Salem police chief says it with plates
From the February 14, 1985 edition of The Salem Times-Register
On Valentine’s Day, most people send cards or candy or flowers to say “I Love You.”
But Salem’s Chief of Police says it every day in a beige and tan Chevrolet Malibu.
“It’s because I love Salem so much, I really do,” said Harvy Haskins, explaining why his car’s license plate says “I Salem.”
“I’ve lived in this valley, off and on, since 1956. Salem to me is just the ideal place in which to live,” Haskins added.
His wife Darlene, agrees.
A Salem native who calls her hometown “a great city,” she wheels around town in a late model blue Buick Century, bearing a license tag that simply says “SALEM”.
These plates used to adorn her gold Lincoln Mark III, but when she changed cars, she remained true to her plates.
The Haskinses grabbed the opportunity for personalized plates, called CommuniPlates in Virginia, when they first became available with a six-letter or six-number combination in 1981.
“I had my eye on it,” Haskins confessed, long before Virginia offered the service. “When I saw licenses from other states (with personalized slogans), quite frankly I was envious.”
Now, he said, he gets “a lot of positive comments from people here in Salem.”
He doesn’t recall “any reactions out of town except from other police chiefs who thought it was very nice.”
Darlene, who has worked at the Peoples Drug Store at West Salem Plaza for the past ren years, said, “everybody here knows me and knows my car. They tease me about what you have to do to get ‘SALEM’ on your license plate.”
Actually, all a potential CommuniPlate purchaser had to do is pay $10 in addition to the standard license registration fee, according to Paula Kripaitis, information director at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Richmond.
This ten-spot will buy any combination up to six letters and/or numbers that is not already in se or is in bad taste.
Currently, Harry and Darlene Haskins are among the 320,000 Virginians with CommuniPlates. This represents nine percent of all vehicles registered in Virginia.
“Use of these plates has tripled in the last three years,” Kripaitis said, noting that Virginia is one of the leading states in the nation.
“We’re at least in the top three or four. In fact, a new survey might have us near number two, “she said.
Kripaitis credits Virginia’s love affair with CommuniPlates to “marketing and reasonable rates.”
Most states have fees that range from $10 to $100, with the majority at $25. Minnesota, North Dakota and Hawaii, however, each charge a $100 fee, often discouraging creative plates contemplators.
At $10 a crack, Virginia “doesn’t make any money until after the first year,” she noted.
First year fees are used for plate-making and administrative expenses, while subsequent annual fees are primarily used for highway maintenance and construction.
Most CommuniPlates, she observed are used to “promote businesses, hobbies, schools or sports teams.”
Her own car doesn’t have one Kripaitis admitted, “because I keep trying to think up a really clever one. For a while, I was thinking of one every week and just couldn’t decide.”
But the Haskinses had no trouble deciding.
In fact, Darlene said she “wouldn’t ever want to change.”
Chief Haskins believes “SALEM” is “befitting” because “a connotation of Salem is peace and I’m a peace officer. I’m very proud of y city and my department.”
Some people wait until February 14 to wear their hearts on their sleeves. But Harry and Darlene Haskins drive four-wheel Valentines aroundSalem365 days a year.
-Prepared by Shelly Koon
