Nine months after helping close Madison’s former License Plate Agency at the Western Rockingham Chamber of Commerce office, Becky Scotton opened the door to her own LPA on Tuesday morning.
“This has really been an overwhelming experience,” Becky said. “I’ve had people ask me about doing this ever since the old office closed. Then people started stopping me to thank me for opening this one as soon as they heard it was coming.”
Ironically, the new office is located at 101 East Murphy Street – just one block away from the previous location. But the new location has special significance to Becky. It’s inside Scotton Shoe Shop – the business that has been in her husband Brian’s family since 1934.
“Brian and I thought about this and prayed about it for a long time,” Becky said. “We knew there was not a lot of commission for these DMV transactions, but we had the advantage of owning our own building. So there wouldn’t be the extra expense of rent and utilities.”
Another advantage was having all the renovation work to prepare for the new agency completed by family and friends. Everything from refinishing the building’s original wood floors to constructing new counters, office space and a storage room was handled in-house.
“I even did most of the painting myself,” Becky said. “It was a labor of love by all concerned.”
Becky was hired to work at the former LPA in June 2005 by the late Donnie Joyce, who was executive director of the WRCC at that time. She said she was comforted by the realization that she was able to let Joyce know the new LPA was going to open before he died in April.
“He was so happy to hear we were going to do it,” Becky said.
Joyce’s sentiment seemed to be universal Tuesday morning as folks who had been waiting for the new office to open began to pile in to handle their DMV business. The office opened promptly at 9 a.m. and handled the first 10 customers by 9:10. That ease of getting in and out quickly was what most customers missed since the old Madison office closed last September.
“I have spent as long as two hours in line at the Reidsville office and I’ve heard some people say they waited longer in Greensboro,” Tanya Dickerson said. “I couldn’t wait for this new office to open.”
Dickerson, from Sandy Ridge, was one of a half-dozen people waiting for the door to open Tuesday. Dickerson said she made several trips to Reidsville during the last few months, usually to help out some of her elderly friends.
“I’ve taken as many as five registrations to get new tags for people I knew could never stand in line for so long over there,” she said. “To be able to have this Madison office open again is a real blessing.”
Madison resident Bobby Burrows agreed. Burrows was getting close to the expiration date for his vehicle’s tag, but was determined to wait for the new location to open.
“Becky goes to our church and I’ve been keeping tabs on when I could expect to come get my renewal,” Burrows said.
Within moments of the time Becky opened the door for business, the lines in front of the two service windows at the newly built counter were five-deep with customers. Debra DeLancey, the other LPA clerk working with Becky, also worked with her at the former Madison LPA.
“Debra and I did have the advantage of experience working in a license plate agency,” Becky said. “When we had to go to the training classes in Raleigh, at least everything wasn’t new to us. There were some new forms and procedures that had been added in the last nine months, but most of the material was at least familiar to us.”
While Becky and DeLancey waited on customers Tuesday morning, Brian Scotton also waited on a few customers of his own. He said adding the LPA to his shop’s front waiting area would not interfere with continuing the 78-year tradition of operating Scotton Shoe Shop.
“It really just gave us an excuse to do a little remodeling and fixing up,” Brian said.
Brian said he had heard from several other downtown business owners that they were anxious for the new LPA office to open. Many of them had experienced a decrease in customer traffic since the former office closed.
“It’s only natural that things would slow down when you have a place close that was drawing folks from two or three counties to your town,” Brian said. “I know there were people coming to that office all the time from Stokesdale, Oak Ridge and northern Greensboro. I think we’ll get that traffic back when word gets out Madison has a new office.”
In the meantime, Becky and Brian will be working at different jobs in the same office – one handling vehicle tag and title problems and the other footwear problems.
“We have a new motto for the building now,” Becky said. “It’s the place where you come to ride and walk. Brian can fix your shoes while I take care of your tag and get you on the road again. We’re a full-service family.”
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