1/27/07 County considers satellite DMV office

(as published by Cortland Standard, Corey Preston reporting)

Local car owners frustrated with the ordeal that often comes with a visit to the county’s motor vehicle office in the Cortland County Courthouse may soon have other options.

The county’s County City Towns Villages Schools Committee on Thursday discussed setting up a roving satellite motor vehicle office, which would make licensing and registration services available in areas outside the city.

The County Clerk’s Office, which operates the motor vehicle office, would essentially dispatch employees to set locations outside the city on set days, allowing residents options other than the main office where, committee members noted, parking is a problem and there is often an extensive wait.

“I really sympathize with the people coming through our office,” County Clerk Betsy Larkin said after the meeting. “First they have to find parking, then they have to go through security — it would make it hard for anyone.”

Larkin said that setting up satellite offices would primarily be a benefit to county residents, but she also hoped that it would encourage more residents to use county motor vehicle services rather than mailing their paperwork to the state DMV or going to offices in other counties.

The county receives 12.7 percent of the revenue from all motor vehicle business that passes through its office, she said.

The cost of a satellite motor vehicle office to the county would be about $35,000, Larkin said, but a majority of that cost — about $31,000 — would come from the purchase of a portable photo machine.

If the county decided to limit photo capabilities at its satellite locations, it could cut the cost to about $3,000, allowing it to experiment with the effectiveness of different locations.

The county would need municipal agreements for each location — committee members suggested municipal buildings or police barracks in areas such as Marathon, Homer, Cortlandville and Cincinnatus — but otherwise it wouldn’t take much to get the offices up and running, Larkin said.

The committee unanimously agreed with the concept, and Legislator Larry Cornell (R-Marathon and Lapeer) said he would present the proposal to the Personnel Committee, which he chairs.

The concept would then require full legislative approval.