MEMPHIS, Tenn. — After numerous deadlines came and went, over half a year later, the Shelby County Clerk’s office in Hickory Hills finally opened its doors.
Clerk Wanda Halbert said the delay had been caused by furniture delivery and staffing issue. The new location on Riverdale Road is meant to ease the long lines many Memphians had experienced over the past year across Shelby County.
Overall, Tuesday’s soft opening was a welcome surprise for customers, many of whom were there just as the doors opened.
“Didn’t have to wait long, got my tags, I’m happy, better than going downtown,” said Florence Ford.
Several people told ABC24 they were in and out of the office within 10 minutes, one customer’s wait time clocked in at 1:34.
“I saw it on tv this morning, and I was like, I need to get over there,” said Sharon Macklin.
Right now the Riverdale location is operating at a limited capacity. Halbert says only new and renewed motor vehicle services are available.
There are goals to open a drive through services, kiosks and a messaging service at the location at a later time. The soft opening is meant to ask as a testing phase to help the location iron out any issues.
“It’s why we’re having the soft opening this week, just to see exactly how does that work for the customer experience and the employee experience,” said Halbert.
The Shelby County Clerk added the new office is still facing staffing issues. At a minimum the office is supposed to have 15 employees, but it only has four on hand.
“When we have employees come on board, they have an up to a minimum of a two month training process, that’s usually downtown, before they’re fielded throughout the entire county,” said Halbert, “We’ve taken employees from current locations just to have them working here.”
Halbert wants to boost staffing by working with the Shelby County Government to increase the office’s budget so the team can offer employees competitive salaries.
“Our county is the largest of the five big counties, and my peers are paying their employees far more than what we’re paying.” said Halbert.
The full capacity of the Riverdale location remains to be seen. Halbert tells ABC24 the office will be able to gauge how well it will handle demand during the busier times that typically occur at the end and beginning of the month.