June 10 last day for driver’s licensing at Whitley Circuit Clerk’s Office

If you live in Whitley County and need to renew your driver’s license or to get a state issued identification card and don’t want to have to travel to a regional site to do so, then you need to get down to the Whitley County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office sometime in the next few days.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet announced Tuesday morning that Whitley County would be among five additional counties that will cease issuing driver’s licenses at the circuit court clerk’s office after the close of business on Friday, June 10. The other counties include Campbell, Jessamine, Marion and Mason.

This will apply to both the clerk’s office Corbin location and the Williamsburg location in the Whitley County Judicial Center.

Customers will be referred to Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) Driver Licensing Regional Offices as of Monday, June 13.

Whitley County Circuit Court Clerk Gary Barton admits that he will be disappointed to see driver’s licensing leave his office.

“I have been there for 35 years and issued licenses to people. I have been able to help a lot of people get licenses when they were in a tight spot needing a license. Now we are not going to be able to do that,” Barton said.

“I felt like that we could work something out with the Department of Transportation, but the guidelines they gave us were not feasible for the clerks to be able to continue issuing the driver’s licenses.”

Many things people go to the clerk’s office for, such as to pay fines, probate a will, etc. aren’t often things they are happy to be doing.

However, issuing driver’s licenses has been a “good relationship builder” with the public all of these years, Barton noted.

As a result of legislation that was passed in 2020, all driver licensing and state ID services will be transitioned to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet by June 30, 2022.

The transportation cabinet has created 27 regional driver’s licensing offices across the state. The state plans to open at least four more regional offices later this year, including offices in London and Pineville.

“As clerks we did not necessarily want to get rid of driver’s licensing. With the new federal law as it is written and as the state implemented it, it was going to be impossible for us to issue licenses and do our statutory duties as circuit court clerks. Our job is to handle the records and maintain the court system that is our statutory duty,” Barton said. “Our statutory duty is to the courts.”

The transition from the clerk’s offices in all 120 counties to regional sites operated by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is being done largely due to the issuance of REAL IDs, which you will be required to have beginning May 3, 2023, if you are 18 or over and want to board a commercial flight, access a military base or a federal building that currently requires identification.

Other forms of federally approved identification can also be used, such as a passport or Department of Defense-issued military ID.

You will also still be able to get a standard driver’s license in Kentucky if you don’t need a REAL ID.

The REAL ID law was implemented in wake of the terrorist attacks on 9-11 in 2001.

First-time application for a REAL ID must be made in person at a Driver Licensing Regional Office. Specific documentation is required, and it takes longer to get a REAL ID than it does a standard driver’s license.

Barton noted that once his office closes, people will have a number of options for renewing their driver’s licenses, including doing so online and by mail.

A regional office is supposed to open in London by mid-June, and there will be regional offices in Pineville, Manchester and Somerset, he added.

In addition, Barton noted that there will be “Pop-Up Driver Licensing” services that will come to each county periodically, which doesn’t have a regional office. People can get either a standard driver’s license issued or a REAL ID issued there.

“It’s a new era of driver licensing in Kentucky,” said Gov. Andy Beshear. “Our administration accepted the challenge of assuming all driver licensing and ID issuance, and we have been hard at work creating the best network we can. Circuit court clerks will now be able to focus solely on court business, and driver licensing will be executed at new regional offices whose only business is licensing.”