The Warrenton Board of Aldermen approved address changes for houses in the Fairlane Acres subdivision after community members expressed concerns with both delivery drivers and first responders reaching their homes. 

Debra Asmus spoke to the board about her issues at her current address. Her home, along with others in the subdivision, shares an address number and each home has separate lot numbers. 

She said shortly after she moved into her home, she began encountering issues, first with packages being delivered to her neighbor’s home. 

According to Asmus, her home sits back from the road and is already difficult to find. 

She had some difficulties with her fireplace one evening in December 2024 and called 911. She said first responders had significant difficulties finding her home and she had to wave the fire truck down from the front of her driveway. 

“I finally saw the fire truck and I could tell he had no idea where I was,” said Asmus. “My neighbor Tony (Spinelli), told me they had driven around the block before coming back and seeing me.”

At this point she began searching for answers on how to change her address from a lot number to a five-digit numbered address. 

Asmus said she found difficulties with city officials and was unable to find a solution. 

Later on, she experienced a medical emergency and called 911 to her house again. She followed the dispatcher's instructions, unlocking her door and turning on her porch light. 

After 15 minutes, she heard back from the 911 dispatcher, who said first responders could not get into her house. 

They had mistakenly gone to her neighbor’s house as there are three different homes with the same address number marked individually by lot numbers. 

“Along with the safety issues, I have issues with utility repairs, deliveries, food deliveries, if I give number B they think I live in an apartment, if I give lot B they think I live in a vacant lot or a property that’s just being built,” said Asmus. “And they still end up delivering to my neighbor Tony.”

Mayor Eric Schlueter and City Administrator Brandie Walters said they had spoken with both the post office and 911 dispatch and found there had been several complaints on this issue. 

The city approved the address changes on Fairlane Circle and Walters said they had found other, similarly addressed homes in the city and Walters asked to look into those as well. 

“When we talked to 911, it’s not just Fairlane Circle, and as she said, there’s a lot of them that have 16A, 16B, it’s a mess,” said Walters. “But there’s other areas within the city so tonight I’m actually asking for your permission that we look into all of them, but we will start off with Fairlane Circle.”

Asmus’ neighbor, Tony Spinelli, also spoke to the board and asked them to find a more streamlined solution to address changes. He said at the time he had tried to help her make an address change, he had been turned around by officials at the city, post office and 911 dispatch. 

He said he was met with confusion at each office saying it was someone else’s responsibility. 

“Is there any way you guys can all work together to make an actual path,” said Spinelli. “I called you guys on her behalf, I was told to call 911, 911 told me it was you guys, the post office said it was 911, there’s no easy way.”

Schlueter agreed it was a confusing process and since the city had received answers from those institutions that they do have the authority to make address changes they would be working out a new process. 

“If they’re gonna say it’s the city then we’ll take the initiative, run forward with it and that’ll be the final one.”