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Tonight the rubber hits the road on renumbering of Tebbetts Road

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Tebbetts Road residents have been crying foul over the renumbering plan for months. Tonight they'll find out if the city is listening. (Courtesy)

ROCHESTER - Pearl Harbor Day could be the appropriate timeframe for a thumbs-up or thumbs-down on the renumbering of Tebbetts Road, because residents who live there feel like the city is carpet bombing their home addresses and leaving a path of misery in its wake.

"I'm all for change but this renumbering of the whole road lacks consistency and logic," Anthony Deluca said on Thursday. "Their (the city's) mindset is whether right or wrong we're gonna change. Emergency vehicles don't drive like a Tesla, someone has to see the addresses."

Deluca, who has lived on the street for years, said the problem was caused by city government, and residents on the road shouldn't be having to pay the price.

"They added a new development, and then the got caught," he quipped.

He also referred to statements from newly elected City Councilor Tim Fontneau who said at City Council's last workshop that the renumbering of Portland Street that occurred many years ago was still wreaking havoc with deliveries to a building he owns.

"932 Portland Street used to be 52 Main Street and the GPS still takes me there," Fontneau said.

City Councilor Jim Gray said today the city is not in strict accordance with the ordinance, adding that the Tebbetts Road numbers near Rochester Hill Road should be the lower numbers, not the ones at the corner of Pickering Road in Gonic.

"It's supposed to be the lowest (street) numbers where there's closest proximity to Parson Main (Square)," he said.

Gray also said at a Nov. 16 City Council workshop the changing of numbers could actually bring confusion to mutual aid.

"If every house could just have an address sign that is clearly visible, that could mitigate the safety issues," Gray added. "The more I look into this the more problems I find with it."

Others on the board questioned whether the 911 technology which largely depends on telephone land lines is still viable with the majority of residents now relying on cell phones as their home phone.

Deluca is certain that city officials could come up with a plan that would change at most five addresses on the road and still ensure prompt response from emergency services, not the 45 address changes tonight's proposal will entail.

During last month's workshop City Councilor Chris Rice sounded a note of caution to council members who might vote against the renumbering plan as it stand now, saying it might open the door for other neighborhoods to fight the city's renumbering projects in the future, a notion that irks Deluca.

And while city officials may think they're between a rock and a hard place when it comes to the renumbering, consider the plight of one Tebbetts Road family who spent almost $500 to move a boulder to the end of their driveway and then paid to have it inscribed with their street number.

Deluca said the costs and confusion for Tebbetts Road residents will be breathtaking, and the whole process shows the city's disdain for residents' concerns and doing what is right.

The Rochester Voice reached out to Assistant Rochester Fire Chief Tim Wilder and Planning and Development Director Shanna Saunders who have spearheaded the number change effort, but neither returned a phone calls.

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