Wrangell’s Division of Motor Vehicles will soon be up and running again with a new, sole employee to take charge.
Wrangell officials hired Jayme Howell for a shared position – part DMV and part administrative assistant for the police department. Her official start date is October 7, but the DMV won’t open for a while.
Police Chief Gene Meek said Howell will first be training on running the DMV. She will also train as a police administrative assistant and handling TSA Prechecks, which is where travelers can preregister for faster security lines at airports.
DMV is priority
“The one that affects Wrangell the most would be the DMV position, and that’s going to be our primary focus to get that station back up and running,” he said. “I don’t have a timetable on that. Hopefully it won’t be more than a month, but we’ll see.”
Not only will Wrangellites be able to get vehicle registrations and driver’s licenses again, but Howell’s job will also cover harbors.
She’ll be able to issue Transportation Worker Identity Cards for employees to work at different ports, ferry terminals and cruise ship lines.
“… if everybody just has a little bit of patience…”
“Jayme seems like she’s going to be very motivated, and I think she’s going to do a great job,” Meek said. “So if everybody just has a little bit of patience, we’ll get this thing right back up and running.”
Meek said that there were about a dozen applicants who applied for the position. Most of them are from Wrangell.
“It’s a very complex position,” he said. “We had a lot of people apply who would have done very well at the job. Just ultimately, between the essay, the interview, and just Jayme’s character, she was the one who was chosen to fill this position.”
He said the DMV has been closed since August 23, after the last employee resigned. The office will reopen after Howell’s initial training.
