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I'm working Berks County PA Fire Departments and I'm wondering if County Station Numbers are suppose to be in the name of the stations. Several stations that I have edited today have been re-edited by USGS personnel to remove the station number. Cumru Township Fire Department Station 42-3 Renamed Cumru Township Fire Department Station 3 Cumru Township Fire Department Station 42-1 Renamed Cumru Township Fire Department Station 1 Muhlenberg Township Fire & Rescue Station 66-1 Renamed Muhlenberg Township Fire and Rescue Station 1 Reading Fire and Rescue - Engine 3 Renamed Reading Fire and Rescue Central West Station If the Station county station numbers should not be included, t=han the entire state is wrong. Pleased provide specific guidance on Fire Department naming convention |
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These station names were amended to reflect the information listed on the official Township of Cumru website and the signage posted on the station buildings. Fire station names can often get rather complicated, so it's best to keep their names as streamlined as possible while still reflecting the information posted by authoritative sources (including signage posted on or near station buildings). This is and has been our formatting guidance for all features. |
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Okay, but the county fire department list, https://www.co.berks.pa.us/dept/des/pages/firedepartments.aspx shows the stations with county station numbers with the -1, 2 and 3. As for what is shown outside on Google view can be years old and their names change and many times don't even match what their website say. |
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You're right, imagery used in commercial mapping services can be outdated, especially in rural areas, which is why we always tell folks to use commercial mapping services and imagery as supplementary resources, in conjunction with other authoritative primary resources. Part of the detective work involves taking publication and imagery dates into consideration when researching features. If an updated website run by a specific station has a different name listed than the one displayed on outdated imagery, then of course, the name used should be the one listed on the most up to date resource. And since the county numbers in the example you provided are listed on an official source, we're not saying their inclusion was wrong or a mistake. In this specific case, the USGS staff member clearing these points out of the review queue made the decision to reference the information published by the township rather than the county, even though both are authoritative. We provide more specific guidance on this situation related to schools, but it can be applied to all features: we recommend using the information published by a school website vs a state education department, even though both are official authoritative sources, because sources operated directly by the entity are likely to be more up to date. In some cases of course, state or county sources might be the only ones available, and that's fine. But if you can drill down sources published directly by the entities in question or sources published by smaller administrative divisions (township vs county, or even county vs state), then those would be preferable references. Since fire department naming conventions are so variable across the country, and can be quite involved, we shy away from making too many hard rules governing their formatting. But if you need more specific guidance, it would be this: a. Keep the names as streamlined and as simple as possible while still reflecting an authoritative source (some departments might include engine numbers, district numbers, etc., etc., but all of that doesn't necessarily need to be included) b. Once you've selected a specific naming convention, apply it to all of the stations in the same department or district. Again, the conventions used will likely vary from department to department because that's just the nature of these entities across the country. c. If you're unsure about how to edit or format any feature, reach out to us directly at nationalmapcorps@usgs.gov |
