BILLINGS – A new motor vehicle satellite office is scheduled to open inside of MetraPark in January that will offer registration renewals.
The creation of the office is in response to the constant long lines and wait times at the downtown office inside of the Yellowstone County Courthouse.
The idea comes from Yellowstone County Commissioner Denis Pitman, who wanted to find a way to improve customer service.
“This is about providing easy access for something the people don’t necessarily like to do. You don’t like to pay taxes to drive your car but if we can make it a little easier for you and give you some easy access,” Pitman said.
Situated just past the windows of the MetraPark box office, the new satellite office will be strictly for renewals.
All other title work will still be done at the downtown location or at the satellite office in Laurel.
“I think by next week as we start this construction, Sherry Long our treasurer is going to nail down what the initial hours of operation are going to be and what that’s going to look like. Then we’re literally going to be monitoring it to see what the demand is, what are the expectations, what are the hopes of the people using the facility, if we need to expand the hours, or we need to add more employees to accommodate the volume,” Pitman said.
Between November of 2020 and November of 2021, a total of 224,629 vehicle transitions were conducted at the Billings and Laurel offices.
During that same time, the offices processed 103,278 renewals.
Registration renewals can be made online, but only a fraction of transactions utilized the method at 41,055.
Pitman expects construction on the office to be done by the second week of January.
“We’ll probably start with a soft opening just to get all of the bugs out of it and then we will let everybody know when it’s in full operation,” he said.
The county currently has job openings for clerks at the downtown office and new satellite location.
Employment inquiries can be made at the downtown office or at the new MetraPark location once the office is open.
Construction on the satellite office will begin on Monday, Dec. 27, 2021.
