Boston Globe

With its budget slashed, Registry plans to close 11 offices

July 3, 2009 03:11 PM By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

Customers should expect longer wait times as the state Registry of
Motor Vehicles closes 11 branch offices to cope with a $13 million hit
in this year’s state budget, Registry officials said today.
Registrar Rachel Kaprielian said that the RMV will try to soften the
impact of the closures by opening four "mitigation branches" which are
mostly smaller locations inside state-owned property, where they won’t
have to pay rent. Two such branches will open on the Massachusetts
Turnpike, one at the Natick service plaza and one at the Charlton
service plaza.
Kaprielian acknowledged that "things are going to get a little
crunched" but said that customer service remains the agency’s "North
Star."
The Registry’s busiest branch, in Chinatown, which draws 289,000
customers a year, will close, but not before the agency opens another
Boston location, Kaprielian said. The new location has not yet been
determined.
The Registry will also ramp up efforts to get people to use its
website.
Layoffs are anticipated. But agency officials said the realignment
plan was crafted with the goal of minimizing staff reductions, because
that would only increase wait times further.
The branches will close, in the following order, between July and
September: Lowell, North Attleborough, Cambridge (Cambridgeside
Galleria), New Bedford, Springfield (Eastfield Mall),
Southbridge, Framingham, Falmouth, Eastham, and Beverly. The Chinatown
branch will close in December.
In addition to opening at the Natick and Charlton plazas, mitigation
branches will open at the Cape Cod Canal Visitors center at the
Sagamore Bridge and on Route 1 in Peabody.