The nearly 3,800 Boundary County property owners who earlier this year received new addresses have until Jan. 17 to change those addresses.

Anyone who does not will no longer receive their mail.

County officials replaced the “HCR” addresses with road numbered addresses to have more accurate and informative county maps.

The new addressing system, which accurately pinpoints the location of nearly every road, street, alley and driveway in the county, also was done to simplify delivering packages to homes and getting emergency responders to the right location.

The new addresses will be needed now that the county plans to upgrade its 911 emergency calling system for quicker responses. The upgraded 911 system will flash a caller’s location on a screen.

After property owners were notified of their new addresses, they were asked to confirm them with the county by calling or sending correspondence. About 90 percent have done so, said county planning director Mike Weland

The response has been better than Weland expected.

“When Gary (Falcon, the county’s geographical information system mapper) sent out the cards (with new addresses), he was expecting a slow return. We got an immediate response and were inundated by them. The vast majority were delighted to have a physical address.”

Bonners Ferry Postmaster Chester Lenda said the majority of his customers have complied.

Lenda noted that after Jan. 17, people who have not changed an addresses will no longer get their mail.

“It will be returned to the sender,” he said.

In Naples, acting postmaster Sheila Harris believes about 80 percent of the property owners have changed their addresses.

“There’s still a lot of stuff coming to the old addresses,” Harris said. “Their mail will be returned to sender.”

She reminds people that they will need to notify everyone about their new addresses.