By Michael Howell
According to Western Regional Manager Terry Davis, the state Division of Motor Vehicles is considering relocating it driver licensing office in Ravalli County. The DMV licensing office is currently located at 102 Main Street in Stevensville.
“The current space is too small,” said Davis. “It’s too crowded and they are just out of room.” She said that no decisions had been made but that they were looking at their options.
“We’ve looked at several spots in Stevensville and in Hamilton,” said Davis.
According to Davis, the agency has been looking at the situation for over a year now.
“We are wanting to make a decision sooner rather than later,” she said. “It’s a problem we need to resolve. The space is not meeting our needs, especially in summer, it’s overwhelmed.”
Davis said that the agency was looking at relocating its Commercial Drivers Licensing program to the Ravalli County Fairgrounds in Hamilton. She said classes for that are held at the Bitterroot College campus in Hamilton.
Joan Prather, Director of the Stevensville Main Street Association, which currently shares the building with the DMV office and the Montana Highway Patrol, said that the Main Street Association did not want to see the licensing office move out of town.
“We were disappointed to find out that the department had gone so far in its search for options without us being aware,” said Prather, “but we have put some options together that could keep them here.”
She said the Stevensville Main Street Association had sent a letter to the agency just recently asking it to consider some other options that would keep them in town. Some of those options could even involve Main Street moving out so that the Department could expand within the same building. She said there were options to keep the CDL testing in the Stevensville area as well.
“Primarily, we would like to see the main licensing office stay in Stevensville and we will do whatever we can to help make that happen,” said Prather.
Davis said that she had received information from the Main Street Association and that it was a part of her considerations. She said that the final decision would be an administrative one made at the office in Helena.