New Service Center opens at Midtown

BY MEREDETH BARZEN

Hennepin County residents no longer need to leave the area to take a written driver’s license test, now that a new state service center has opened on the bottom floor of the Midtown Exchange in South Minneapolis. The center, which hosted a grand opening on June 5, 2006, provides virtually any service that a resident of Hennepin County might require, including driver’s license duplicates and renewals, motor vehicle tabs, marriage licenses and certificates, birth and death certificates and bus passes.

Also, residents will soon be able to pay their taxes online at the center using a credit card, which was previously not possible.
The most pressing need that the new center addresses, however, is Hennepin County’s former lack of a site where its residents can take the written driver’s license test. Previous to the opening, residents had to commute to one of the surrounding counties to take the written test, a situation that presented a hardship for many. Now, Minneapolis’ tenants can engage in one-stop-shopping for their governmental needs. The site has the capacity to conduct 25 written tests at a time, 15 of which were operational at press time. Or, one can make an appointment to take the test orally.

The center has a staff of twenty, most of whom are bilingual, a feature that supervisor Lyn Juntunen considers essential to the site’s value. Juntunen stated that the staff’s language skills, which include Spanish, Somali, Arabic and French, make the experience more comfortable for foreign-born residents.

“We want to make them not afraid to come to a government office,” she said while giving a tour of the new facilities. “We can put them in connection with anything that they need.” Indeed, the center is one of the first government offices to be designed specifically with foreign-born residents in mind, an important undertaking in the diverse Phillips/Powderhorn neighborhood. Juntunen wants to spread awareness about the center through those residents, suggesting that ideally, those who had used the facilities would tell their neighbors and friends “”go to Hennepin County; they’ll help you.’”

“Our goal is to be a strong part of the community,” Juntunen stressed, adding that the project evolved as an equal partnership between the community and the state. She feels that the center will be a positive force in the neighborhood, though she wants to make it clear that “this is their community; we’re new here.” The center is also interested in communicating with the leaders of different subcultures within the neighborhood, in an effort to inform individuals of their rights and responsibilities. It’s too early to tell, but hopes are that the center, in cooperation with the Global Market upstairs and other projects in the area, will breathe new life into the community.

The Midtown Exchange service center is open six days a week, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The DVS unit, where license testing takes place, is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Visit www.hennepin.us/ or call 612-348-8240 for more information.