Delays raise concern about DMV office future

There is new concern that Eunice could lose its state Department of Motor Vehicles office, forcing residents to stand in line at the Opelousas DMV in the near future.
The office is supposed to move from the old American Legion building on Park Avenue to the former Guilory Developmental Center but almost nothing has transpired since that agreement was reached more than a year ago.
And now, officials indicate, DMV is again eyeing the Eunice office as one in the “chopping block” line if the department moves forward with a proposal to consolidate to one DMV office per parish.
To date, no work has begun on the building which the City of Eunice acquired in January of 2012.
In the interim, the city has been collecting a self-imposed $3 fee per transactions from DMV patrons to be used for the renovation of the Guillory Developmental Center to meet DMV specifications and get out of the inefficiently heated and cooled and leaking Legion building.
The contract architect of the project, Kim Touchet of Abbeville, had for several weeks failed to respond to messages left for him by The Eunice News regarding the project.
However, an email from him to Mayor Claud “Rusty” Moody outlines the project status with opening bids for construction set for February of next year.
Ward 1 city councilman Roland Miller said that, in his opinion, the city has moved too slow on the new DMV project. He said that there is plenty of blame to go around, from the state to the local government.
“We paid for the building, we own the building,” said Miller. “But we didn’t pick the architect as far as I know. And this has been going on for several months now. The architect is totally responsible for the designing of plans the way that the DMV wants it designed. We should be doing that. I don’t know why we’re waiting on this...we shouldn’t have to be waiting. To me, we could have gotten busy on our building paid for with our money and we could’ve gotten a local architect. We should have put it out for bids ourselves and should have picked somebody locally to do it. You can’t wait for things to happen ,you have to make things happen. And that’s just the way that I feel.”
Moody said Touchet’s proposed time-line is “unacceptable” and that Touchet will have to revise his proposal. Moody said that Touchet’s architecture firm had personnel issues that resulted in staff changes, causing the initial delay in the project moving forward.
“I told (Touchet) to either straighten it up or we’re going to find somebody else to do it,” said Moody. “Which is going to throw us back even further. Somethings you can’t control, but I will take the blame for hiring Touchet. The Department of Motor Vehicles hired him to do the initial sketch of the DMV office. Then we had to wait for the bill of sale to go through and that delayed it again.”
Moody said that he expects a new time-line to be submitted.
Miller also said that the longer the project languishes in bureaucratic limbo, the greater the chances that Eunice could lose its DMV location.
He said that one of the complaints from the DMV is that employees who are now working in the Eunice American Legion building are subjected to roof leaks – which has caused water-damage to computers, not to mention employee discomfort.
“If we don’t get this building under construction and going on the modifications any time soon, I’m looking for us to lose this thing,” said Miller. “And we’re going to have a lot of upset people that are going to have to sit in Opelousas, behind the rest of the parish and the surrounding parishes that use the Opelousas office for all transactions.”
Miller said that for the last two-and-a-half years, each person who has had a transaction at the Eunice DMV has been charged an additional $3 to help cover the costs of the renovations and maintenance of the new location.
Miller questioned where and how that dedicated money will be spent if Eunice loses the DMV office.
“We paid for that building,” said Miller. “And the reason that we were pushing for it was to retain the DMV. It serves not only the people of Eunice, but all of the outlying community around here.”
On Nov. 15, Touchet wrote Moody:
“Sorry for the delay in getting you this schedule.
“The following is our Design Schedule as forwarded to all consultants to bring the above reference project into the construction phase.
“This schedule includes all sub-consultants involved in the project.
“Nov. 1 thru Dec. 1- Design & Drafting,
“Dec. 1 thru Dec. 7- Coordination of all consultants’ plans and specifications.
“Dec. 7 thru Dec. 21- Preparing 2nd review set incorporating coordination markups.
“Dec.21 thru Jan. 4 -2nd Coordination of all consultants’ plans & specifications. Prepare submittals to review agencies.
“Jan. 4 thru Jan. 11- Compile last set of coordination markups.
“Jan. 11 thru Jan. 15- Drafting of final markups and printing.
“Jan. 16 - Begin advertisement
“Feb. 13- Bid opening
“We will prepare a proposal request package and mail to all interested contractors on January 16.
“Please forward a list of interested contractors from the Eunice area to me at your earliest convenience.”
Moody remains optimistic that Eunice will not lose the DMV office. He said that if any changes in the foreseeable future occur, it will happen within the state – which Moody said is looking to “privatize” local, smaller-market DMV offices in Louisiana.