Madison County moving DMV and license services to new location
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REXBURG — Madison County is moving its DMV and driver’s license services into a single location.
“Really, it was convenience for the community,” Sgt. Isaac Payne, spokesman for the Madison County Sheriff’s Office told EastIdahoNews.com. “What’s happening is … if you wanted to get your driver’s license and register your vehicle you had to essentially go to two locations, which was a little bit inconvenient for the community.”
Currently, to obtain a driver’s license, you have to visit the sheriff’s office. To register a car or access other DMV services, you have to visit the county building across Main Street.
After talks with the Madison County Commission and the Sheriff’s Office, officials decided to move both to the former Payless ShoeSource building on North Second East. County officials hope to be open at that location on June 1.
“Our county commissioners, they are always very measured in those type of decisions,” Payne said. “They try to make sure they make the best decisions possible for staff and for any expenditure of monies. The timing was good, the funds were available, so the project got greenlit.”
The county will rent the space for around $2,700 a month, according to Madison County Assessor Shawn Boice. He said it cost the county around $135,000 to remodel the space.
Inside the old retail store, the county has built counters with services currently offered at the sheriff’s office on the left and DMV services on the right. In addition to driver’s licenses and vehicle registration, Payne said people can apply for concealed weapons permits at the new location.
Although the people will not be visiting the sheriff’s office for those services anymore, the doors will remain open to the public.
“If they need to file a report or they have a question about something, they’re still welcome to come to our office,” Payne said.
The driver’s license office moving from the sheriff’s office will free up more space for deputies and staff, Payne said.
“Our building was built some years ago, and we were big for it then,” Payne said. “We’re very much tightly fit in our building anyway. There are plenty of people with two to three people in an office. We’ll just get a little bit more breathing room.”
Payne said they still need to install computers, fingerprinting machines and other equipment over the coming weeks.
“We’ll at least have the same number of stations and employees that we had before,” Payne said. “We should be able to help serve all those needs.”