KINGSLAND, Ga. -- State Rep. Cecily Hill, R-St. Marys, said Friday that negotiations with the state Division of Motor Vehicle Safety are encouraging, and license examiners may resume offering services in Camden County soon.

Citing budget problems, the DMVS in August ended a longstanding practice of sending traveling license examiners to counties -- including Camden -- that do not have permanent driver's license facilities. They said they need those examiners to cover staffing shortages at the state's 56 permanent driver's license facilities -- the closest of which are in Brunswick and Waycross.

Camden residents complained that they were having to drive over 30 miles to apply for a first license or take a driving test -- things that cannot be done through the mail or online. Also waits at the Brunswick and Waycross DMVS offices were reported to be getting very long -- up to three weeks for a driving test.

But Hill and fellow south Georgia lawmaker, Rep. Penny Houston, D-Nashville, are working to return the satellite services to rural communities.

Houston cites a provision in the law stating that driver's license examinations for motorists "shall be given at least once each month in each county of the state."

Hill said she believes the Camden County driver's license office will reopen from two to five days a week, but couldn't say when.

DMVS spokeswoman Susan Sports was quoted by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution two weeks ago saying the agency is sticking by its decision.

"I'm afraid our position is still going to be the same," Sports said. "Literal compliance with the statute is just impossible because of the budgetary constraints. We just don't have the money."

Gov. Sonny Perdue ordered all state agencies to cut their budgets by 2.5 percent for the current fiscal year and by 5 percent for fiscal 2005, which starts next July 1.

State Rep. Bobby Parham, D-Milledgeville, chairman of the House Motor Vehicles Committee, said he is trying to determine whether the DMVS had the power to eliminate the travel teams.

"There's somewhere in the Constitution that says the state does not have to abide by the laws it passes and puts on its people, municipalities and county governments," Parham said. "But the cloud here is that this is something the state says the state should be doing, so I don't see that they would be exempt under the catch-all they are always using."

Kingsland City Council has offered to pay for dedicated phone lines and double donated office in the Kingsland City Hall Annex for the DMVS to continue issuing and renewing drivers' licenses. Camden Sheriff Bill Smith has offered the use of a vehicle to transported the examiners to and from the county.