Grove City Messenger - August 23rd, 2020

PAGE 4 - GROVE CITY MESSENGER - August 23, 2020
There was no hurry, I could have waited.
My birthday was still over a month
away. I was early and in my younger days
I would have put it off until the last second,
then go through the fire drill routine or just
end up being late. Procrastination was a
way of life back then, be it finishing a book
at the last second and throwing together a
hurried, poorly written book report, writing
a term paper the night before it was due, or
panicking after goofing off and then having
to pull all-nighters cramming for exams.
But time has mellowed my approach to
attacking things I now realize won’t go
away by just ignoring them. Now I just
take the plunge, remove all doubts, grit my
teeth and do it. Such was the case with my
trip to the BMV. My driver’s license was set
to expire. Given the COVID-19 atmosphere,
I figured I might as well go through
the ordeal sooner than later in case things
went downhill and they had to shut down
again, even knowing they’d probably be lax
on any enforcements or penalties for a period.
Just get it done, my new later-in-life
motto.
The weather forecast called for stifling
heat and humidity followed by sweltering
heat and humidity as the week progressed.
So, today was the day. First thing in the
morning, off I went. Surely there wouldn’t
be a line right after opening. Wrong, the
line outside was about 100 feet. That unofficial
military slogan, ‘hurry up and wait’
was about to become reality. But it was
moving, albeit much as the horse I bet on
last week who’s still approaching the final
turn for the homestretch run.
Almost all in the outside line were wearing
a mask, just one individual wasn’t. He
was carrying one in his hand, apparently
thinking it was only necessary and mandatory
upon entering the building.
Recommended social distancing in the outside
line was non-existent with many close
together, chatting away to pass time.
As the line moved along, I finally shuffled
up to the door. That’s when I could see
Please feed your pet inside
With the ongoing construction in and
around the Old Beulah Park area, many
animals including deer, coyote, fox, raccoon,
rabbit, squirrel and skunk have been
reported and seen in the surrounding
neighborhood. Skunks are the biggest nuisance.
The Grove City Masonic Lodge, located
at 3558 Park St., has contracted with
Critter Control of Columbus for 14 days of
trapping for skunks. Only skunks will be
caught, taken away and released. All other
animals caught in the traps will be
released.
Opinion Page
chaos inside. There were people sitting in
20 seats, many people standing. There
were only supposed to be a maximum of 20
inside. The problem was there were two
blue circles on the floor, kind of like watching
a ‘Wheel of Fortune’ quiz show where
the winning contestant stands for the final
puzzle. It was supposed to function, as one
came out, one entered to the front circle,
another out, another to the other circle.
From there you go to the kiosk, enter your
data and get assigned a number, after
which you go sit down, except you couldn’t,
the seats were filled. People kept coming
in, progressed to the kiosk, finished and
stood in a new forming line. It got crowed
in there. They really needed a worker at
the door to direct what should have been an
easy procedure.
One individual came in the door without
a mask on, walked through the mass of
people to a table, grabbed a mask from a
container they provided and put it on. I was
thinking, shouldn’t they have that table
closer to the door so it could be donned
before entering and passing by all those
people?
After some time, the manager (I
assume) looked out from behind the window
and saw the congestion. She barked
out for no more entries and those currently
entering to go back outside. It brought back
memories of my basic training days. I’m
sure she could have had the entire room
snap to, fall in line and become a precision
drill team in minutes. She was good, forceful,
but polite, professional and explained
why they couldn’t enter. And she took no
guff. One individual tried to buck her
authority and direction, but she had none
of it. He left in a swearing huff, but all of us
inside were about to applaud her handling
of the situation. We heard him peel away
out in the parking lot leaving us with a few
snickers to lighten our wait.
After some time, the line dwindled and I
rotated to a welcomed seat. My assigned
number was a D number (driver’s license).
