LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Nearly 7,000 sets of Nebraska specialty license plates forgotten by their purchasers are now collecting dust at the Lancaster County Treasurer’s office.
Residents ordered the personalized message license plates last year when Nebraska required vehicle owners to get new plates, the Lincoln Journal Star reported . The requirement happens once every six years.
The forgotten plates make up about a fifth of the 38,000 message and specialty plates Lancaster County residents ordered last year.
Treasurer Andy Stebbing speculates that residents forgot they had ordered the plates and renewed by mail when their notice came. He said he’d like to see the plates in the hands of residents who paid for them, instead of filling about a dozen file cabinet drawers at the office.
It would cost about $25,000 to research and notify every individual license plate owner, said Stebbing.
“We hope this jogs someone’s memory,” he said. “We’d like to get these cleaned out.”
Don Arp, motor vehicle manager for the treasurer’s office, suggests that purchasers can avoid extra fees by waiting until the month before their plate renewal date to pick up their plates.
Retrieving specialty plate outside of that time frame will require paying $12.10 for the plate transfer and new registration, Arp said.
Arp recommends purchasers who ordered but no longer want their message plate to fill out a relinquishment form so others can use the message.
He said the treasurer’s office will keep the plates for several years before recycling them.
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Information from: Lincoln Journal Star, http://www.journalstar.com
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