At the end of this week, Ohio is closing the six regional centers where people have gone to have their driver’s licenses reinstated. However, people that look to regain their licenses will have hundreds of other options.
Ohio drivers whose licenses were suspended because of accumulated points, lack of insurance or other reasons used to have to go to the regional centers to file the paperwork and pay the fees for reinstatement. Bureau of Motor Vehicles spokeswoman Kristen Castle says that’s been transitioning to the roughly 200 deputy registrars in Ohio.
“What we started to do a few years ago was expand resources to support customer access," Castle said. "And now those full reinstatement services will be available in all 88 counties.”
None of the shuttered reinstatement centers are in Central Ohio. The offices that will be closing are in Canton, Cincinnati, Jackson, Parma, Toledo and Youngstown.
Unlike the reinstatement centers, the deputy registrars will charge $10 for each transaction – including each installment payment applied toward reinstatement. But Castle says people can avoid those fees by handling their reinstatements by mail or on-line.
