Trisha Boehm, a recent UT speech communications graduate, drove without a license for two weeks.
She went downtown to get a replacement only to find the Knox County Clerk’s Office at the courthouse no longer renews licenses because it lost its contract to do so.
She put off going to one of the two remaining state facilities that issue licenses – the Strawberry Plains Pike or the West Knox location – because the 6 p.m. news said the process was taking four hours per applicant.
“I’d rather drive without a license than wait four hours,” Boehm said.
With only two state facilities reinstating licenses for Knoxville and its surrounding counties, residents are having to wait longer to fulfill their driving requirements than before; three other locations – at Knoxville Center Mall, the downtown courthouse and the Halls office – in Knoxville that provided the service lost their contracts to issue drivers’ licenses on June 30.
Knox County Clerk Mike Padgett wants to change that.
“It’s a mess, but it’s going to be resolved,” Padgett said.
Padgett said Knoxville Center Mall, the downtown courthouse and the Halls office could not be used because of issues related to terrorism. For now, residents have only two choices, either the location at Strawberry Plains Pike or the Center Park Drive location in West Knoxville.
Padgett began a petition drive on Aug. 15 to the Tennessee Department of Transportation and Gov. Don Sundquist requesting the Driver’s License Issuance Contract held by the Knox County Clerk’s Office be reissued.
He has over 30,000 signatures on the petition and said it would not take long to renew the contract.
“If the governor would call me right now, I’d work all night long, and I’d be issuing licenses tomorrow morning,” Padgett said on Friday.
TDOT’s media representative could not be reached for comment.
Padgett said there were four to six- hour waits at the two locations and that he was given two days notice on June 28 that his contract would be denied.
“I wasn’t given a 30-day warning,” Padgett said.
It worked well for UT students to use the Knoxville Center and downtown clerk’s office to receive their licenses, Padgett said, because of the two locations’ close proximity to UT and the extended hours Knoxville Center provided.
Former Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen, a Democrat, and Rep. Van Hilleary, R-Tenn. – both Tennessee gubernatorial candidates – plan to reinstate the contracts in Knoxville, he said.
Padgett made clear he was not blaming state employees for the long wait at the two locations and said just having two locations made it much harder on them.
“I’m in full support of them (state employees),” he said.
Things were not so bad at the Center Park Drive location at around 5 p.m. last Friday. Boehm received her license in almost 30 minutes.
