MOUNT VERNON — If certain cost-saving recommendations are accepted by the superintendent of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, Knox County’s driver’s license examination station could be closed and the operation shifted to Newark.
Averaging about 41 written and driving tests per day, the Mount Vernon station is one of many on a statewide list of recommended closures.
Joe Andrews, Ohio Department of Public Safety, emphasized the recommendation to close stations is just that at this point, a recommendation, and the plan is in the very preliminary stages.
“If something happens, it’s going to be months down the road,” he said.
Andrews said the recommendations to close came about when Col. John Born, the superintendent of the highway patrol, asked a group of patrol administrators to look at where some cost-saving measures could be made. One of the measures involved looking at driver’s license examination stations in close proximity to each other. The study group looked at stations statewide to see if they could close one or more in those areas and come up with some savings.
“In large areas where they have high volume,” said Andrews, “like in Cincinnati, the recommendation was to close two or three of the exam stations and put one in a centralized area. The central one would be kind of a super-station where they would have drivers license examinations, a deputy registrar and possibly a clerk of courts, so you could take care of all the business at one stop.”
