The Haines DMV office is located in the Gateway building. (Alaska DMV website)

The Haines DMV office is located in the Gateway building. (Alaska DMV website)

In August, Haines residents will again be able to take their driving tests and renew their car registrations in-person locally. The Haines Department of Motor Vehicles office is scheduled to re-open August 3rd after a three-month closure.

The office closed in May when the only employee retired. State DMV Director Amy Erickson says a new employee has been hired and is training in Juneau next week.

While the Haines office was closed, residents who needed to visit a DMV for in-person services had to travel to Juneau or Skagway.

“Yeah, we’re definitely taking in a lot more DMV business with the Haines DMV being closed,” said Tami Scime, a Skagway police dispatcher who also serves as a DMV agent.

Her co-worker Sheryl Gladden, who handles most DMV needs, says the number of DMV customers has doubled from the usual amount this time of year.

“We stayed busy clear through June and up until last week,” she said. “It was just crazy busy.”

Gladden says Haines tour company bus drivers came to Skagway for road tests during the past few months. In her 14 years as a police clerk tasked with DMV duties, Gladden says she doesn’t know of any other instance where the Haines office was closed for this length of time.

The Skagway employees say there’s much DMV business that can be completed online, such as vehicle registration renewal and in some cases, driver’s license renewals.