Burnet driver license office to close
Burnet County, in an effort to utilize as much office space as possible, recently told the Texas Department of Public Safety it would need a new home for its driver license offices. As a result, they will consolidate space as well, and announced plans to rehab a Marble Falls commercial space to become the one and only driver license office in the county. The DPS has been moving to offer more and more of its services online: www.dps.texas.gov/driverlicense/
By Glynis Crawford Smith
The Highlander
The Marble Falls driver license office will be moving, expanding and consolidating with the Burnet office sometime early in the new year.
“The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) is consolidating the Marble Falls and Burnet Driver License (DL) offices into a single office,” said Tom Vinger, of the DPS media and communication office.
He said things would remain as they are for now, but eventually an office will be readied. A new, centralized driver license office for Burnet County will mean that the current office at 1701 East Polk Street in Burnet eventually will be closing and the office in the Burnet County Courthouse Annex at 810 Steve Hawkins Parkway will move.
“We need the space in north and south courthouse annexes for core county functions, as the county grows,” said County Judge James Oakley. “We will continue to provide space to house DPS Troopers in the law enforcement center.
“At the north annex, that quadrant will be used for juvenile probation. In the south it will make more room for the justice of the peace court, as well as voting locations.”
An existing building at 1405 Mormon Mill Road will be renovated for the new office, with an opening announcement anticipated to be early in 2017, accordint to Vingar.
The Burnet DL office has had only one employee on staff and could be open only three days a week, Vinger explained. That employee had had to close the office to administer a drive test or to take a lunch break.
The Marble Falls office already is open five days a week.
“The current Burnet County DL office location is in a Burnet County building. and the space was being used by DPS at no charge,” said Vinger. “Burnet County officials informed DPS that they wanted to use the space, and requested that DPS vacate.
“DPS subsequently conducted an analysis of current operations, factoring in future growth, and determined that consolidating resources in a single office in Marble Falls was a better option than finding a new location for the part-time Burnet office.”
Increased efficiency and more consistent service to Burnet County customers will be the goal.
“DPS also has designed the new office to meet the demand in Burnet County with the ability to add a fifth work station as growth warrants,” Vinger said. “The employee from Burnet will be transferred to Marble Falls, which currently has two employees. An additional employee will be added to the new office, bringing the future staffing to four customer service representatives.”
