Price Place, Ark. addresses now go to Oakland

Ozark County is still several months away from having its 911-system addresses activated, but residents of Price Place, Ark., just south of Pontiac, were notified last week that they should immediately begin using their new 911-system addresses assigned by Marion County, Ark. The requirement will change their mailing addresses from Pontiac, Mo., the nearest post office, to Oakland, Ark., 20 miles away. On the other side of the county, some Dugginsville residents are hoping their addresses will change soon from Missouri to Arkansas, as well.
Price Place residents, who live beyond the south end of Ozark County's Route W, received letters late last week from the U.S. Postal Service telling them their address is now Oakland, instead of Pontiac. Most Price Place residents have had Pontiac mailing addresses since the impoundment of Bull Shoals Lake in the 1950s which separated Price Place from the nearest Arkansas post office, in Oakland.
Marion County recently completed its 911 addressing system, assigning each business and residence, including those in Price Place, a specific house number and street or road name rather than the route and box number they may have had in the past. For several months, Price Place residents have known what their proposed 911-system address was to be; last week's letter, from Monica Hernandez of the USPS district office in Kansas City, made the address change official.
"We understand this change may be difficult," the letter said. "We feel the benefits of this change outweigh the temporary inconvenience. The results will be faster emergency services and more reliable delivery of your mail by eliminating confusion caused by having a Missouri address."
In a phone interview, Hernandez said that although the letter says Price Place residents now have an Oakland address, she's working to get "Price Place" also accepted for use with the Oakland zip code. If approved, residents could then choose to use their street address and "Price Place, AR 72661" as the last line of their mailing address.
She said the same mail carrier delivers mail to both Pontiac and Oakland, so, other than the address change, Price Place residents will see no difference in their mail service. Price Place residents can still pick up oversized parcels and sign for mail that requires signatures at the Pontiac post office.
Although residents are being asked to change their addresses immediately, they can actually continue to use their old Price Place addresses for another 12 to 18 months before mail is returned to sender, she said.

No change in fire districts
The 911 system addressing, linked with a 911 emergency call system, provides emergency dispatchers and responders with more accurate information about the sources of emergency calls.
Currently, 911 calls go to the Ozark County Sheriff's office, where dispatchers can see on their computer screens the caller's phone number but not the physical address. The enhanced 911 system, when it is installed and activated sometime in the future, is expected to give emergency responders a big advantage in finding the locations where responders are needed.
Marion County 911 coordinator Lisa Mitchell said there's no change in the fire district maps now that the county's 911 addressing is complete. If a Price Place resident dials 911, she said, the call still will be routed to the Ozark County Sheriff's Office, which will dispatch the Pontiac/Price Place Volunteer Fire Department.
Al Davidson, PPPVFD chief, said Monday night the address change "has no effect on fire protection in any way, shape or form for Price Place." His department "will respond to any and all emergencies for residents of Pontiac and Price Place that are dues-paying members regardless of their location," Davidson said. Annual dues are $60, he said.

Dismayed or thankful
Some residents are upset by the change; others are thankful for it.
Ozark County Times correspondent Nina Blair thinks the address change may stir up a "firestorm" among Price Place residents. Later this week, her daughter, Tonya Cox, also a Price Place resident, is hosting a gathering of residents to discuss the change and consider organizing opposition. Cox has contacted a Springfield TV station and John Boozman, U.S. Senator from Arkansas, asking for help.
Blair was concerned that the Oakland address would take away Price Place's identity. "And this has been Price Place for more than 100 years," she said.
Blair worries that, among other problems, the address change may lead to another go-round with Arkansas officials who twice before have tried to force Price Place students to attend Mountain Home, Ark., schools rather than having Arkansas districts pay tuition for them to attend school in Gainesville, which is several miles closer by school bus. Both times, the resulting outcry by Price Place residents caused the Arkansas officials to back off from  requiring the change.
"We fought that twice and won. We don't want to have to do it again," Blair said.
On the other hand, 20-year Price Place residents Lorraine and Dennis Kroeker are happy about the change. "I've already changed the address on my credit cards, and now I'm working on my magazines," Dennis said. "In a way, we're glad they're changing. It will save us from a lot of problems."
As an example, he said that because, in the past, they have paid their federal income with a Missouri mailing address even though they live in Arkansas, the Missouri Department of Revenue "was always threatening me that I had to pay Missouri income tax," he said.
"And insurance, that's another problem. Missouri has different rates than Arkansas, and it's always a hassle to explain that you live in Arkansas but have a Missouri mailing address," he said.
It got so bad that at one point he had to have his correspondence with one insurance company mailed to the agent's office instead of to their home, he said.

