Commissioners adopt ordinance about naming private roads

Ozark County Commissioners approved a new county ordinance pertaining to creating and naming new county roads during the Dec. 23, 2024, meeting.

According to Presiding Commissioner Terry Newton, the newly adopted ordinance should alleviate a problem that came up concerning several properties off Highway 5 south. 

The properties had been subdivided into several lots with no uniform naming of roads, said Newton. The situation caused confusion when a 911 call would come in, and the dispatchers didn’t know where the roads were, causing a delayed response from emergency responders. This created a dangerous situation, Newton added.

The ordinance adopts a “uniform procedure for the naming and signage of private roads for subdivided property within Ozark County” in hopes that such an action “will increase the public safety for the citizens of Ozark County by assisting law enforcement and emergency service personnel to determine in a timely manner the precise location to which they are responding.” 

The newly adopted ordinance will come into play “when someone in the county buys a property and wants to subdivide their piece of property and put roads in there,” said Newton. “They have to come to us, and we’re going to name those roads for them in the beginning.”

The county will also put up the road signs. However, the person subdividing the property will be responsible for the cost of the signs, said Newton.

“That way we don’t have the issue that we had down there for so long where nobody knows where the heck anything’s at,” said Newton. “They still put the roads where they want and do what they want, we’re just going to be the ones naming them for safety issues.”

The commissioners also set a date of Jan. 13 to receive bids for new flooring in the courthouse.