The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

By state law each county is required to have a Disaster Emergency Service (DES). Debbie Gessaman is the DES Coordinator for Chouteau County. When I went into her office she was busy writing a grant. She graciously gave me a few moments and we talked about the EMT services in Chouteau.

Debbie was hired by the Chouteau county commissioners and occasionally gives them a report. The budget is 50% from the county and 50% from a grant.

Kelly Waldbillig is the Deputy DES Coordinator, and the 9-1-1 Geographic information a systems (GIS) Coordinator. She told me where to find the information on their website and I quote from those pages throughout this article.

Disaster Emergency services concentrates on five areas: Prevention, Protection, Preparedness, Response, and Recover. "Emergency Operations Planning for all hazards Natural hazards such as: floods, wildland fires, storms, tornadoes, earthquakes, and drought. Other disasters such as: mass casualty incidents, terrorism, civil disorder, hazardous materials accidents, and public health incidents. Performing risk analysis to help develop disaster resistant communities and fulfill the functions of homeland security. Coordination of the enhanced 9-1-1 program, including rural addressing, mapping, road signage and telephone/address database management. Coordination of the pre-hospital emergency medical services planning, training and county wide mutual aid response. One of the main components of this function is the Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) courses and support for the county quick response units (QRU's). Coordination of the Local Emergency Planning Committee – which is comprised of representatives from law enforcement, fire, ambulances, hospitals, search & rescue, government, industry, and the public."

"Geographic information system (GIS) is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage,

and present all types of geographical data. Global Positioning System (GPS) is the use of navigational satellites to determine a precise location."

"Chouteau County began their addressing journey in support of the Enhanced 9-1-1 System with the help of Mapping and Planning Specialists (MapS, Inc.) in 1998. The intent of the overall E-911 systems is so that a person dialing 9-1-1 within the County will be routed to the Chouteau County Sheriff's Department where their name, address, phone number and map location will automatically display on screen to assist dispatchers facilitate emergency response."

"The rural route and box style addresses in Chouteau County were replaced with a distance-based rural addressing system using 1000 address numbers per mile. The entire road network in the county was canvassed and each road measured with a Digital Measuring Instrument (DMI). Rural addresses were assigned based on the distance (measured via the DMI) from a road's origin to the access points (e.g. driveways) of the rural structures. From each origin, the left side of the road was designated as "odd" and the right side as "even" and the address numbers assigned accordingly. The major highways within the county were established as baselines. All roads that diverged from these baselines were addressed from the baseline to their intersection with another distinctively named road or their dead end. As other roads branched off, the addressing started again from zero (0) and progressed accordingly. For roads that did not originate from the baselines, the west or south ends were designated as the origins. The mileage reference markers (MRMs) on the baseline highways were used as block ranges to assign addresses whenever possible. Each road was distinctively named, if possible, without duplication in other areas of the County. Private lanes were also established (two or more structures using a commonly shared access of substantial length)."

"The structures in each of the County's communities were also mapped and their existing addressing systems reviewed. Fort Benton, Big Sandy, Carter, Geraldine, Highwood, Loma and Floweree were addressed using 100 numbers per block based on their street network."

"Along with the new addressing system the County had MaPS, Inc. create an atlas specific to the county data. The atlases are updated and reprinted approximately every two years, the most recent being in 2017. It is available for purchase at the Chouteau County Courthouse. If you purchase an atlas please know that every effort has always been made to ensure the accuracy of the atlas data and its contents, mistakes and omissions may occur. Please feel free to contact MaPS, Inc. at 1-877-944-5464 (toll-free) if you find any errors."