Buying a car? Getting married? Traveling abroad? Start here

You might always pay your property tax to the Trustee online or through the mail, and never have a question for the Property Assessor. An attorney or banker can conduct your business with the Register of Deeds, and if you never have an issue in court, you won’t be in the Circuit Court Clerk’s office.

There are several offices that are crucial to county government that citizens don’t necessarily interact with. In the case of the County Clerk, though, the question isn’t “if,” but “how often.”

Just one job assigned to the office will take you there in person or online once a year, depending on how many “wheels” you have. County Clerk Chuck Kizer tells me there are 42,000 tagged vehicles in Lawrence County, one for almost every man, woman and child. When you get a tag or renew it, register a vehicle or pay sales tax on it, his office is the place to go.

Another issue on that subject is automobile insurance. Liability insurance has been mandatory in Tennessee for a long time, but some real teeth are going into the law beginning this January. County Clerks will be required to access a statewide insurance verification program when you register a vehicle, get a tag or renew one, and the process will automatically stop if your vehicle is uninsured.

You will also work with Kizer’s office before you get married, start a business, or become a Notary. Marriage licenses are more popular than the others, he said, with 10-15 filed each week. You can begin all those processes online, but a marriage license or notary designation requires your appearance.

The County Clerk is also responsible for collecting the local hotel/motel tax, and a wholesale beer sales tax which distributors collect when they sell beer to stores and restaurants that are outside any of our city limits. Those funds go to the state, which returns a portion to us.

Business owners who want to sell beer in the county apply for a license through Kizer’s office, which calls together a meeting of the county Beer Board to consider it.

In addition to minutes from Beer Board meetings, the County Clerk is the secretary to the County Commission. That means he and his staff record minutes of those meetings and keep a file of all resolutions, dating back to the time our county was formed.

An upcoming trip abroad is yet another reason to visit Kizer’s office. The fact that passports are issued there surprises most people, he said, and they would also be surprised again to learn how many are issued.

Kizer has his own self-funded website, ChuckKizer.com, where you can learn more about his office and at least begin many of the tasks that would take you there. Another online connection is provided through the county’s website, LawrenceCountyTN.org.

Before he became our County Clerk in 2002, Kizer was self-employed in the auto body/auto salvage business, and served as Mayor of St. Joseph from 1990-1994. His interest in politics was sparked in a Local Government class at Loretto High School, taught by longtime County Commissioner Spanky Green.

Kizer was Tennessee’s County Clerk of the year in 2010-11, the same year he served as the state organization. He served as the association’s secretary/treasurer in 2007-08. He chairs the County Clerks Organ Donor Awareness Foundation, and reminds us that we’re given the opportunity to donate $1 to it with each tag renewal. He is former chairman of the Lawrence County Senior Citizens, and is a Certified Public Administrator.

With all that said, you could be waited on by our County Clerk when you visit his office. “We all multi-task,” he says. Other staff members include Beverly McDow, Tonya Roper, Lee Ann Patterson, Amy Luffman, Brooke Andrews, Lori Driver and Rose Frits. McDow and Roper serve as Chief Deputies.

The County Clerk’s office is located on the first floor of the Administrative Building; is connected to that building’s drive-through window; and operates another drive-through window at the Leoma Archives building on Wednesdays.