By Jessica Edwards

After July 1, residents will no longer be able to apply for or renew passports through the Haines District Court.

Haines postmaster Theresa Lara said the post office would likely take over the service, if the site gains State Department approval.

"It’s just gotten to be so time consuming for the courts," said magistrate John Hutchins, who works alone in the winter. "I’m losing two days a week of work on court business."

Hutchins said he’s handled more than 320 passport applications in the past two years, a load that’s made it difficult to keep up with court cases.

Demand for passports increased dramatically when the Department of Homeland Security announced in 2005 that U.S. residents would be required to show a passport when entering at land or sea borders from Canada or Mexico by 2008. The deadline has since been extended to summer of 2009.

First judicial district court administrator Neil Nesheim said courts in Haines, Skagway, Wrangell and Petersburg were getting out of the passport business on the tail end of a statewide trend. "We’re the last (courts)" processing them, he said.

According to Nesheim, increased demand, combined with reduced processing fees and more stringent processing procedures had prompted state courts to drop the service.

"We were spending more and more time on passports and less and less time on court business," Nesheim said. "It’s (an issue of) staffing and time."

Processing fees were recently reduced from $30 to $25, and new regulations require passport agents to take continuing education courses, he said.

Post offices in many communities have taken over the duty. Nesheim said the public library in Seward got certified as a passport agency. "Anyone can register to be a passport agent."

U.S. Postal Service Alaska marketing manager Darus Macy said the Department of State had recently changed its training module, and was not currently accepting new passport sites. She said as soon as new sites are accepted again, a small post office like Haines’ could complete the training in about four to six weeks.

"We might be able to be online by July 1, depending on how soon they accept new passport sites."

Macy said passports have to be accepted five hours daily five days a week, requiring all staff at a small office to be trained in processing them. The training can be completed online.