Area code complaining

OK, here's a story (and I haven't blogged news in awhile, but this affects where I live):

In Clearfield County . . . TURN Director Voices Opposition to New Area Code | GantDaily.com

To a degree I can see why they are complaining.  They don't want the county split up into two different area codes.  Fine.  Here's the thing though:  keeping DuBois in 814 will just end up resulting in another area code split at some point in the future.  We're kind of a big town (well, having lived in small towns my entire life everything looks big!), and 814 can sustain Altoona, Johnstown, State College, Clearfield and Bedford, but not DuBois.  So yeah, keep DuBois in 814, but the area code will still change at some other point in the future.  I can tell you that Altoona wouldn't give up 814; otherwise they'd be getting 582, and Erie would get to keep 814.  Including the entirety of Clearfield County and Elk County in the 582 area code would be a good idea, except for one tiny problem:  Cameron County will still be in 814 and... well, let's see if this map shows up:

As you can see, Cameron County would be disconnected from 814.  Would anybody like to see why this is a bad idea?



Yeah, there's TWO spots on that map that are in area code 386!  Kinda looks silly, doesn't it?  Here's why, according to Wikipedia:

The problem was that the northwestern part of the 904 Area, which was
not growing very fast, was large enough that it could not fit into the
same Area code as the Jacksonville area. The other adjacent areas to
this northwest portion of 904, Area codes 850 and 352, were also growing
quickly, and thus could not absorb this portion of 904, which left only
three viable solutions - split the Jacksonville metro area, overlay 904
with a second code, or make two non-contiguous sections of a new Area
code. These two segments became Area code 386. There are some in Florida Public Service Commission,
the body who oversees Area code development in Florida, who see the odd
split in Area code 386 as a temporary measure, but it is believed that
area code 386 will retain its odd situation until well beyond 2030, as
it is nowhere near exhausting.

I could solve that problem with relative ease, but that's not the point of this blog post.  The point is to have an effective, common sense counter-point to those who believe it is foolish to split entire counties up.

Bottom line, this is the most sensible way of doing it.  And for those at TURN who may see this, check out the Wikipedia article for area code 570 if you want to get riled up any further.