DRIVER’S LICENSES: Officials seek to add office staff in Limestone

Published 6:30 am Thursday, January 10, 2019

Anyone who’s ever entered the Clinton Street Courthouse Annex in Athens is familiar with the sight of people waiting to be served by Athens’ lone driver’s license examiner.

In a fast-growing county of more than 95,000 residents, it is one person’s job to administer driver’s license exams to teens and new licenses to those who have moved here from out of state.

The office is also responsible for issuing new gold star licenses required as part of state’s STAR ID program. By Oct. 1, 2020, everyone who plans to travel by air will either need an ID card with the gold star or another form of identification.

“Once the provision of the REAL ID Act (STAR ID) goes into effect, individuals who do not have an unexpired U.S. passport will need an Alabama STAR ID to board commercial aircraft for domestic flights or to enter certain regulated federal facilities,” according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.

Considering those tasks and others, it’s understandable the Limestone County office stays busy. However, Athens’ state representative is working to lessen wait times for residents by seeking additional personnel for the driver’s license examiner office.

“This is something we’ve been working on for three or four months,” Rep. Danny Crawford said. “We had a committee study the issue, but as any study would tell you, if you had more money and more people, you could do a better job.”

The committee Crawford referred to is the House Driver License Review Committee, which is chaired by state Rep. Randall Shedd, R-Cullman. The committee has been looking into wait times at driver’s license offices for the past few years.

Crawford believes Limestone County is deserving of additional personnel simply because of its rapid growth, anticipated to increase significantly with the startup of the Mazda Toyota Manufacturing U.S.A. plant in 2021. He said some of Limestone’s neighboring counties aren’t growing at that the same rate.

Ideally, he would like to see two additional people added to the Limestone County office. The only issue with that, however, is ensuring there is space for the new personnel. The current small office could not hold additional personnel or the necessary computers and equipment.

Limestone County Commission Chairman Collin Daly said the county is looking at different options for where the office could be relocated if additional workers are approved by the state.

“When someone turns 16, the first thing they want to do is get their driver’s license, but sometimes I think it’s more (work) than the one person we have can handle,” he said. “I think (adding more staff) would be a great service to the community.”

District 1 Commissioner Daryl Sammet said he is glad Crawford is working to address the issue. His three children all received their licenses in Limestone County, so he knows extended wait times are nothing new.

“It’s one of the first dealings with government a young person has and they’re slapped in the face because they have to wait. If a parent brings them, they have to take off work and wait,” he said. “If time runs out, they have to come back the next day. It just doesn’t look good from a government standpoint.”

Also complicating the issue, Sammet said, is if the lone clerk is either sick or on vacation. When that happens, the office is closed and no one is helped.

“If we can get two people in that office, someone will be available all the time and should speed things up,” he said.

Crawford doesn’t know when the review committee would make a decision on Limestone County. He explained the committee is not only weighing the cost of adding personnel, but it is also factoring in customer volumes at offices in adjacent counties.

“I would love to see this done in the spring, but I’m realistic. We’re starting with this committee, but we’ll keep moving up the chain until someone says ‘yes,’” Crawford said. “We’ve got this same problem all over the state, but our area is poised for tremendous growth, and we’ve got to get ahead of it.”