Who is making reflective address signs available? And why?

Along Zeeb Road just north of Washtenaw County’s Western County Service Center, The Chronicle noticed a small green sign with white lettering that read: “Reflective Address Signs Available Here!”

The signs announcing availability of reflective addresses were planted in front of the the Sherrif’s Substation #7, which is housed in the same structure as the Scio Township fire department. Which one of these entities was offering the signs? Noticing someone wearing a fire department uniform emerge from behind the trucks for a morning stroll around the building, The Chronicle veered into the driveway to find out more about the signs.

The fire department uniform belonged to Carl Ferch, fire chief for Scio Township. He explained that the green signs with white letters are assembled by firefighters on a “while you wait” basis – unless they have to go out on a call and hop in the trucks right at that moment. Cost for the dual-sided signs is $20. They come with two screws for mounting.

Scio Township Fire Chief Carl Ferch in front of the fire station's own reflective mailbox sign.

The idea behind the reflective signs is to make it easier for emergency response vehicles (fire, police, ambulance) to locate addresses when they go out on calls. Asked how often the reflective signs are a factor in helping firefighters find an address, Ferch said, “Every time.” Ferch said that many residents make sure to put their addresses on the front of the mailboxes (which postal carriers probably appreciate), but forget about the importance of having their address easily spot-able from the side.

Ferch couldn’t come up with numbers off the top of his head about how many of the signs they’d assembled for residents, but assured The Chronicle it was “a bunch.”