Check the moon’s color. The Eunice City Council passed a resolution doing just that at its May meeting.
In this case, council members thought, the gain for their constituents outweighs the pain.
The city’s branch of the Department of Motor Vehicles, whose existence has been tenuous at best of late, faces even greater peril as the state whacks away at a budget more than a billion bucks out of balance.
DMV Director Nick Gotreaux pulled no punches with the city. Unless it endorsed levying a $3 service fee on each transaction at the office here, the office likely wouldn’t survive.
Under state law, DMV can collect that charge but only spend it at the branch from which it is collected.
In Eunice’s case, that would amount to about $67,000 based on the most recent annual transaction total (22,166).
The fee is already collected at the Crowley office, which had about 38,500 transactions in the same year.
Keeping the DMV office open is high priority for the council.
Making the motion for the resolution, at-large councilman Jack Burson said the convenience of having the agency here, rather than citizens having to go to Crowley or Opelousas or elsewhere to conduct their business, outweighs the added charge.
he also said the city is working with legislators on acquiring use of the abandoned Guillory Developmental Center building for the DMV’s use.
Everyone involved seems to think the current site at 3rd & Park is insufficient and inefficient.
Councilman James Bergeron said a shift to the proposed location would enable the agency to handle Commercial Driver’s License renewals, something not now done here.
Officials also said there has been some discussion about the possibility of move some Police Department functions to the proposed site.
Post a Comment
