Regional driver’s license office coming to Barren
Published 6:00 am Monday, April 20, 2026
The Kentucky General Assembly designated nearly $36.8 million in funding for regional driver’s licensing offices in three counties over three years — including one in Barren County that local representatives say their constituents have frequently called for.
The planned offices are intended to reduce travel time and congestion when region residents seek services for driver’s licensing, permits and renewals, Barren County Judge-Executive Jamie Bewley-Byrd said. The funding, which Gov. Andy Beshear signed his support for last week, is also designated for are also regional licensing offices in Bullitt and Oldham counties — about $5 million for the remainder of fiscal year 2025-26, $16 million the year after and $15.7 million in FY 2027-28.
“This office will help serve customers locally, as well as improve license office efficiency in Bowling Green and the broader region,” said Blair Allen, deputy executive director at Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s office of public affairs. “Team Kentucky will continue to share updates on new locations and hours of operation as available.”
The location is still being determined. Rep. Steve Riley, R-Glasgow, anticipates an existing building will hold the office, and hopes it’ll get done in a few months, sometime after the fiscal year begins July 1.
Bewley-Byrd said the addition means county residents will no longer need to make the trip to offices outside the county, particularly the nearest office, in Columbia. Many don’t go to Bowling Green’s office due to factors such as traffic and population, she added.
Meanwhile, for Barren County’s surrounding communities, the county is a regional hub for sectors such as healthcare and entertainment, she said. Rep. Shawn McPherson, R-Scottsville, said he anticipates residents in Allen, Monroe, Metcalfe and Edmonson counties as well as the Smiths Grove and Horse Cave areas will utilize the center.
“(It’s) probably one of the two topics I’ve been contacted the most about in our area,” Riley said. “I think it’s going to make a tremendous difference.”
Similarly, McPherson said he’ll hear from constituents at least weekly, and sometimes daily about the frustration of driving to Bowling Green or Columbia — to learn the lines were longer than anticipated, or to learn an office had closed for the day.
Travel times and congestion for driver’s licensing office services is widely known to have surged following the removal of driver’s licensing and state ID services from circuit court clerk offices.
The Kentucky General Assembly in 2020 had voted to halt those services statewide in a transition to KYTC Driver Licensing Regional Offices. A majority of circuit court clerks had asked KYTC to oversee the issuance of REAL IDs, and 2020 legislation moved all driver’s licensing and state ID services to KYTC, according to a 2022 state release.
One intention had been to meet the security requirements that came with issuing REAL IDs, according to the release. McPherson, who had joined the General Assembly after it had passed the legislation, said he has heard from colleagues that the the clerk offices’ computer systems didn’t meet the security threshold required by the Department of Homeland Security for the REAL IDs.
Riley, one of the representatives who had voted for the transition six years ago, described it as a big mistake that the legislature is trying to rectify to some degree.
“I think it was a well-intentioned move, but it was not good,” he said. “Sometimes, you make laws, and they don’t work quite as well as you thought it would … So, I think we’re trying to make that process much better for citizens.”
