Carey DMV office to close March 6

New site to open at 7170 N. Decatur Blvd.

Advertisement

Residents of North Las Vegas and West Las Vegas who were unhappy about next month's closure of the Department of Motor Vehicles office on Carey Road let the state DMV director know about it during a Feb. 6 meeting at West Middle School.

The move is unavoidable, said state DMV Director Ginny Lewis. The Howard Hughes Corp., which has leased the site to the department since the early 1980s, has simply refused to continue doing so, Lewis said.

The office will shut its doors for the last time at the close of business on March 6.

State Assemblyman Harvey Munford, D-Las Vegas, who represented much of the area served by the facility, said he was sympathetic.

"We've lived with it for 20 years," he said. "But to our dismay, it will be gone."

A new office will open on March 13 at 7170 N. Decatur Blvd. near Elkhorn Road, about a half-mile north of Interstate 215. The facility will be 7 miles from the Carey Road office.

The new facility will offer more service windows and more parking. It also will help Nevada save money, Lewis said.

"It is saving the state hundreds of thousands of dollars," she said.

Some of the two dozen residents at the meeting expressed the hope that at least a satellite office might be established somewhere closer to their homes. As one pointed out, buses don't even get out to Elkhorn yet, and transportation will be a problem.

"That would be something of a concern," said Munford.

Munford agreed to search for solutions involving either a satellite office, or another full-service office closer to the older North Las Vegas neighborhoods and those of West Las Vegas, north of U.S. Highway 95.

Lewis explained that when funding was granted for the new office, none was allocated for land acquisition, so DMV's options were limited. The land at Elkhorn Road and Decatur Boulevard was made available for next to nothing.

Other sites included the area near the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and the armory near the intersection of U.S. Highway 15 and U.S. Highway 215.

"They were unacceptable," Lewis said. "They were too far out."

State Sen. Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, along with Munford, noted that the deal involving the new facility was done by the time they were sworn in as legislators about a year ago.

Munford said he wants to see how likely it is that a satellite or express office can be located closer to residents' homes, but he, like Lewis, cautioned them on what that would involve.

"You can't do tests for new licenses and some commercial things," he said.

Horsford also said he has requested that the state Senate's Interim Finance Committee put on its April agenda an item to fund a satellite office.

Finally, he said, he understands that Las Vegas officials have agreed to put a site on hold if funding for an office becomes available, but that he does not know the actual location.

Munford reminded residents that a permanent solution may have to wait until the next legislative session, which begins next year.

Lewis also pointed out that other places around the state also are pleading for their own DMV facilities, and that there will be significant competition for funds.

Veronica Dunn-Jones, chairman of the West Side Chapter of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, asked if some of the savings the state will achieve with the new DMV office could be dedicated toward a satellite office.

"There are other competing factors even in their department," said Horsford.

Despite the cautions from Munford, Horsford and Lewis, more and more residents began to lean in the direction of lobbying for a full-service facility.

Jerry Neal wondered why the vacant Veterans Administration building at Martin Luther King Boulevard and Vegas Drive can't be used as an office.

"Maybe that could be considered," he said. "It's probably a whole lot bigger than a satellite."

He reminded Lewis that many members of the community are already touchy about losing facilities.

In recent years, he said, the area has lost a full-service grocery store, a Veterans Administration clinic and a smaller clinic for non-veterans.

"You know," he told Lewis, "we are very paranoid because many terrible things have happened to us as residents."

Without a full-service DMV office, Neal said, the area's blight will become that much more established and fewer businesses will want to move in.

Several residents said they had not even known the Carey office was closing, but Lewis said there had been considerable media coverage in January and February 2004 when the decision was made to relocate.

Dunn-Jones suggested that Lewis study population growth expectation and traffic patterns before writing off a full-service facility.

But Munford said it would be hard to say whether the requisite population is in place to support both the new facility at Decatur Boulevard and Elkhorn Road and another full-service office.

"In a year or so," said Dunn-Jones, "the population will be even more than it is now."

Gloria Wilson pointed out that satellite DMV offices have limitations beyond the services they offer.

"They can't handle handicapped people," she said. "You have to stand. There is nowhere to sit."

Munford advised the attendees that they may not appreciate the complexity of the legislative process where funding is concerned.

"You think you do, but you don't," he said. "Pahrump, right up the road, they need a bigger office ... I'm just saying, we will be in a competition. We'll have to fight for it."

Shanetelle Smith questioned whether Pahrump was growing at the same pace as North Las Vegas.