BY ANDY GARDNER

North Country This Week

The St. Lawrence County legislature approved moving nearly $40,000 from a contingency account to cover a big increase in postage costs for the county Department of Motor Vehicles.

The board took the action at their Monday, July 6 meeting streamed live online via YouTube.

The resolution moves $39,800 from the contingency account to cover the higher postage costs.

It notes that due to the pandemic, the county DMV offices have “had an excessive amount of postage expenses and has exhausted the amount budgeted for postage in 2020.” The budgeted amount would have been calculated as they crafted this year’s budget, which happened well before the coronavirus pandemic hit North America.

At the June 15 Board of Legislators Operations Committee meeting, St. Lawrence County Clerk Sandra Santamoor said they sent out 2,756 pieces of mail in May, compared to a normal average of about 300.

“We mailed out a lot of license plates, which are close to $5. We did all this just to be able to keep doing business … with people not coming into the offices,” she said June 15. “None of this was planned.”

She said they have been asking people to send a self-addressed stamped envelope, and some people have been using dropboxes the county provides.

Santamoor at that time also noted that for the first week county DMV offices reopened by appointment only, they had 513 appointments just for their first week. She said on June 15, DMV staff fielded 700 to 800 phone calls that day alone.

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