After four decades of providing vehicle and vessel licensing services to area residents, Joleen “Jo” Dwyer announced to Snohomish County that she will be retiring from Edmonds Auto License Agency at ACE Hardware.

This triggers an appointee replacement process, in which the county looks for candidates who are interested in filling the position.

“What this means for the current location will depend on the next appointee and business decisions they make in coordination with the Snohomish County Auditor’s Office and the Washington State Department of Licensing,” said Snohomish County Auditor Garth Fell.

Depending on who the appointee will be, the licensing agency may continue to operate in its current location or it may move to another location as long as it is within the service area bounded by 196th Street Southwest, 68th Avenue West, Highway 99 and the county line.

Meanwhile, the agency continues to provide licensing service without interruption. In addition to vehicle and vessel registrations and tab renewals, it also offers notary services, title transfers, and Discover Pass issues.

While Dwyer has worked as an appointee since 1983, she first started in the license tab business at age 14 in the early 1970s, when her mother, Bonnie Quealey, was running the agency.

“When you’re 14, you want to make extra money,” Dwyer said. “You babysat or found something that was part-time while you were in school. And licensing was a lot easier back then. It didn’t take a whole lot of experience to do. I just started by renewing tabs, and a lot of it was done by hand.”

After Dwyer’s father, Bill Quealey, served in the U.S. Army 1st Infantry Division and Merchant Marines, he bought a hardware store in downtown Edmonds at 321 Main St.  with a business partner in 1961. The store — now the location of Salt & Iron restaurant — was called Edmonds Hardware and Paint. The licensing agency was already inside the store, but Bill did not want it. Eventually, the previous owners talked him into keeping it. Dwyer does not know who ran the agency before her family took over.

“My mom ran the licensing, and he ran the hardware store,” Dwyer said,  “and eventually, the store went by the wayside and we kept the licensing, and I started working with her.”

Dwyer worked after school and on the weekends, renewing tabs and punching on adding machines. “You’d have tapes from the machine that would just go on forever,” she chuckled. “A lot of the work we did back then was after you close. It was so different back in the old days.”

Her father sold the store after 13 years in the business, and the licensing agency moved to 5th Avenue South where Rogue Boutique is now.  The agency later moved to the former Edmonds Petosa’s grocery store, which is now Edmonds Ace Hardware. “Been there ever since through all its changes,” Dwyer said. “Nice to be back in a hardware store! I grew up in the old one.”

While Dwyer recognizes many familiar faces in Edmonds in her career, she said that not everyone is happy to see her because she is “basically a tax collector.”

“You’re not a popular person, but we try to do our best to help people in situations that are hard, like death in the family,” she said. “It’s always been good to help people like that.”

Dwyer said she is recommending Stacie Johnson — the Edmonds Licensing Agency’s manager for 22 years — as her successor. “She’s going to put her business plan to the state so she can be considered for the replacement,” Dwyer said. “I have four employees plus her, and I would hate to see anything happen to them.” The other employees have been working at the agency for two to 10 years.

Johnson has been dealing with the “nuts and bolts” of the agency for many years, said Dwyer. “And she’s way more tech-savvy than I am.”

With Dwyer’s husband close to retiring, she said she would like to travel more and spend time with their granddaughter.

“We want to make sure everyone knows that we’ll have no interruptions in business,” Dwyer said. “I’m working with the county so that there’s no down time, and business continues and the community doesn’t have to run all over the place trying to figure out what they’re gonna do,” Dwyer said. “We’re trying to make it a seamless transfer.”

Dwyer said her last day may be Nov. 30, but the date is not set in stone yet.

Meanwhile, the Edmonds Licensing Agency will remain open to serve the community while Snohomish County selects and establishes a new appointee.

Application and all information regarding the work as an appointee can be found at the Snohomish County Licensing website.

— Story and photos by Nick Ng