Driver's license offices to close

COLUMBIA BASIN — The Washington state Department of Licensing will close their offices in Ephrata and Othello.

This is part of a larger plan to close 25 of the department’s 66 offices statewide between March 2009 and April 2010.

Othello is scheduled to be closed in the first group between March and May of this year.

Ephrata is slated to close in the third group between July and September.

This is a move designed to save the department about $3.4 million in the current biennium and about $4 million in future bienniums, Brad Benfield, a spokesperson for the department.

The department’s total budget in the governor’s proposal is $292 million.

Department administrators are working with the governor’s office to find ways to streamline service.

“What that means is closing offices around the state that aren’t real efficient,” he said. “We look at them at a cost per transaction level. We found that the service delivery was much more expensive (in the offices being closed) than in other offices in our system.”

One of the reasons for closing the Othello office was because of its limited hours, Benfield said. The office is open on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

“So what we’re looking at doing is taking the staff from the offices we’re closing and moving them to the offices that are remaining open,” he said. “When you take an office (with) only one person, we still have to maintain a full-time lease.”

Also in some cases, the employees in the part-time offices often don’t live in the same city, so the department has to pay for the travel costs, Benfield said.

“We have to pay mileage for them to travel from their home city to the office in the next city,” he said. “We looked at the overall number of transactions that an office processes and the proximity to other larger offices.”

Benfield said the fact Ephrata is only 22 miles from Moses Lake and Othello is 27 miles, it was time to cut back those offices. He said the department has made strides in providing services through their Web site.

“Driver’s license renewals can be done over the Internet,” he said. “(People) don’t need to come in every five years, now they can come once every 10 years.”

They’ve also put the application for a duplicate license online as well, he said. This is the second most requested item after license renewals.

Twelve positions will be cut statewide from the change, Benfield said. The rest of the people will be transferred to different positions to cover the increased amount of customers.

Kevin Danby, the Ephrata Chamber of Commerce president, said he would like the state to reconsider shutting down the Ephrata office.

“Well, to my way of thinking, Ephrata is the county seat,” he said. “It’s only natural for a county seat to offer the services you expect to have in the county seat. It seems a little unusual.”

While Danby understands the financial difficulties the state is facing, he said there is are a lot of people who come into Ephrata from places such as Quincy, Soap Lake and Coulee City.

People who moved aren’t able to renew their license through the Internet, they have to go into an office, he added.

“Heaven help you if you have to renew your license in December,” Danby said. “I think I would like them to reconsider closing the Ephrata office.”

He said he sent letters to the Legislators in districts 12 and 13 and is urging other people to do the same.

Benfield said they’re sorry people will have to drive farther to get to an office now.

“I think that people will understand that sometimes changes like this need to occur,” he said. “We really hope that people will be willing to give our online services a try. If they take advantage of that they won’t have to leave the comfort of their home.”