Drivers here will have to settle for a smaller Bureau of Motor Vehicles office, but local officia... Smaller-size BMV on the wa | Life Insurance
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Drivers here will have to settle for a smaller Bureau of Motor Vehicles office, but local officia... Smaller-size BMV on the wa

Drivers here will have to settle for a smaller Bureau of Motor Vehicles office, but local officials have pledged to join the outcry against BMV branch closures across the state.

BMV Commissioner Joel Silverman late Tuesday announced that a 400-square-foot office in the state Family & Social Services Administration on Broadway and 6th Avenue will replace a larger, full-service branch seven blocks north that the agency closed Sept. 17.

State Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary, said the proposed office is “too little, too late,” and said there is bi-partisan support among state lawmakers that could undo Silverman's plan to cut 36 BMV offices statewide.

“They did not listen to the public when they announced they were closing it (in July),” she said. “This was an opportunity for (Silverman) to listen to the community.

The new office is more than twice the size of a temporary location inside the Edgewater Systems for Balanced Living offices on 5th Avenue, a proposal that met with immediate criticism from local lawmakers and Mayor Scott L. King.

The branch will have two drivers license terminals, is accessible by public transportation, has ample parking and is located on the first floor near the Family & Social Services Administration building's entrance, a BMV press release states. The office also will be open during all of the state agency's business hours, making the Gary branch the sole BMV office in the state open on Mondays.

King, who said he spent Oct. 5 waiting at a Merrillville BMV office while his daughter got her driver's license, complained that Gary motorists have gone more than a month with no BMV service in the city.

Despite the “inadequate” facilities, King said in a statement it was best to accept the plan in case a better solution doesn't arrive in the May 2006 elections, when the state for the first time will require voters to present photo identification to cast a ballot.

BMV officials, responding to resident complaints, have come up with similar compromise solutions in Mount Vernon, where a branch will locate inside a bank, and Montpelier, which will base an office inside a insurance agency, Cook said.

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admin – Thu, 2005 – 10 – 27 11:00