THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 19, 1996 TAG: 9607170109
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 13 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 44 lines
A new Portsmouth Customer Center for driver licensing and vehicle registration will be opened by the state Department of Motor Vehicles on Towne Point Road near the Chesapeake city line next May.
The new center, which will replace the existing office on Turnpike Road near Alexanders Corner, will be a third larger and better equipped, DMV Commissioner Richard D. Holcomb said.
A ground-breaking ceremony at the new site at Towne Point Road and Bickford Parkway will be held at 10 a.m. June 26.
The building will be constructed and owned by LGW Investments, which has a 15-year lease with a five-year option with the state. The amount of the lease was not available Tuesday. Norman Goodloe, one of the participants, is the company representative.
The new center will contain 7,519 square feet. It will feature 12 teller windows, 115 customer parking spaces and a motorcycle testing range.
The new building will have a drive-in teller window for certain transactions, such as motor vehicle registration, that do not require a person to go inside.
``Much of the new operation will be automated,'' said Jeanne Chenault of the DMV Public Information staff.
The building will be equipped with eight Knowledge Automated Testing Systems machines to administer driver exams. The machines allow citizens to take the exams on a computer instead of using the traditional paper and pencil method. Chenault said the machines, some of them already in use in Portsmouth, reduce by half the time it takes to complete the tests.
The existing office opened in 1971. Owned by W.O. Lewis, the building covers 5,500 square feet. The staff now includes eight tellers.
``Our operation has changed quite a bit since 1971,'' Chenault said. ``The new center will serve the public more effectively and efficiently.''
She said that several offices in Hampton Roads are being updated ``to meet the needs of the future.''
The Military Circle office in Norfolk recently was closed for refurbishing, and a new office opened in Virginia Beach.
Currently, DMV operates 10 offices in this region: two each in Virginia Beach and Norfolk, one each in Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Suffolk, Hampton, Newport News and Smithfield. by CNB