NEWPORT — Campbell County wants to make sure the cops can find you. And the rescue squad and the fire department, too.

        The county's new 911 system is checking, rechecking — and in some cases readdressing — locations so that emergency crews and dispatchers can get and give good directions to where help is needed.

        Peter Klear has been Campbell County's development director for just a few months, but he's already faced with the task of leading a readdressing program for much of the county.

        The readdressing involves checking on every road and street in the county, especially in the rural areas, to find duplicated names, make changes where necessary, and assign uniform numbers.

        Approximately 6,000 properties will be affected.

        “It's something that must be done, but when we reach the stage where we are changing street names we're going to have some unhappy people,” Mr. Klear said.

        For example, if there were an east and west portion of a street of the same name, with matching numbers on each portion, one of the street names would have to change as well as some of the numbers.

        That will create problems for some residents who face changing their stationery and business card addresses.

        He said the entire project will take 12-14 months, which means it will likely be after the new dispatch center opens next summer in the Newport city building. The dispatch center combines the dispatch operations now working in Newport, Fort Thomas and the county.

        A committee of about 40 people has been assembled for the readdressing issue, including representatives from the Postal Service, the Sanitation District, the Water District, Cinergy, business people and all police and fire/EMS departments in the county.

        “Right now we're in the data collection and analysis phase of the project,” Mr. Klear said. “We narrowed our group down to about 10 people to identify the problems and then come up with ways to correct them which we can take back to the full committee.”

        Among the issues:

        • How to come up with a new address/numbering system that will be flexible enough to reflect existing properties and new subdivisions as they develop.

        • Once the system is in place, how to keep the system up and running, checking on new streets to be sure there is no duplication.

        Then there's the question of numbering, making certain that numbers at new subdivisions will work in the system.

        “Now, when a developer submits information on a subdivision, there are no street addresses, just lot numbers,” Mr. Klear said. “With the new system we will already have street numbers for every lot before the houses are built.”

        Campbell County Judge-executive Steve Pendery told a recent joint meeting of the Fiscal Court and county mayors and city administrators that he expects Boone and Kenton counties to merge their GIS (geographic information systems).

        “If that happens, Campbell County is going to have to step up and join,” he said. “We are looking at that now to begin preparing for the day.”

        Mr. Klear, a big proponent of state-of-the-art GIS, said the county already uses much of the same GIS as Kenton County, which also includes the sanitation district and water district.

        “There is a push to make GIS a regional initiative for the three counties, especially for the major infrastructure users like sanitation, water, utilities and developers,” he said.

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