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Lucky225 · 07-07-2009, 02:54 AM

New Texas license plates arrive : Local News : Abilene Reporter-News

New Texas license plates arrive

Sara Irvin Special to the Reporter-News
Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Photo by Nellie DonevaReporter-News photo by Nellie Doneva
Reporter-News photo by Nellie Doneva
Taylor County Tax Accessor-Collector Lavena Cheek holds the new 7-digit license plate, which the county put in circulation Wednesday, July 1, 2009. In the foreground is a newspaper clipping showing Cheek holding the 6-digit license plate introduced in the late 1950s.

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Longtime Taylor County Tax Assessor-Collector Lavena Cheek likes to keep a Reporter-News clipping from 1957 on her desk.
The clipping shows a smiling Cheek (then a clerk) holding up that year’s new license plate with the caption “Come and get ’em.” Back then, they were six digits.
On Wednesday, a still smiling Cheek was happy to announce the arrival of the seven-digit license plates the Texas Department of Transportation is now distributing.
Seven digits are now necessary because the state has gone through all the unique combinations of six-digit numbers and letters after more than 31 million pairs.
The license plates also have a new look — a hilly landscape below the classic, azure blue sky every Texan knows by heart, with the familiar phrase “The Lone Star State” remaining at the bottom.
The previous background most are acquainted with depicted oil rigs, a horse-mounted cowboy sauntering about a prairie under a nighttime sky, and a NASA space shuttle in the upper left-hand corner. The new plates also no longer have raised digits, but rather are flat and slightly lighter weight, features that make them cheaper for the state of Texas to manufacture.
Cheek, Taylor County’s tax assessor-collector since 1985, has seen plenty of different license plates through the years. The new design was voted on by Texans on the Texas Department of Transportation’s Web site.
Cheek was glad to see the new design win with 455,878 votes. The second most popular design garnered a mere 294,106.
“I voted for it,” she said with a grin.
It was presented to the Transportation Commission in February. The other proposed designs can still be viewed on the Department of Transportation’s Web site.
When asked if she thought back in 1957 she would still be working with Taylor County to see seven-digit plates, Cheek exclaimed, “Why, no!”

texasspeed · 07-07-2009, 03:13 AM

Hey I live in Abilene. It sucks btw. Im surprised you found that. How did you anyway?

Lucky225 · 07-07-2009, 03:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by texasspeed

Hey I live in Abilene. It sucks btw. Im surprised you found that. How did you anyway?

Just been keeping an eye out for 7 digit plates progress. I noticed one on a car on Saturday in the BC2-xxxx series, so I figured I should google news it to see if personalized is being accepted yet.

Stealth Stalker · 07-07-2009, 05:32 AM

That's either the smallest woman, or the largest licence plate on Earth!

I seen my first 7-digit plate this afternoon on some trashed out ghetto-rat Crown Vic. It started with BB, which surprised me since the year-old veterans plates on my truck start with BB also. I dunno what the other choices were, but I'm not that excited by the new design. It's too abstract for my tastes.

Lucky225 · 07-07-2009, 12:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stealth Stalker

That's either the smallest woman, or the largest licence plate on Earth!

I seen my first 7-digit plate this afternoon on some trashed out ghetto-rat Crown Vic. It started with BB, which surprised me since the year-old veterans plates on my truck start with BB also. I dunno what the other choices were, but I'm not that excited by the new design. It's too abstract for my tastes.

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