The Community Center and the Boothbay Region Ambulance Service are working together to make sure that homes of area residents can be easily located in a life-threatening emergency.

Working in collaboration with the ambulance service, the center has started to offer reflective address signs that can be placed as needed by area residents to make their homes easier to find by ambulance service drivers.

“It’s important and we are promoting this,” explained Scott Lash, director of operations for the ambulance service. The signs, according to Lash, will greatly assist the ambulance crews in locating homes that may be difficult to find.

“The roads twist and turn here,” Lash said. Because the trip to an emergency room may take a while, the ambulance brings emergency services to area residents while they are being transported. For this reason, arriving at a residence quickly is essential.

The ambulance service has been making the signs available for the past 18 months but the effort was time-consuming and Lash’s staff needed to focus on saving lives.

Enter the Community Center, which offered to take on the sign-making duties. Center volunteer and engineer Rich Serino has offered to make the signs by affixing numbers to the metal plates. If needed, the center will also assist area residents with placing the signs on homes.  

Lash has advice for the placement of the reflective signs. “The numbers on the sign need to be clear and obvious to anyone driving by. Think of a new delivery person coming to your residence — could they find your home from the way the sign has been placed?”

The signs should be placed close to the front door and if the house has a long driveway, two signs may be needed — one at the road and one on the front of the house.

“The goal is to get as many signs as possible out there,” said Jane Good, director of the Community Center. “And we want to make sure that folks know about it.”

The community center is able to do just that: In the five months since it has opened, more than 1,500 residents of Boothbay Harbor and more than 1,100 residents of Boothbay have visited the center along with residents of Southport and Edgecomb.

Signs are available for $20 by calling the Community Center at 633-9876.