SOUTHWICK – Initially created by the Southwick Fire Department and the Council on Aging for senior citizens in town, the House Numbering program is now open to all Southwick residents.
The House Numbering program that initially launched in December of 2017 is a free program for residents 60-years-old or older to make homes in town easier for emergency personnel to respond to 911 calls quicker. The program revolves around having six inch by eighteen inch reflective signs placed on the mailboxes of senior citizen’s homes.
Now opening up the program to all residents, the signs will cost $25 for anyone under 60-years-old. Council on Aging Director Cindy Sullivan is already seeing the benefit to the change in the program.
“We’ve had a lot of people coming for signs who are not seniors, so I think that’s fantastic,” said Sullivan.
Southwick Fire Chief Russ Anderson and Council on Aging Director Cindy Sullivan are seen installing a new reflective sign on a resident’s mailbox in December of 2017.(WNG File Photo)
The reason behind having the reflective signs is that the fire department has discovered that they commonly find numbers missing on the mailboxes or clustered together. If there is an emergency that first responders need to attend to, it can make it difficult for them to know which residence is the correct one.
“They can have a really hard time finding homes,” said Sullivan. “Every second counts.”
Sullivan is hoping that she can have as many residents as possible in Southwick sign up for a reflective sign.
“My goal is to try to get two to four homes on each street,” said Sullivan. “I think it’s important.”
Back in May, the Select Board approved the House Numbering program at a meeting. Then, on Sept. 18, the two town officials hosted a kickoff event for the program at the Council on Aging center to allow seniors to sign up for the program.
Funding for the program is supported by grant money from the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services. This past January, the state announced that Southwick received $3,708 for the S.A.F.E. (Student Awareness of Fire Education) grant and $2,415 for the Senior S.A.F.E. grant.
According to the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services, the S.A.F.E. program provides $1.2 million per year through the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security to fire departments across the commonwealth. The grants for the S.A.F.E. program are geared towards having local fire departments teach fire and life safety to students in schools.
The Senior S.A.F.E. program allocates $600,000 in grant funds from fees that were paid by tobacco companies to the Fire Standard Compliant Cigarette Program. This would make sure that the products from these tobacco companies meet the fire safety requirements in the state in order to be sold. Senior S.A.F.E. grants are created in order to teach fire and life safety education to the elderly and help reduce fire-related injuries and deaths.
If any resident in Southwick would like to sign up for the House Numbering Program you are urged to call the Council on Aging at 413-569-5498 and mail in your $25 to 454 College Hwy, Southwick, MA 01077. Interested individuals can also stop in at the Council Aging to sign up. Sullivan also noted that the program is still taking more seniors to sign up.
