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14 Colorado specialty license plates get eleventh-hour reprieve from scrap pile

Plates had been destined for forced retirement on Saturday

The respect life plate is grouped into 24 specialty plates in this photo from July 12, 2001.
Special to The Denver Post
The respect life plate is grouped into 24 specialty plates in this photo from July 12, 2001.
DENVER, CO - OCTOBER 2:  Staff portraits at the Denver Post studio.  (Photo by Eric Lutzens/The Denver Post)
UPDATED:

Fourteen specialty license plates in Colorado — including ones celebrating the Colorado Avalanche, Craig Hospital and Flight for Life — were plucked from the scrap pile after state vehicle division officials on Friday gave the plates a last-minute reprieve from forced retirement.

Kyle Boyd, a spokesman for the Colorado Division of Motor Vehicles, said the division relied on language in state statutes that authorizes new specialty plates in Colorado — namely the word “may” in front of the word “retire” — to spare the plates from what had been feared was state-mandated obsolescence starting Saturday.

“We were able to use that flexibility (in the language) to not retire” the plates, Boyd said Friday.

Retirement was the assumed fate for specialty plates that didn’t sell at least 3,000 copies to motorists by July 1, which meant plates commemorating the Nuggets, Rockies, Avs, the Carbon Fund, State Parks, Support the Horse and other organizations and causes would have all been discontinued.

Fewer than 2,350 Avalanche plates had been sold as of May 31 while Nuggets plates had only been registered to 465 vehicles in Colorado by the end of May. But Boyd said forced retirement only applies where the legislature said plates “shall” be discontinued if they don’t reach their sales quota.

There are 331,812 specialty plates registered in Colorado out of a total of more than 5.8 million license plates attached to cars in the state, Boyd said. He said there are 36 specialty plates and another 13 alumni plates in Colorado that could potentially be retired.

Some have met their end, including Knights of Columbus in 2008 and Denver Firefighters in 2009.

Colorado’s 38 special military license plates — including those representing Medal of Honor recipients, Navy SEALs and Fallen Marines — are protected from retirement.

AnneMarie Harper, a spokeswoman for the Girl Scouts of Colorado, said she was “super excited” her organization’s plate was one of the 14 salvaged this week. The plate was first issued in 2012, and there are 308 registered in the state.

“We feel this plate is an important part of raising awareness about the Girl Scouts,” she said.

Colorado only issues a specialty plate when someone asks for one, using a print-on-demand system that it launched three years ago. The system was expected to save the state nearly $650,000 a year — and the motorist a trip to the DMV. Specialty plates are now mailed to customers after they place an order.

Specialty plates cost $50, compared to $5.64 for a standard-issue green and white Colorado plate. Some of the organizations they represent also require an additional charitable donation from the motorist.

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