Eddy County has announced the new hours for its administrative offices, which are scheduled to take effect the week of April 9. Under the new hours, the majority of county offices will be closed on Fridays, per a resolution adopted by the Eddy County Commission at its March 7 meeting.
All offices with the exception of the county’s detention facilities and the Sandpoint Landfill – which will continue to operate on their current schedules – will now be open from 7 a.m. – 6 p.m., Monday through Thursday. That includes the administrative offices of the Eddy County Sheriff’s Office (ECSO). ECSO law enforcement services will continue as usual.
Exceptions to the 7 a.m. – 6 p.m. hours include:
• Artesia Motor Vehicle Department: This office will be open from 7:30 a.m. – 5 p.m., Monday through Thursday.
• Eddy County Treasurer’s Offices: These will be open from 7 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
Some Artesia residents raised questions concerning the differing hours of the Artesia MVD.
According to Eddy County Community Services Director Wesley Hooper, Artesia MVD employees will be on the clock from 7 a.m. – 6 p.m., half an hour before and one hour after its doors open and close.
Hooper says employees will use the half-hour between 7 and 7:30 a.m. to set up before customers arrive and will close its doors at 5 p.m. in order to serve the customers already waiting in line prior to 6 p.m.
“The MVD is very busy and has a line of customers before the doors open, and this is consistent throughout the whole day,” Hooper said. “They must shut the doors at 5 p.m. so that they are able to provide for the customers that are still waiting and then, once this has been completed, they have to shut everything down and balance out for the day.
“As you can well imagine, this is a lot to do and complete within one hour. The employees try very hard to complete all of these duties within that time frame.”
