The Bath City Council has allowed Morse High School to re-adopt its former street address number — 826 — for its new building, despite sitting on the wrong side of the road to hold an even street number, going against the state’s dissuasions.
The council unanimously approved a change to a city rule earlier this month that allows Assessor Brenda Cummings to give the new high school its former number.
Regardless of the approval from the city, the state emergency services community bureau doesn’t recommend giving any building a “vanity address” because it “goes against traditional addressing standards,” according to Susan Faloon, spokesperson for the Maine Public Utilities Commission.
Faloon said Maine’s addressing system was created to tell emergency services what side of the road and how far down a road a building is so it can be found easily in an emergency situation.
Despite the bureau’s disapproval, Faloon said assigning addresses ultimately falls on the shoulders of a municipality.
Cummings said she was initially resistant to the idea because of the public safety issue it could create, but ultimately agreed because, “In this particular circumstance, I don’t think it compromises public safety.”
“In this circumstance, the road was created to serve that one building … and that road is never going to serve any other building,” said Cummings. “Whatever number that building has, it would be found (by emergency services). It’s the only building on that road and it’s not going to be mistaken for anything else. There’s only one high school in Bath and that’s it.”
The new Morse High School, which opened to students last month, sits at the end of Shipbuilder Drive, which extends off Wing Farm Parkway in Bath. It was formerly located on High Street.
According to Assistant City Manager Marc Meyers, the council’s rule change will become law on March 24, when Morse High School can hang 826 outside its doors once again.
Morse Principal Eric Varney said students, teachers and alumni asked to keep the 826 address because it has grown to become a source of school spirit in the last 10 to 20 years. He said the school community hopes keeping the address will also help bring a school tradition into the new school.
“One of the concerns that came to light from students, faculty and alumni is bringing that unique Morse spirit when we moved to the new school,” said Varney. “Having that 826 Shipbuilder Drive address is a step in the direction.”
Varney said students and staff wear school shirts that read “826” on the front and “our house” on the back. Even the school’s mascot, Blue the Shipbuilder, wears 826 as a jersey number.
“It seems strange, but our address has been a source of spirit for us in recent years,” said Varney. “It just became ingrained in us and the next thing we knew, the town is covered in t-shirts with that number on it.”
In a statement Monday, Morse High School juniors Isaac Ensel and Isabel Strelneck wrote the school’s former 826 address “has taken a form of its own by representing our school community.”
“826 is seen through the halls of our school and throughout town,” they wrote. “All that it represents about community, dedication and friendship will continue to symbolize our school as we keep the same address of our house, 826, Morse High School.”
Bath councilors unanimously stood behind approving the rule change.
“I am confident this is not the last time that a vanity number will be approved and it is not the first time,” said councilor Jennifer DeChant. “I’m also confident that our state representative would step up and advocate on our behalf if it comes to that.”
While councilor Sean Paulhus, who also represents Bath in the Maine House of Representatives, said the city wouldn’t allow vanity addressing frequently, he said he supports the change because “this is a special situation with the new high school.”
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