An executive order that Governor Lemanu issued yesterday starts the ball rolling to establish physical addresses in American Samoa. It’s called the American Samoa Territorial Physical Addressing Initiative.
The Governor said that American Samoa is one of the few remaining US territories and states without official physical addresses or location identifiers for streets, households, business, government or private facilities, limiting access to vital services and opportunities available to other US citizens residing in states and territories with established physical addressing systems.
And the absence of a standardized physical addressing system has led to substantial disparities, limiting residents and businesses access to federal programs, financial and banking services, essential services, business opportunities and effective disaster response capabilities.
Under the executive order, a Territorial Physical Addressing Working Group is established to advise the Governor on all matters essential to the development and successful implementation of the territorial physical addressing system.
Members of the working group who will be appointed by the Governor shall have experience with Geospatial Information Systems and mapping. The chairperson of the group shall be appointed by the Governor.
The working group is to engage with the public, business, community organizations and relevant stakeholders to solicit input, collect feedback and ensure that the physical address system reflects the requirements and aspirations of the American Samoa population.
The working group shall hold public consultations, town hall meetings, and public hearings to promote openness and participation in the decision making process.
The working group is to submit quarterly progress reports to the Governor’s Office on the progress of the project and an annual report summarizing the initiative’s accomplishments, lessons learned and future objectives.
Click here for the full Executive Order.file:///C:/Users/NEWS1/Downloads/EO%20003-24%20AN%20ORDER%20CREATING%20THE%20AMERICAN%20SAMOA%20TERRITORIAL%20PHYSICAL%20ADDRESSING%20INITIATIVE.pdf
