A new contract with the Washington Department of Licensing should help expedite the lengthy process of removing derelict vehicles from county rights-of-way.

The Island County Commissioners agreed on Wednesday to move forward with a contract that will allow Public Works personnel immediate access to the names of vehicle owners.

“They set up an account for us where we can access their Web site and get the registered owner right out of their database,” said Bill Oakes, Public Works director. “It will be a much shorter process.”

At four cents a record, the cost for the service is minimal and the immediacy will be a godsend.

“Right now I have to get the information, I have to prepare a fax, I have to fax it to DOL, they have to fax it back to me,” said Sandy Sandritter, Public Works administrative assistant and point person on the derelict, or “hulk,” vehicle program.

The disposal of hulk vehicles has become a growing problem for the county. When a derelict vehicle is left on a landowner’s property, he or she has the right to dispose of it through a DOL process. When it is abandoned in a county right-of-way, the responsibility is shifted.

“In my case, I am responsible for all the public rights-of-way in Island County,” Oakes said. “So, when someone leaves a derelict vehicle, we then can take ownership via Department of Licensing and have it disposed of.”

Public Works employees have been trained by the DOL to properly assess vehicles and accurately deem them hulk. The training minimizes the risk of a broken down and temporarily abandoned car being removed and sold for scrap metal. County personnel will not start the process until they are certain the vehicle is derelict.

“That’s part of the reason there’s a delay for us and why the DOL requires that people are trained before the vehicle can even enter their process,” Oakes said. “We don’t want to be out there towing every vehicle that’s stopped along the road. But certainly for the vehicles that are there for a long time. It has to be a derelict vehicle. It’s not something that was left there and will be picked up tomorrow. That’s not what we do. That’s not what the process is for.”

Once the vehicle can be accurately categorized as hulk, the process begins.

“After we make that call, there’s a process where we have to send a registered letter to the registered owner,” Oakes said. “They have a certain amount of time to respond. If there’s no response, we take title of the vehicle and dispose of it.”

For the particularly insensitive drivers who abandon their vehicles in precarious places, the county employs a different tack.

“In some places those vehicles are a true hazard,” Oakes said. “They’re left along the side of the highway and we need to remove them. In that case, if we can’t wait the amount of time to take title, what we’ll do is double handle. We’ll tow the vehicle to a storage site, typically that’s one of our road shops or a solid waste facility, and wait until we can clear title and have the recycler dispose of it.”

Since the derelict vehicle program was started in 2000, a total of 121 hulk items have been processed to the tune of almost $9,000. Last year, 32 items were processed, including 14 cars, five pickups, two vans, and one boat and trailer. Ten additional items were removed by the owner or transferred to another department for processing.

“I would say we were averaging a handful — a dozen vehicles a year — but it has bumped up, especially in 2006,” Oakes said. “It’s thousands of dollars.”

The county has seen a dozen vehicles this winter alone, Oakes told the county commissioners at last Wednesday’s staff session. Several were left in out-of-the-way places like dead ends. Sandritter said four vehicles were abandoned on Longhouse Lane on South Whidbey, all by the same owner.

“He just dumped them all there,” she said. “They find a nice, quiet dead end and just move them in during the night.”

The county does bill owners for the costs, but recouping the money has not been easy. Of the nearly $9,000, only $65 has been collected.

“We would have to turn it over to collection, in which case we’d get a fraction of the costs. But we are considering it,” Oakes said. “Then if they don’t pay, it could damage their credit rating.”

If a vehicle owner refuses to pay, Sandritter said an additional form is processed and the sheriff’s office issues a citation that is attached to the owner’s driver’s license. When he or she attempts to renew their license, they are required to pay the disposal costs. The meager amount of money collected thus far is not a testament to the program’s effectiveness.

Commissioner Mike Shelton said it appears people have discovered the county’s disposal obligations and a small percentage of the community has chosen to take advantage of the system.

“People have started to recognize that if they have a hulk, all they have to do is get it to the county right-of-way and then it’s the county’s responsibility,” he said.

Derelict vehicles take up only a portion of Public Works’ full plate.

“We also pick up appliances, furniture, things that people just leave in our right-of-way,” Oakes said. “As a public safety issue we clean those up at everyone’s cost. Unfortunately it’s a burden on all the taxpayers.”