Northwest Iowa — The Iowa Department of Transportation says the appointment only system for getting or renewing your Iowa Driver’s License that was instituted due to the pandemic, will now be made permanent. However, that only affects the seventeen DL stations around the state that are operated by the DOT.
Here in our four-county area the Driver’s License stations are operated by the Board of Supervisors in the individual counties, and each county can do things pretty much however their County Supervisors decree.
Jill Lode says that in Sioux County, where she works as a Driver’s License Examiner, they stopped requiring appointments about two months ago. In fact, she says, the Sioux County stations have been busy due to people from Woodbury County coming to Sioux County to obtain or renew their licenses after finding out from the DOT station in Sioux City that the next available appointment times are two months away.
In O’Brien County, Treasurer Missy Hatterman says her office are still requiring appointments to be made, and will be for the foreseeable future. Hatterman says they plan to revisit the decision at the end of the year and decide how to move forward from that point.
Lyon County Treasurer Russ Hopp tells us that appointments for license applications and renewals are still required and there is no immediate plan to change the requirement. However, he said he expects the matter to be revisited at some future time.
We reached out to the Osceola County Treasurer’s Office in Sibley to inquire about their policy regarding DL appointments, but multiple calls were answered by an automated system and we were unable to talk with anyone in their Driver’s License Department.
