The El Paso County Clerk and Recorder’s Office will be opening its fifth motor vehicle branch on Fort Carson next year, said Ryan Parsell, the spokesman for Clerk and Recorder Chuck Broerman.

A partnership with the U.S. Army will be sparing the clerk and recorder’s office from paying rent and utilities bills, Parsell said. The El Paso County commissioners approved six new full-time employees for the Fort Carson branch, who will be joined by some existing employees, to staff a building on base that was provided and renovated by the Army. The clerk and recorder’s office expects to open the new motor vehicle branch in mid to late spring.

The branch will be one of the few in the country on a military base, and Parsell added the office hopes that will not go unnoticed in years to come.

“This office is one of the things that will be counted in the quality of life indicators that they use when they are going through base realignment and closure,” Parsell said.

The location will become the office’s southern-most branch, besides the branches downtown and near Powers Boulevard, and will help the office manage traffic, in particular from the Army base. It will offer the same services as the other branches, including marriage licenses.

While Fort Carson provided the building, next to the Soldier Readiness Processing Center, all other costs will be incurred by the clerk and recorder’s office, which is putting $77,300 of its own funds into the new branch. Although the commissioners listed the funds as part of their budget for 2016, which was approved on Tuesday, Parsell said the money will be coming from a budget accrued from fees not attached to the funds given the clerk and recorder’s office by the commissioners.

Fort Carson did not return calls requesting information on how much money the base put into renovations and furnishings for the new office.

Fort Carson’s help has spared the county from having to pay a hefty monthly rent check – Parsell estimated that bill would have cost between $15,000 and $20,000 a month. All but $5,000 of the clerk and recorder’s budget for the motor vehicle office will be spent on a security system and setting up phone lines.

Parsell doesn’t expect that the transition of current staff to the new office will impact business anywhere else.

“We feel that when we open another office we will still be able to provide the same level of service,” he said.

Soldiers from Fort Carson’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team salute during the brigade’s change of command ceremony ar, Dec. 2, 2015. Col. Gregory Sierra relinquished command of the “Iron Brigade” to Col. Christopher Norrie during the ceremony. (U.S. Army Photo by Sgt. Gregory T. Summers, 3rd BCT Public Affairs, 4th Inf. Div.)