It’s been years since North Dakota has had a new license plate issue.
But the 2013 Legislature set aside some money for new license plates.
As Prairie Public’s Dave Thompson reports, the process for issuing new plates is not an easy one.
“It has been 21 years since the state issued a new license plate," said Linda Butts, the deputy director for driver and vehicle services for the North Dakota Department of Transportation. “The reality is – many of the staff at DOT who were on board for that implementation have retired.”
Butts will head-up DOT’s efforts to design and issue the new plates. She says there are a number of policy issues to work out.
"The Lewis and Clark plate was always a temporary plate. So is it time to retire that plate?" said Butts. "If we do that, there are some people who have a Lewis and Clark number, as well as a ‘Buffalo Plate’ number. That’s the same number. So how do we sort out who gets which number?”
There are also issues with the organizational plates.
The new plates will no longer be embossed - that is, they won’t have raised numbers.
“That’s all Roughrider Industries knows, as far as the manufacturing process, is the embossed method of manufacturing license plates<' said Rich Gardner, the director of Roughrider Industries – that uses inmates at the state prison to make the plates. “This will be a whole new process for us – new technologies, using inmate labor, getting them up to speed, along with our staff.”
Gardner says Roughrider will have to buy some of that new technology to make the plates.
“With the flat plates now it will be a laser printer," said Gardner. "It has to be in an air-temperature controlled environment, which we currently don’t have in our prison industries. We’re going to have to be looking at how we are going to accomplish this.”
Butts says she will soon convene a working group to look at the process – and a new design for the plates. She says there are a number of options – including having DOT design the plate and having an open design contest.
“What we are finding is how passionate people are about their plates," said Butts. "Each method has both its pros and its cons. Because it’s been 21 years since we have even done this, we want to make sure we weigh those pros and cons, and try to do what’s best for the people of North Dakota.”
Gardner says there is a lot to accomplish in the time the Legislature allotted.
“So by the time we issue the RFP (Request for Proposals) and procure the equipment, get it installed on site and run with it to see how it’s going to work, that’s going to be some time there, also," said Gardner. "And we have asked for a full two years time frame to do the reissue also, so it doesn’t give us a lot of time.”
The deadline for issuing the new plates is June 30th, 2017.
