Ninety-eight addresses in Washington will change to make it easier for emergency personnel to respond to 911 calls.

During its meeting Monday, Washington’s City Council authorized John Rodman, the city’s director of community and cultural resources to work with Beaufort County officials to make the needed changes. The county wants the city to correct errors discovered in the city’s 911 address system after the county took over 911 dispatching for the city.

Several city residents and businesses have address locations that are referenced to a structure or building name and not a street name, Rodman told the council. “The problem with a building name address is that it is difficult to provide an accurate location for 911 dispatch and emergency services,” Rodman wrote in a memorandum.

The county determined address discrepancies — which need to be corrected — at the following locations: Maryanna Mobile Estates, The Courtyard apartments, Havens Wharf, Armory Pointe apartments and Cherry Run Center. There likely are other locations that need address changes, according to the memorandum. The memorandum notes that sometimes it is necessary to change an assigned address, with one of the reasons for doing so is that any address-related issue that causes confusion and potentially delays a timely and efficient emergency response.

Rodman told the council he wanted its direction before he begins addressing the problem. “The city doesn’t have an addressing ordinance, per se. We’ll start working on one. We do have a street-naming ordinance in the city code, but we do not have an addressing code. We don’t have any guidelines on how to go about doing this,” Rodman said. “The county gave us some guidelines to help us out.”

Mayor Mac Hodges suggested the city work with the county in making the address changes. “I’m sitting here thinking you might as well get their blessing before because if they don’t like the way we do it, they’ll send it right on back,” Hodges said.

Rodman said changing the addresses will “take some time because I will have to notify the residents they’re address is going to change,”