Residents can be very helpful by not
feeding pets outside. Please feed pets
inside since other animals are attracted by
the smell of food, as well as the food itself.
Bill McNicol
Trustee, Grove City Masonic Lodge
Keep the mask
message consistant
I hesitate reaching out since typically I
keep my opinions to myself. However, the
cover on the (July 12 Messenger) issue
really concerns me.
I only had 14 in front of me, or so I thought.
There were also V numbers and O numbers
(presumably vehicles and other). There
were five windows and they were moving
right along. As I sat there, I started questioning
why I drank so much coffee. With
each number called and mine getting closer,
the excitement only enhanced my
nature calling problem. I started to appreciate
that saying, ‘I spent a week there one
day’ more and more. I was thinking about
diverting my attention, maybe lead the
group in singing that 1965 Animals hit,
“We’ve Got to Get Out of This Place” (if it’s
the last thing we ever do). But then visions
of the manager giving me latrine or KP
duty snapped me back to reality.
Finally, my number was called. I got so
excited, I forgot where I was and almost
jumped up and yelled “bingo”. I headed to
my window feeling like Don Knotts in the
Apple Dumpling Gang with my mask on. I
was greeted by a very pleasant worker.
The window had plexiglass separating
us which made it hard to hear, but she was
patient with me as she rattled off questions
and gladly had to repeat some. I’d gone
online at home and investigated the documentation
I’d need for the new federal compliant
license (versus standard) so I’d be
able to pass future flight requirements if
the need arose. So that went smoothly.
They gave me a sterilizing packet to clean
the eye test apparatus and despite the fog
on my eyeglass lenses from the mask, I
passed that. Then I moved over to get my
mugshot picture (with the mask off). Point,
game, set, match, me. I was done. “Your
new license will arrive in the mail in a
week or two.” The entire process, from car
and back, took about 1.5 hours, not bad,
although it seemed longer which I attribute
to anxiety, but mostly nature calling and
punishing me for too much coffee.
While impressed with the hard working
staff at the facility I went to, I was left with
some thoughts, hopefully seen as constructive.
My understanding is the BMV falls
We are now mandated to wear face
masks in Franklin County. However, our
(Grove City) Mayor Richard “Ike” Stage is
on the cover with his mask below his face
honoring a 100-year-old man who is very
vulnerable. The article just to the right outlines
the new mandate since we are now
level three.
Please be consistent with the message to
our community so we can control COVID-
19 as it continues to spike at in our wonderful
community and country. We can do this
together.
Ruth Johnson
Grove City
www.columbusmessenger.com
My trip to the BMV in the time of COVID-19
Letters to the editor
Guest Column
Dave Burton
under control of
Ohio’s Department
of Public Safety.
They in turn contract
out 174 independently
run
Registrar offices
spread across Ohio,
such as the one I
was in. If all the
facilities are all
designed as mine was, there’s a whole lot of
room for improvement.
The office was too small for the traditional
high volume customer flow being
serviced, even when not in pandemic days.
It’s destined for congestion. The jam us in,
cracker-barrel, dilapidated, pre-21st
Century looking building approach is an
embarrassment for what it represents. I
felt like I was at a concession stand at a
football game during halftime. With all the
empty buildings we see these days, I’m
sure a bigger one could easily be found at a
competitive rate.
At the least, it should have a separate in
and out entrance to improve customer flow.
A servicing window setup with much better
flow logic could easily be accomplished with
more room. There are firms that deal with
assessing and recommending improvements
for these types of issues. They could
make recommendations to the Department
of Public Safety, the offices the registrars
report to. They, in turn, should then insist
on improvements before renewing contracts
to those registrars.
Dave Burton is a guest columnist for the
Columbus Messenger Newspapers. He
lives in Grove City.
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southwest@columbusmessenger.com
southwest
Messenger
(Distribution: 21,697)
Andrea Cordle................................... Editor
southwest@ columbusmessenger.com
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