Closure notice on the Oregon DMV website.

UPDATE, 11:30 A.M.:

The Outpost spoke with Oregon DMV spokesperson David House this morning, who said that the Brookings DMV is closed today due to an overall lack of employees.

“Brookings normally has two employees,” House said. “One position is vacant and the [office's only] employee is not available.”

House added that the DMV has been dealing with staffing shortages for several months because the state agency is currently losing employees faster than they can train their replacements.

“We don’t have backup to send from any other office,” he said. “In fact, DMV, like so many employers, has been experiencing a staff shortage the past few months. We have not been able to hire and train as fast as we lose people to retirement or just changing jobs.”

House said this issue is impacting DMV offices across the state, like the Stayton office in Marion County, which was also forced to close today.

“Almost every day now we have to close at least one of the smaller offices where there is no backup available — because nearby offices are understaffed,” he said. “In Medford, for example, we’re down to six employees from the normal 14 to 18.”

As a possible solution to this problem, House recommends customers visit the DMV2U.Oregon.gov website to see if their needs can be resolved online.

“To help customers, we are again ramping up our recommendation to go online first anytime you need a DMV service,” House said. “If you need a service that must be done in person, visit OregonDMV.com to make sure you have what you need.”

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The Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles announced this morning that its Brookings office at 97900 Shopping Center Ave. will be closed today due to staffing issues.

The sudden and vague announcement was made at 8:22 a.m., and offered no additional details on the closure.

“Due to staffing, the Brookings and Stayton DMV offices will be closed Monday, May 2,” the DMV stated.

The Outpost has reached out to the Oregon DMV in hopes of obtaining more information.

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