By VICKI URBANIK

The city of Gary will get its full-service license branch back, but Chesterton won’t be as fortunate.

The Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicle has reversed its decision of 2005 and recently announced that it will reopen a full-service BMV branch in Gary. But there are no plans to do the same in Chesterton, according to Indiana BMV Communications Director Dennis Rosebrough.

Rosebrough said the BMV carefully monitors the number of transactions, wait times and other factors at each branch. The volumes served by the Porter County’s two remaining branches -- in Portage and Valparaiso -- don’t justify reopening the license branch in Chesterton, he said.

When Chesterton’s BMV closed, it was rated 81st out of the sate’s 168 branches in terms of number of transactions handled.

At the time of the closing, the BMV issued a press release stating that the Portage branch, located on Willowcreek Road, would be relocated farther east by 2008, “giving Chesterton residents better access to BMV services.”

That hasn’t happened yet, and it’s unknown if the relocation will in fact happen.

Rosebrough said the lease for the Portage branch runs out in November of next year, so it’s too early to say what will happen.

Every time license branch leases come up for renewal, the BMV re-evaluates the facilty, he said.

“The branch will undergo a review process,” he said. “Nothing has been decided.”

Rosebrough said the BMV continues to develop ways to encourage people not to physically go into a BMV branch but to conduct their business online or via mail. “There are a variety of ways that we are making services available to our customers,” he said.

So why the reversal on Gary’s branch?

Rosebrough said Gov. Mitch Daniels directed the BMV to study how to re-open the branch, since Gary is so large a city. Its population is fifth in the state. “The governor felt we ought to re-examine that issue,” he said.

The former Gary branch had been the most expensive in the state to operate in terms of cost per transaction, Rosebrough said. Recently, the BMV learned that the Gary office of another state agency -- the Family and Social Services and the Department of Child Services -- were restructuring their office and were able to free up enough room in order to sublease space to the BMV for a full-service branch. The Gary branch will now operate at less than half the cost that it used to, he said.

Of the more than 30 license branches statewide that were shut down, the Gary branch is the only one the state has agreed to reopen.

Posted 10/31/2007