Pleasantly surprised by state government bureaucrats today

[richhodg66]

I retired from the Army last year and went through a whole bunch of life changes including a move. I've been procrastinating about getting my driver's license updated, which is no big deal since I still own my last house and receive mail there, but my CCW was from a different address that I couldn't give any legitimacy too anymore, so I took the dreaded step of dealing with the state attorney general's office and then the even more dreaded DMV (they are the ones who make up the cards).

Now I've had rotten luck with the Geary County, Kansas DMV for the past 18 years or so. They are consistently rude, inefficient and stupid, I try real hard to not even darken the door of the place and I also figured that even in Kansas, I'd have trouble with changes to a CCW permit in the politically correct age we live in.

I called the attorney general's office yesterday mainly to find out where it was and got a very pleasant lady who explained the process was to submit a form online and they would mail out the form I needed for the DMV in about a week. Since I'm in the same town, I asked if it would be OK to come pick it up instead of waiting for the mail and she said "sure" and that she'd set it aside for me. I had today off, so it really was a good opportunity to get all this done. I got there early this morning and a gentleman working the desk found my papers right where she had left them and even told me of a small branch office of the Shawnee County DMV right across the street I didn't know about. Went to the DMV and really good customer service there too, hardly a wait and very courteous staff. The whole process from start to finish didn't take an hour and I didn't get my usual cussing fit going that normally results from dealing with state bureaucrats. Maybe there's some hope after all.

[waynem34]

Nothing like a stress free day.Happy hunting.

[williamwaco]

You know.

Government employees are people too.

A few of them are actually nice and helpful.

I find that "... consistently rude, inefficient and stupid."
applies to a significant percentage of the businesses I frequent too.

[popper]

Big difference in attitude between Riley/KSU & Topeka.

[sparky45]

Preachin' to the Choir popper, preachin' to the Choir.

[Moondawg]

I am banned in Kansas. I owe them 10 years back income tax. Joined the Army in 1964. In 1974 Kansas sent me a letter saying I hadn't paid my state income tax for the past ten years, and they wanted their back taxes. Heck, when I joined up I was just a kid, I never made enough to pay state tax and didn't even know they had an income tax. Long story short, I was stationed in Texas at the time. JAG office told to go down get a Texas DL, and register to vote in Texas. The JAG sent a letter to Kansas saying I was a Texas resident. Texas doesn't have an income tax and I have been here ever since and loving every minute of it. I don't go back to Kansas except for brief visits. I just could not see paying Kansas income tax that I earned while I was out of state.

[richhodg66]

Big difference in attitude between Riley/KSU & Topeka.

I actually like the Junction City/Fort Riley community. So much so that I homesteaded most of my career there, though I retired from Fort Leavenworth. I never have learned to like Manhattan, about the best thing I can say for it is, it isn't Lawrence.

We actually lived in Milford rather than JC and I loved it. It's where I plan to retire for good, but the job market took me to Topeka. Topeka is not a bad place at all, but it truly is too urban for me and I really am looking forward to getting back to living on my lake and near my woods.

That said, the Geary County Treasurer's office and Driver's licensing office are pure evil. When I went to register vehicles in Shawnee County last Spring, it was slow and inefficient, nature of the beast I suppose, but much better than my experience at Geary County's. Just something about that place.

[waksupi]

When looking at properties further south, I found southern Kansas has some of the best prices on real estate in the country. What do you know about that area, aside from being in tornado alley?

[richhodg66]

Not much. I've always lived in the northern half, but my general expeience with peop;e across the plains states has been great as a general rule. I'm not from Kansas originally, just liked it from the first and stayed.

[fryboy]

i'm not fond of the larger suburban areas in kansas ( yeah i'mma kansas kid ) finding a smaller nearby office is much better than attempting to go to the larger ones where mayhem seems more the rule , worse the modernization fee that they've been charging us the last several years seems to made all of them worse ! ( ahhh progress ... ummm isnt it supposed to be going forward and better as opposed to worse and slower ? :P ) congrats on the retirement !!


ummm "What do you know about that area, aside from being in tornado alley?"
not only do we have some humdingers of twisters we also have about a 7 month winter that ye olde north wind howls down across scouring the plains cutting way past the marrow as there isnt nothing betwixt here and the north pole but a barbed wire fence - and it blew down ! i keep hoping some one up north will restring it but ...then we have a 9 month summer of bake your brain type heat , while kansas is known as the land of the south wind ( and we have plenty of that !!!!) named for the kansa tribe of indians that ol wind seems to drop off during our hottest part of summer as well as switching directions during the 7 month winter, other than that the 4-5 days we have of spring ( and not always all in a row ) are some of the most welcome days we have with weather that just makes a man feel alive ( because he finally thawed out enough to feel ) and the 3 weeks or so of fall is my favorite time of year ! i think it's those days that keep me here , yes sir we have weather , mostly of extremes but that only makes the middle ground so much more appreciated !! one would think you could divide our southern border in 3 easy parts but that does it no justice ( east,middle and western ) in truth there's about 6 or 7 , our geographic's are much more diverse than most think ,you'd possibly feel more at home either on the south eastern corner in what they term the cherokee basin and where our lead was/is mined along with coal, or the western edge of the sedgwick basin , the anadarko basin to the far western half is home to the cimmaron grasslands and has part of what was known as "jornado del meurte " leg of the sante fe trail ( trail of death ) , the north eastern corner has some hills left from the glacial age and if it wasnt for some jayhawkers would be a pretty nice area ( me thinks there's some yankee's there too lolz ) google our geology and if you have a question etc send me a pm , a word of caution ? they call montana "big sky country" and i agree that the sky there is gorgeous however ... we dont have any mountains in kansas ( save mt. sunflower - which shouldnt or barely does count lolz ) blocking the horizon and it's much more akin to being on a ocean ,which before white man came it was - a ocean of grass and with the wind it looked alot just like waves !!

[richhodg66]

The eastern half of Kansas is a lot more rolling and wooded than most people realize. He is correct about the weather, seems like there are two seasons; arctic and blast furnace with about a three day transition between. I find the place beautiful and intriguing with good people and values for the most part.

[popper]

I left in '61, just go back to visit. Eastern part is rolling hills & trees, west is flat with gulleys & few trees. The wind at Goodland must blow the seed away. I was paying I.T. to Mo & Ks when I was 15. Texas doesn't have I.T. but the property tax will get you.

[MtGun44]

richhodg66 -

I was at the Topeka Gun Show last weekend - I like the east end of KS, too. Now we
got rid of Sebilius, the Governor's office is really good, and Sec of State is a REALLY
good guy, serious hunter and sometimes handgun hunter, too. I taught him to shoot
a pistol well. We have pretty friendly CCW folks in Topeka, too. In JoCo our DMV is
pretty hosed up, but on my last visit it appeared that the main issue was new software
was much more compute-intensive and has been overloading the old PCs that they have.
As they slowly ($$$!) replace them, they are getting faster.

We were a long time getting that CCW and I worked hard on the regulations, pretty pleased
with the way they turned out.

I came to KS over 30 yrs ago, and stuck around.

Bill