City Council unanimously passed a resolution Monday night saying “the closure would have a devastating effect on the citizens of New Carlisle and the surrounding area” and “the additional driving to another BMV location will be a hardship on our citizens due to the rising cost of fuel.”
City Councilman Barry Kilburn blasted the state’s math in saying the closure will save money as “smoke and mirrors” and “a hat trick.”
He said representatives from the Ohio Department of Public Safety told him and local leaders that closing the office would save the state $129,000, based on an average cost of all the 214 license bureaus across the state, regardless of each office’s size.
ODPS officials have said closing the office would save about $100,000, but could not provide detailed cost savings Monday afternoon.
And, Kilburn said, all those 37,726 people — nearly 32,000 more than New Carlisle’s population — would all have to drive to another office that is already more crowded.
“You might as well take your lunch with you,” he said. “You’re going to be there half the day.”
The next closest BMV in Clark County is about 13 miles away on Bechtle Avenue in Springfield. The Huber Heights BMV is closer, and busier.
“I would encourage not only local officials to protest this thing, you folks ought to write letters,” Kilburn told the public.
Clark County commissioners and other local leaders have made similar calls, urging residents to visit the BMV and discussing possibly advertising it in other areas.
They tout friendly service and — perhaps ironically — short lines.
“I won’t be doing any future mail-in registration,” City Manager Kim Jones said Monday. “Please come to New Carlisle and help keep that office open.”
County Clerk of Courts Ron Vincent, whose title department shares an office with that BMV, said he keeps an office out there as a service to citizens. “If the license bureau leaves, we’ll have to leave also, and I don’t want to do that,” he told City Council Monday.
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0374.
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