Marion-Lewis 911 is the addressing authority for rural Marion and Lewis County addresses and has also been designated the addressing coordinator for the City of Hannibal. The time it takes to issue a new address can vary from one day to several weeks depending on the level of coordination involved with the address. Factors like private roads, subdivisions, new commercial developments, existing address coordination issues, and inclement weather are all time factors.
Generally, if we receive a request for a third or subsequent inhabitable structure on a single driveway, it will have to become a private road and all structures will be readdressed with the new road name. There are several reasons why this is important:
- Both counties are addressed using a grid system which calculates the address based on where the driveway meets the road.
There are only a certain number of addresses per mile of roadway. - Trying to squeeze several addresses into a single point can throw off the addressing scheme, especially if there are already neighbors nearby and there is not enough range left to accommodate the request.
- Many responders, parcel delivery companies, and citizens use some type of GPS device to locate addresses they are not familiar with. Squeezing three, four, or five, addresses onto one driveway point causes geocoding issues.
If a private road has to be designated, the residents will have a voice in their road name whenever possible; except in Lewis County when the road runs straight east-west or north-south. In that case, the road would be issued an address following the coordinated road numbering system. We often ask our point of contact for the newly designated road to come up with two or three distinct name choices, taking into consideration the following criteria:
- Must not be the same or almost the same as an existing road in that location’s ambulance district
- Road names cannot include the words “deer”, “river”, “creek”, proper names, or anything profane
- Road names cannot be overly complicated or difficult to pronounce or spell
- Dead-end roads must end in the suffix “LN” designating them a lane
- 911 will ultimately choose the name and may reject all names proposed by residents
The road name criteria are designed to prevent confusion by avoiding duplicate or sound-alike road names in the same jurisdictional boundaries, and avoiding road names that could be overly difficult to understand from a child caller or relay via radio to responders. Our goal is to work with residents as long as they are willing to continue coming up with different name ideas in order to settle on something everyone can be happy with.
Address requests are handled by phone. Requests we handle will be directed to a member of our administrative team and you may have to leave a message for someone to call you back. See the list below to determine who your addressing authority would be:
Inside city limits of Canton: Canton City Hall – (573) 288-4413
Inside city limits of Hannibal: Marion-Lewis 911 – (573) 221-1121
Inside city limits of La Belle: La Belle City Hall: (660) 213-3418
Inside city limits of La Grange: La Grange City Hall – (573) 655-4301
Inside city limits of Lewistown: Lewistown City Hall – (573) 215-2582
Inside city limits of Palmyra: Palmyra City Hall – (573) 769-2223
Inside city limits of Ewing: Ewing City Hall – (573) 494-3497
Outside city limits in Marion or Lewis County: Marion-Lewis 911 – (573) 221-1121
Please note: The person calling to request the address should be familiar enough with the location to provide detailed directions on how to get to it. For rural addresses, knowing the GPS coordinates of the driveway is helpful but not required.
The US Postal Service does not issue addresses in Lewis or Marion County. Generally, the addressing authority will notify the US Postal Service of the new address via letter or email.