DMV to hire five for rural Nevada offices

CARSON CITY - Drivers in rural Nevada got some good news on Thursday, but Southern Nevadans got snubbed.

The Interim Finance Committee voted unanimously to hire five additional Department of Motor Vehicles employees: four in Elko and one in Winnemucca.

But it passed on DMV chief Bruce Breslow's request to hire five more employees in the urban offices.

He said that the wait times and number of people needing services has climbed in Southern Nevada.

A study in May showed that the average wait time at the Elko DMV officer is 123 minutes and that it takes 44 days to schedule a driving test.

Figures were not compiled for Winnemucca.

The average wait time this year for customers in the Las Vegas area offices is 51 minutes, up from 36 minutes in 2011.

"The wait time in urban areas doesn't seem that dramatic," said Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, D-Sparks. "Elko and Winnemucca seem to have the problems."

She could tell by the DMV website (dmvnv.com), which shows current wait times at its major offices.

It showed the wait time at the DMV office on Decatur Boulevard in Las Vegas office was two minutes, while the wait in Henderson was 15 minutes and Reno, 64 minutes.

No other members of the committee - mostly Southern Nevadans - objected to her comments.

The Legislature last year agreed to hire 30 more DMV employees but left it up to the interim committee to decide when and if they should be hired. Earlier 20 employees were hired. With the five approved Thursday, that leaves five remaining positions that could be filled.

In arguing that all 10 positions should be filled, Breslow contended that the state's population is growing, particularly in mining-rich rural Nevada.

Though far more people now use kiosks in stores and the Internet for DMV transactions, he said, there still has been an increase of 100,000 in DMV transactions in urban areas this year.

Elko's population has "just rocketed," added Breslow, who has been sending employees from other parts of the state to help with the rising customer load.

Finding rooms for them to stay is difficult, he added, because the mining industry has been gobbling up hotel rooms and taking 10-year leases on apartment buildings.

"We can't bring people up from Las Vegas because there is no housing available," he said.

His hope is to find people now living in the Elko and Winnemucca areas willing to take DMV jobs.

Elko area unemployment was 6.7 percent in July, compared with the statewide average of 12 percent.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3900.