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The County General Store
History

Revised 01/2002

Scott County recognized the barriers to service at the courthouse and identified the potential in offering a satellite office for over the counter services at Northpark Shopping Center, which was Iowa's largest mall. The limited parking available to citizens at the county parking lot was a significant obstacle. In addition the retail establishments were relocating away from the downtown area, which further separated the general public from our office for their service needs. Further research was pursued to determine the possibility of initiating Iowa's first and only off-site government office.

Northpark Mall offered a small office space at no charge as a pilot program from December 1, 1982 through March 15, 1983. During this time the only service offered was the renewal of vehicle registrations which were all due during this period of the year.

After a successful pilot program, the satellite office known as "The County General Store" moved to a temporary office in December of 1983 until a larger space was available. With the legislative change to a staggered registration system determined by the owner's birth month, we were able to offer the motor vehicle renewal service throughout the year.

We moved to a larger office at the mall until July 12, 1992. The Auditor agreed to allow our satellite office to accept voter registration.

After considerable troubleshooting with the Department of Transportation concerning the security of the certificates of title forms, we added the processing of title transfers January 2, 1987. On October 9, 1987 our clerks became cross-trained as a "universal" clerk to process either motor vehicle or tax payments. With this additional service the satellite office had evolved to offering the same services offered at our courthouse office.

We moved to the location at 216 E. 50th Street, Davenport July 13, 1992 through October 12, 2001 increasing our office size from 431 square feet to 1,200 square feet. This location continued to provide the citizens with an alternative to the courthouse location with an experienced, helpful, and friendly staff for county services.

However, we formed a partnership agreement with the Department of Transportation and moved to 2162 W. Kimberly Rd., Davenport October 15, 2001 sharing the facility with Driver Services. By re-locating to this facility there will be less confusion to the public concerning which office they need for driver's license or license plates and better service with both agencies able to help a customer. The County will also save the cost of annual rent at $30,235.26, utilities at $3,000.00, commercial services at $420.00, and maintenance and cleaning supplies at $900.00 for a total savings of $34,555.00 annually.

During the evolution of "The County General Store" we have changed from our original hours of Monday-Saturday from 10:00 a.m. through 7:00 p.m. to the current period Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m. -5:00 p.m. and Saturday 8:00 a.m. till noon. We started with 3.5 full time employees and have grown to six full time employees. We also staff an additional clerk during peak periods from the courthouse. Those clerks in addition to fourteen courthouse clerks staff "The County General Store" by rotating Saturday. This procedure requires each clerk to work one Saturday each month at The County General Store allowing the burden of a Saturday workday to be shared by all clerks.

"The County General Store" processes approximately 60% of all over the counter motor vehicle renewals. We have not added staff to the department to facilitate our satellite office; rather we implemented a cross training of our staff to enable them to proficiently process a tax transaction as well as a motor vehicle transaction. We have also scheduled existing staff to accommodate the citizen's needs.