Pullman licensing office opens today

The new Pullman licensing office is indicated by this license plate sign on Bishop Boulevard and is opening just three weeks after the closure of the longtime subagency at the Pufferbelly Depot, which closed Aug. 8.

Pullman's new vehicle/vessel licensing sub-agency office is opening today. Molly Johnson, new proprietor, plans to open the doors today at 8:30 a.m. – just three weeks after being awarded the contract.

“I'm thrilled. We've been so busy getting ready,” said Johnson. “The state has been absolutely wonderful. My goal was to open as soon as possible.”

Johnson, one of two applicants for the contract after a call for applicants was sent out in May, said she has been excited for this opportunity and looks forward to serving the community.

“They can expect completely customer-focused, totally 100 percent customer-focused,” said Johnson. “I just want to make sure everyone's taken care of.”

Whitman County Auditor Eunice Coker said it was a learning process to get all of this taken care of following the death of previous proprietor Dan Antoni in December of last year.

“Learning what had to be done and how to do it was amazing,” she said. “It took cooperative mentoring from the state licensing office, and I'm entirely excited. We learned a new process, but I hope we don't have to do all that again soon.”

Antoni prepared ahead of his death and wrote a letter of recommendation for his daughter, Meghan Antoni, to take over the contract upon his death. She continued to run the vehicle/vessel licensing office until Aug. 8. She closed the office when Johnson was awarded the contract. Antoni and Johnson were the only two applicants.

“It was sad to see the Pufferbelly closing after all those years,” said Coker. “But I'm real super excited to see how fast Molly and Jeff were able to pull a blank room together.”

The new licensing office is located at 1096 SE Bishop Blvd., Suite #3, between the Verizon store and Sweet Mutiny. The space had previously been a large vacant room.

“It's open and it's bright,” said Johnson. “There's a big 28-foot diamond plate countertop, and it's so cool. And we did a blue accent wall.”

Johnson credited work crews with being able to get the job done so quickly.

“It has been three weeks of non-stop building and framing and countertops and painting and waxing,” she said. “It takes a team to get this together in three weeks.”

Johnson also noted everyone who worked on the building was hired locally.

The office will continue to offer boating, vehicle and off-road licensing, and Johnson said quick title services will also be available in the future. Patrons can still renew their registration online, and Johnson said she will mail all online renewals.

Coker told the Gazette the state licensing department usually estimates about 90 days in situations such as these to get a new office up and running, so she is pleased to have it opening so soon. Customers have been re-directed to Colfax during the three weeks there has been no licensing office in Pullman, which Coker estimated previously completed 45 percent of the county's licensing business.

“We've been very, very busy over here,” she said.

The office opens at 8:30 a.m. today and will close at 5:30 p.m. Hours Monday through Friday will be 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The office will be closed Sundays and holidays. Johnson also said most of the time three staff members will be on duty there.

http://www.pullmanvvl.com