Clark County clerk’s office in Mesquite set to close

By Jackie Valley

Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2012 | 1:09 p.m.

Mesquite residents tying the knot will have to travel to downtown Las Vegas to get a marriage license starting later this month.

The Mesquite branch of the Clark County clerk’s office, which opened in 2000, will close after Jan. 13. Officials cited a lack of customers during the branch’s part-time hours as the reason for the closure.

Officials said the sole part-time worker in Mesquite typically handles fewer than 10 transactions during the three days the branch is open. The average front-desk staffer at the main office in downtown Las Vegas processes 25 to 35 transactions a day.

“This lack of traffic makes it difficult to justify spending taxpayer dollars to keep the office open,” County Clerk Diana Alba said in a statement.

Mesquite and Moapa Valley residents can continue submitting fictitious firm names and notary bonds by mail or submit passport applications at the Mesquite Post Office. Residents, however, will not be able to obtain marriage licenses in Mesquite.

The county also has changed the hours for the clerk’s Laughlin office. Starting Jan. 14, it will be open from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

The Clark County clerk’s office, which serves as the independent record-keeper for the board of county commissioners, issues more than 90,000 marriage licenses and processes more than 18,000 fictitious business names and nearly 5,000 notary bonds each year.