Specific signage approved for admin building east entrance

To solve the issue of customers entering the wrong doors to access driver’s license and motor vehicle services at the Jasper County administration building, the board of supervisors on Oct. 11 approved the purchase of new signage on the east entrance that clearly states the major services provided to visitors.

Sign Pro was awarded the project with the low bid of $3,925. Performance Sign Company submitted a $4,566 bid. Both companies are based in Newton.

County documents show a mockup of the new sign that states “Treasurer, Motor Vehicle, Driver’s License, Property Tax.” Another mockup changes the sign to only say “Jasper County Offices,” which is what the north and west entrances say. The board ultimately decided on the former design.

Jasper County Maintenance Director Adam Sparks said Matt Michener of Sign Pro did not recommend using the sign stating all the services of the treasurer’s office, reasoning the more generic the sign the better. Sparks said the signage on the doors and on the directories inside the building give specific descriptions.

“He says to me, ‘You can put up a thousand signs in a building and it literally is going to take time.’ It’s a timing thing,” Sparks said. “…In a year from now we won’t be having this discussion because almost everybody that can get out and goes and needs our services at one of these locations will eventually find this.”

When people finally get acquainted with the new office space, the issue will eventually fix itself, Michener told Sparks. Michener also recommended putting temporary yard signs at the other doors of the administration building to guide people to the east entrance for driver’s license/motor vehicles services.

“We keep putting them in the yard for the next six months until maybe we get to that point and we get rid of those and just have a sign that says ‘Jasper County Offices,’” Sparks said. “We can do whatever you guys like to do it’s just he recommends this is way too much.”

Regardless of which choice of sign the supervisors chose, Sparks noted it does not change the overall costs from either company.

Jasper County Treasurer Doug Bishop said Michener is the expert when it comes to signage but he respectfully disagreed that a year later the problem would resolve itself. Bishop said his office has a high volume of traffic coming from Polk, Poweshiek and Story Counties, customers won’t come in as often as locals.

At a past supervisors meeting, Bishop said there were more than 5,000 customers who entered the treasurer’s office in August. That amount grew to more than 7,000 in September. The county treasurer is fine with whatever the board decides but felt a detailed sign would help out-of-county individuals.

“If you just spend a little time over there you’ll see them drive by,” Bishop said, speaking in favor of the more specific sign. “I think having that up there … if they can drive by and see that it will keep them from going into the other two doors. It’s already been a pronounced problem with the other folks.”

For the past few months, many customers have not used the east entrance of the county admin building to access driver’s license/motor vehicle services. Sparks said at a past supervisors meeting that staff at juvenile probation are frequently redirecting visitors who entered the wrong door.

Here are the services and county departments available at each entrance of the administration building:

• West entrance — adult and juvenile probation.

• North entrance — public health, department of human services, Central Iowa Community Services (CICS).

• East entrance — driver’s license/motor vehicle department (DMV/DOT), genealogy, human resources and veterans affairs.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext 560 or at cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com