Jacksonville residents in need of a license plate renewal sticker will have to travel to Springfield for the time being. The Illinois Secretary of State’s office reopened seven driver services facilities today to provide drive-thru services for vehicle registration sticker transactions. Residents in the listening area can travel to the 2701 South Dirksen Parkway in Springfield for the service. The facility will be open from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Secretary of State Spokesman Dave Druker says it’s baby steps for the facilities to reopen around the state. He says the first step was reopening CDL licensure operations at 7 locations via appointment last week. He says that the Macomb facility, which is a Tuesday-Friday facility, along with the Dirksen facility are available for the sticker renewals this week.
Druker says they are monitoring the pandemic situation with the Illinois Department of Public Health and Governor J.B. Pritzker’s office, but they are on a different schedule to reopen events. Druker would not allude to any more details or a timeline of reopening the other 130+ facilities around the state. The Dirksen Parkway facility is experiencing lengthy lines. Those seeking services should make preparations ahead of time or to use the website to complete the renewals.
Druker says that the Secretary of State is looking at options during that reopening to deal with a surge of incoming foot traffic when that reopening does occur. “We are looking at different time frames by maybe expanding hours. Certainly many people are in need of the services. That’s why we’ve gone out of our way to encourage people to do, for example registrations or duplicate driver’s license, online. It will save you time from having to come into the facility and makes things a little bit faster.”
Druker says that the office has processed over 200,000 registrations online since the pandemic began and 60,000 license renewals. He says he was surprised by that high number, and believes it proves the efficiency and effectiveness of the cyberdriveillinois website.