After hearing a couple co-workers stories about renewing in Summit recently, and my own past experiences there, I turned to the forums for a little research and some personal experiences.
After reading this thread..... http://www.ohioccwforums.org/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=79923" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
and, in particular, this post by OvertaxedVoter......
I'm glad I chose Wayne. Everybody was friendly. Their availability was better. Finding where i needed to go and parking were a breeze. The fact they would mail me my CHL when it was ready was priceless. Renewed on Friday and had it in the mailbox Wednesday.IMHO, anyone who is a Summit County resident should look at getting their CHL through the Wayne County Sheriff's office.
1. Wayne County schedules appointments in 15 minute increments, throughout the day, every weekday.
In Summit County you are limited to a couple of specific day of the week and time of day windows that are nothing more than "try your luck", "hope for the best", "first come, first served" cattle calls.
In mid-May of 2014, I was able to schedule in Wayne County as soon as the next day and was able to schedule back to back appointments for my wife and myself within that same week.
Someone checking the Wayne County site for appointments at nearly 2:30 today (Friday) will find several openings beginning at soon as 11:30 on the following Tuesday.
http://wcso.appointy.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
2. With a properly completed form and all required documentation, my wife's and my standard Ohio CHL were both issued by Wayne County within 48 hours.
As you experienced, Summit County seems to regularly take most of, if not all of, a month.
3. Rather than taking off of work for a second time just to pick up your license as Summit County requires, Wayne County (as well as Portage County) will allow you to provide a self addressed, stamped envelope at the time of submitting the application and will mail your license to you.
For my wife and I, we had the last 2 appointments in Wayne County on a Thursday and had our CHLs in our Summit County home's mailbox on Tuesday.
4. For an additional $5.00, Wayne County will prepare an extra set of fingerprint cards during your one and only trip to Wooster so you can apply for the Florida non-resident license.
I can't say enough good things about the Wayne County Sheriff Dept's process of handling CHL applications and applicants.
Hats off to Deputy Franks and the Wayne County SO