Marthasville residents may soon have to display house numbers.The Marthasville Board of Aldermen agreed to draft an ordinance requiring all home owners to display their house number. The number would have to be displayed on either the home, a signpost or a mailbox.The board is expected to vote on the ordinance at the March meeting.Since late 2015 the board has been discussing the possibility of a house number ordinance. Mayor David Lange said the ordinance is needed for a few reasons.Lange said the first and most obvious reason is for emergency situations. He said homeowners should want fire and EMS personnel to have no confusion when responding to emergency calls.Another reason for the ordinance is to help new public works employee Brad Landwehr. Lange said Landwehr is undertaking a project where he has been going around town replacing water meters.During his initial stops, Landwehr has reported a number of houses have been hard to identify because of a lack of a house number.The actual language of the ordinance is still being discussed. The board discussed requiring numbers on the house or signpost to be 3 inches tall. Numbers on mailboxes could be smaller.“We’re not trying to make it hard on residents,” he said.A violation of the ordinance would carry some kind of penalty, but the exact penalty is still to be determined. City ordinance says the penalty for any ordinance violations is a fine of up to $100 or 90 days, imprisonment.Lange said he wasn’t looking to punish residents.“I’m not after revenue,” he said. “If someone gets aggravated or whatever, and says ‘I ain’t putting up no damn house number,’ we can say, ‘Hey (Police Chief Eugene Jenkins), go serve this and give them a warning.’ We can give them 30 days and if they don’t put them up, well, then we can write them a damn ticket. We’re not looking to make money, because I don’t think it will get to that point.”Marthasville