6/8/07 - County panel looks at DMV

(As published by Cortland Standard, Corey Preston reporting)

A special legislative space-needs committee met for the first time Thursday morning, focusing primarily on relocating the county’s motor vehicle office, which the committee agreed would be the easiest of its needs to address.

The committee reviewed, in executive session, 11 potential sites for the DMV from county Buildings and Grounds Supervisor Brian Parker, who said the sites were “a conglomeration of all the ideas I’ve heard” over the past few years.

Committee Chairman Carol Tytler (D-3rd Ward) said after the meeting that the 11 properties are a mix of sites suggested by legislators in the past, sites identified by Parker and sites suggested by real estate agents.

The sites are not all necessarily on the active market, Tytler said, and there are sites both in the city and outside the city.

The committee also decided to send out a request for proposals to local real estate agents soliciting more potential sites.

“I think this was a chance for us to look at everything that’s been considered before, but the next step is to sit back and discuss what the needs actually are,” Tytler said.

County Clerk Betsy Larkin will be invited to the committee’s next meeting, scheduled for June 19, to discuss issues such as the ideal location for the DMV based on who uses the office, space needs and other departmental issues. Larkin oversees the operation of the local DMV office.
County Administrator Scott Schrader will also be asked at that meeting about the pros and cons of leasing a property versus purchasing one, Tytler said.

The special committee was formed to look at three critical county space needs: new space for the department of Mental Health, new or increased space for the county jail and new space for the DMV office.

“DMV just seems like the easiest project to get going right now,” said Legislator John Daniels (D-Cortlandville). “I think we should get it out of the Courthouse, clear a little space and then go from there.”

The committee discussed the possibility — brought up a few months ago in a County, City, Towns, Villages and Schools Committee meeting — of setting up temporary satellite DMV offices in outlying locations such as Marathon, but CCTVS Co-chair Larry Cornell (R-Marathon and Lapeer) said a request for $33,000 to fund satellite offices had been pulled from the state budget.

“I think if we can get the DMV in a good central location where we can have it open once or twice a month on weekends or evenings, it’s going to be a real benefit to the people, we might not even need a satellite office,” Cornell said.