The Fentress County Clerk’s Office wants to help residents with the passport process.
Fentress County Clerk Amanda Hicks said serving as a passport acceptance facility would mean the office could verify documents needed for the passport application process. Hicks said passport document verification is a service that many Fentress County residents have been asking for.
“I’m just looking for ways to improve the office to better serve the community,” Hicks said. “I think people are looking for their elected officials to serve the community in a way that is beneficial to them, os that is something I’ve always been looking forward to, is always making sure if I can offer a service that we can do that as long as our office can manage it.”
Hicks said there is not a location in Fentress County that can help residents with passports. Hicks said if approved, citizens would not have to travel to outside of the county for the service.
“Our closest one would be in Byrdstown, so it is a bit of a drive, and you know, the roads in and out of Fentress County aren’t always straight and fun to drive, so we try to get everything in Fentress County that we can.”
Hicks said the county clerk’s office applied this past November but was denied.
“Our first application was essentially denied because it said that we were about 13 miles from a passport acceptance facility already, which I’m not sure where they got those statistics, and then there was also a changeover of the administration. I had applied originally just after the election for president, so I think they were just trying to reorganize at that point, so they had encouraged me to reapply again in the springtime time so that’s what we are doing.”
The Fentress County Commission has provided the county clerk’s office with a letter of support for the request. Hicks said she expects to get an update two months from now.
