BUTLER, Ala. — Like most 16-year-olds, Sauvaner Jackson can’t wait to get her driver’s license.    

    Jackson and other Choctaw County residents will no longer be able to take their driver’s license test in Butler, Ala. Citing a budget shortfall in Alabama’s general fund, Gov. Robert Bentley and the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency announced  last month the closure of 31 driver’s license satellite offices, including the one in Butler.

    Jackson said her mother is going to drive her more than 90 miles away to Mobile, Ala., to take her driver’s license test.

    “It’s not fair,” said Jackson, a junior at Choctaw County High School. “It’s going to take my mom two hours just to get to Mobile. Then we wait, then get it, and then drive back. It’s way out of the way. They (state legislators) don’t realize the struggle this causes or for the people who don’t have transportation.”

    The closest driver’s license office for most Choctaw County residents is Grove Hill in Clarke County or Linden in Marengo County, according to Choctaw County Sheriff Scott Lolley.

    “It’s 40 miles to Grove Hill and 35 miles to Linden,” Lolley said. “In the past, all they had to do was come up to our conference room at the courthouse on Wednesday to get tested. We’d have folks lined up all along the hall, and out the door, sitting on steps, at least 50 or 60. It’s going to impact these people. We are a rural county.”    

    Jackson is a student driver in Choctaw County High School teacher Marcus Ezell’s Driver Education class.

    “Normally, they would take my class, get their permit, study and then go the courthouse and get their license,” Ezell said. “It is absolutely an inconvenience.”

    Sumter County, located north of Choctaw County, will also be impacted as the Livingston, Ala., driver’s license office is also among those closed.

    “It’s a devastating blow for Sumter County,” County Commissioner Marcus Campbell said. “It’s going to have a big effect because this is a poor area. They are doing this to an area that is struggling with economic development. This hurts our elderly and our young people. They’ll now have to drive an hour or an hour and a half to Tuscaloosa — just to get a driver’s license.”

    “People are going to have take off work, to get their kids or relatives up to Tuscaloosa,” Campbell said. “It’s going to put a big hamper on the parents. I feel this is just another case of the government in Montgomery hurting the folks in the Black Belt. It’s those 11 or so counties that are the ones that are most affected by this. We hope something can be done. We’re talking about it with our state officials. The Legislature goes back to work in March. We hope to show how this will affect us county wide here in Sumter.”

    Facing mounting pressure, Bentley on Friday asked the state law enforcement agency to open the closed offices one day a month but it is not yet clear if that will happen.

    Ezell said has some advice for student drivers planning a trip to take the driver’s test:

    “You’re going to have make sure you are prepared.”