner.

He requested that residents do "anything they can do to help" mail carriers accurately deliver mail, such as displaying their surnames on their mailboxes, although there is no legal requirement that they do so.

Those with GPS units or who use online map services are also experiencing some difficulties.

Garmin's map supplier, NAVTEQ, has done "significant work in the Marshall, Missouri area," changing road names and address numbers, said Garmin Corporate Communications Senior Manager Ted Gartner, but the update containing these changes is still on the way.

It will be released "as soon as possible," hopefully during April, he added.

The cost to update a Garmin GPS unit is $70 for a one-time update, or $150 for lifetime updates, which are released four times yearly, Gartner said.

Saline County Sheriff Wally George reported that he contacted MapQuest and was told by an employee that all E911-related changes in Saline County have been entered into MapQuest's database.

Viewing MapQuest.com, users can see new road names applied to rural roads, but a search for a specific rural address did not reveal an accurate result.

Rural roadways on Google Maps are listed currently with the long-standing country road designation. No new road names could be located through a Google Maps search, and no reply has been received from Google as of press time.

Contact Geoff Rands at marshallreporter@socket.net