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You Say Airline, I Say Old Airline -- Arlington Road Names Confuse 911 Responders

Posted on: Friday, 23 December 2005, 21:00 CST

By Shirley Downing downing@commercialappealcom

Twice in recent months, police answering a 911 emergency call mistakenly showed up at Glen Bascom's home in Arlington.

Right number . Wrong house. Wrong road.

Bascom lives on New Airline Road. Not Airline. Not Old Airline.

He worries that emergency help could be delayed if police or ambulances can't match the right address with the right road.

The Arlington Planning Commission rode to the rescue Monday and recommended that the Board of Mayor and Aldermen change the names of several roads.

That includes Chester Street, which runs through downtown Arlington before becoming Collierville-Arlington Road and then Donelson (some spell it Donnelson) Road.

"We're trying to make it as easy as possible," said Mayor Russell Wiseman.

"What they're trying to do is to alleviate as much as possible the confusion that now exists south of Interstate 40," Town Supt. Ed Haley said recently.

Haley and Bascom, a Realtor, said the inconsistent road names date to the 1960s when I-40 was under construction. So confused is the situation that maps don't agree on road names or how they are spelled.

The recommendations:

Airline/New Airline/Collierville-Arlington between U.S. 64 and up to U.S. 70 would become Arlington Parkway.

Old Airline would become Inglewood from 64 north to near the under-construction Tennessee 385. Between 385 and I-40 Old Airline would be unchanged.

A small section of Donelson near the under-construction Tenn. 385 overpass would be named Donelson Farms Parkway.

Chester would be so named all the way to Donelson, eliminating the Collierville-Arlington section.

Several residents spoke at a public hearing Monday, but another public hearing is needed to gain input from property owners along New Airline north of I-40. The full board will consider the changes following the second hearing, which is still unscheduled.

The name changes - with notification to several hundred residents, fire, health, postal, police and other parties - could take a year, Haley said.

-Shirley Downing: 529-2387

Source: Commercial Appeal, The

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