Marthasville businesses and homes now have to display street numbers.The board of aldermen unanimously passed an ordinance at its March 16 meeting requiring all residences and commercial businesses to have a house number displayed on either the side of the home, a signpost or a mailbox.All residences and commercial businesses must have the number of the street address posted using numbers no less than 3 inches tall. Numbers on mailboxes have to be least 1.5 inches tall.Marthasville intends to give those in violation of the new ordinance a warning and 15 days to comply before prosecution. Prosecution would be covered by the city code, Section 100.210, which states a violation of any city ordinance can be punished by a fine not exceeding $500 or 90 days in jail.In February, Mayor David Lange said the goal of the ordinance was not revenue. He said the ordinance requires some sort of punishment so the police could enforce the change.“We’re not trying to make it hard on residents,” he said.The board had been talking about requiring the numbers for several months. Lange said the house numbers would help emergency situations so fire and EMS personnel can easily locate homes. Another reason for the ordinance is to help public works employee Brad Landwehr. Lange said Landwehr is undertaking a project where he has been going around town replacing water meters and has reported a number of houses have been hard to identify because of a lack of a house number.Street Numbers