ADEL, Iowa — The Dallas County driver’s license service center in Adel will be closed Wednesday, Oct. 2 for employee training.
Last week the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) confirmed the new location for the state’s driver’s licensing service center in Dallas County that is set to open in January: 1156 S.E. Ashworth Road in Waukee.
Melissa Spiegel, director of the motor vehicle division of the Iowa DOT, told ThePerryNews.com her office is “finalizing lease negotiations in a build-to-suit location in the Kettlestone Plaza, located at Grand Prairie Parkway and Ashworth Road in Waukee. We are hopeful the lease negotiations will be finalized soon and are working to begin securing the necessary permits for the buildout to open in January.”
Spiegel said the new state-operated location in Waukee will increase the percentage of Dallas County’s driving-age residents living within a 20-minute drive of the driver’s license center from 67 percent of residents near the existing Adel site to 77 percent of residents near the new Waukee location.
She said the choice of the new location was based on a number of factors, including:
- Customer access
- ADA compliance
- Zoning of the property
- Parking capacity and square footage able to handle the expected customer volume
- fiber-optic connectivity
- Feasibility of providing drive tests in the area
- Affordability
With the steady growth in Dallas County’s population, a space of approximately 4,500-5,000 square feet of office space was estimated to meet the department’s needs, Spiegel said, along with staff and customer parking of 45-60 parking spaces. The new site satisfies those criteria, she said.
“Dallas County is unique in that the population mass is in the southern and eastern part of the county rather than the center,” Spiegel said, “and we knew that it would be challenging to find a perfect location that would be ideal for every population center in the county. Because of this, we knew we had to look at our options very carefully and make the best decision based on space requirements, parking, cost, and access that would benefit the maximum number of residents.”
With the needed criteria in mind, a request for proposals was publicized in June by the Iowa Department of Administrative Services (DAS), but it “did not receive any responses from the vendor community,” Spiegel said. The DAS started to search for a suitable site.
The search zone was bounded by U.S. Highway 6 on the north, U.S. Interstate 80 on the south, Grand Prairie Parkway on the east and U.S. Highway 169 on the west, including the city of Adel. The search zone was determined by the density of the Dallas County customer population and ease of access for motorists traveling to the location.
“One property in Adel was included on the list but later removed after it was quickly sold and no longer available for lease,” Spiegel said. No other available commercial properties in Adel met the needs of a new driver’s license service center.
“When the new service center is opened at the beginning of calendar year 2020, we will have a team of eight at the new location,” Spiegel said, “which includes one supervisor and seven staff members. We are still in the middle of the hiring process but should have the new team assembled in October.”
She said the hours for the new center will be the same as at other DOT service centers: Tuesday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Dallas County provided the state’s licensing and ID services for 20 years in Adel. The DOT announced its intention to take over licensing from Dallas County in November 2018.
The average county treasurer in Iowa issues about 3,500 driver’s licenses and photo IDs a year. In contrast, the Dallas County Treasurer’s office issues about 26,000 a year, numbers on a par with DOT offices in Ames, Council Bluffs and Dubuque, and the numbers are expected to keep climbing.
