Residents warned about businesses offering to paint addresses on curbs

City officials would like residents who've received door hangers or fliers promoting address painting on the curb in front of their homes to think twice before they hire the service.

"While encouraging residents to make sure their addresses are plainly visible to emergency personnel from the street, the city does not sponsor or endorse any kind of curb painting program," city spokesperson Andrew Powers noted.

The city requires a permit and insurance for anyone- even a nonprofit organization- to earn money by painting curbs.

In the past, curb painting was done by Boy Scouts, high school bands and other nonprofits, but for the past five years no group has asked the city if they could do it, code compliance manager Geoff Ware said.

Currently, only one business has a permit from the city, Ware said.

The city requires that a company put its name and contact information on any promotional fliers.

"If you receive a flier without this information, the company is probably operating illegally," Powers said.

To keep your curb painting to code, the numbers should be painted black, be 4 inches high and on a white background.

Graphics, even patriotic ones with American flags, are not permitted.

A permit is not required for homeowners to paint their own addresses on their own curbs, but they are expected to keep it to code, Ware said.

"The policy is to keep it unified and looking nice," he said.