MEMPHIS, Tenn. — As if Shelby County Clerk customers needed any more headaches, they have a new one this week: the Whitehaven location will be down for days, possibly longer. This is because the building's air conditioning went out late last Friday.
That likely means even longer waits elsewhere for tags and plates at the county's other locations that are mostly outside in the dangerous heat.
"It's very much an inconvenience," Gregory Reid said Monday when he came to the Whitehaven location on Elvis Presley Boulevard and learned it was closed temporarily.
"As high as the temperature has been this week, I don't want to stand in line at another location," Reid said.
But that's the reality for hundreds of customers, who now must drive and wait somewhere else, until the the Whitehaven location's broken A/C is fixed this week.
"As much as I am frustrated, I need some plates and on my car," Reid said.
"The heat has just been out of control," Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert said.
That's why this week her office will launch an appointment system, where customers can get a number, cool off in their cars and be called when it's their turn. A trial run wrapped last week.
"I did see some great responses but we did see some blips in the road, we don't want to get the process started and then it gets stuck midstream," Halbert added.
The heat and safety issue is especially relevant at the Clerk's Mullins Station location - where under a blistering sun - a viewer sent ABC24 a picture Monday of a more than three hour wait.
"It's a challenge with the facilities we have," Halbert said.
Halbert and her team continues to scout larger building options that would allow more people to wait in line inside. She's hopeful at least one site can be finalized by year's end.
"If there's a larger facility needed, I'll obviously support it from the commission standpoint," Shelby County Commissioner Van Turner said.
Turner believes fixing the wait times - and approving larger sites - will be a top priority for the next commission when they're seated in September.
"Most certainly we need to cut down the lines, we need to create more efficiencies and I think this is something that is all feasible and that we can do," Turner added.
Halbert said Clerk's office locations will not have extended hours while the Whitehaven location is closed, largely because of ongoing staffing concerns.
The opening of a new location on Riverdale Road is also delayed because of supply chain challenges.