Dugginsville residents still waiting
Some Arkansas residents of the Dugginsville area wish Marion County would assign them an Arkansas physical address so they could avoid similar problems on their side of the lake.
The fact is, the addresses have been assigned, but they can't be activated until the postal service approves them, and that seems unlikely.
Hernandez said those address changes might not be feasible for the postal service. "There are people on that side of the lake whose address might not change because it's so far away," she said, adding that a mail carrier might have to drive 50 additional miles from Arkansas to service postal patrons who are now served by the Theodosia carrier.
Debbie and John Pharris, who live in Arkansas beyond the end of Ozark County Route P near Dugginsville, say they don't mind having a Theodosia mailing address, but they want a physical address that can be found on GPS mapping systems.
The Pharrises bought their property in 1998 and moved here from Colorado in 2000. "There are advantages and disadvantages to living out here," Debbie Pharris said. "We were surprised when we found out we had no physical address. We hadn't even thought to ask."
Now they live in a sort of melting pot of addresses. Technically they live in Marion County, Ark., but they have a Theodosia mailing address. "If we had a route and box number, our mailbox would still be four miles away at the bottom of the hill, and we're not comfortable leaving our mail out there," she said.
Instead, the Pharrises choose to have a box at the Theodosia post office, 12 miles away. "We just get our mail when we have other things to do in Theodosia--like when we run out of milk," she said.
Their telephone service is provided by Northern Arkansas Telephone Co., which "assigned us to Lead Hill," she said.
Despite living in Marion County, if they dial 911 from their home, Debbie says the call would be routed to Boone County, Arkansas, which includes Harrison. "They aren't going to respond because they would have to take the ferry across the lake," she said.
It took Ozark County emergency responders 90 minutes to find them when they did have to call for help. "We had to say, ‘Go to P Highway, then go this many miles down this dirt road and that many miles down another dirt road,'" she said.
A physical address linked to an activated 911 system would guide emergency responders more easily to their isolated home, she said.
Like the Kroekers, the Pharrises also had trouble with paying their taxes. "I can't use computer software and file online," she said, "because as soon as I put in my Theodosia zip code, it automatically says I live in Missouri. Anything that requires that you report honestly where you physically live is a problem."

Ozark County's 911 system
Tommy Casey is Ozark County's 911 addressing employee, carrying on the work started several months ago by Jacob Miller. They now have assigned new 911-style addresses to all the county's residences and businesses, but a couple of important steps must be completed before the addresses are activated.
First, a letter is being prepared to invite residents who live on private driveways to name their roads, Casey said. Residents who live on a state highway or county road will be assigned a house number on that roadway. But those who live in homes that are not visible from the county road or those who have driveways more than a quarter-mile long will be asked in the letters to name their private drive, he said.
"We base your house number on how far down the driveway your house is," Casey said.
If more than one resident lives on the private road, the residents must agree on a name for the road or the county will assign the name, he said.
After the private driveways are named and all the addresses are completed, they will be submitted to the postal service for approval, Casey said. Once they're approved, they can be activated. That's the step that impacted Price Place residents last week.

Missouri's troubling distinction
Ironically, just as Ozark County is drawing nearer to its goal of having a 911 system, a statement by the Missouri EMS Association says Missouri is "the only state in the union without a statewide comprehensive plan to identify 911 callers on cell phones.  Additionally, a statewide 911 analysis report shows that as landline usage goes away so does the funding it provides to the 911 system." 
It's not clear whether the system Ozark County is working toward will be able to identify the location of those emergency calls on cell phones.
Missouri 911 Directors Association president Lisa Schlottach said, "In many areas, people cannot be located when calling from a cell phone, and because many no longer use landline service, the landline surcharge that most 911 centers are funded by has drastically decreased."
The Missouri EMS Association is pushing for a fee on cell phone use to pay for "the needed technology overhaul that would allow 911 dispatchers to locate a wireless caller's position, as well as call-taker training to ensure proper call handling," the statement said.