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The new St. Joseph Department of Motor Vehicles, owned by attorney James Montee, will be located next to Rod’s Hallmark Shop.

The St. Joseph license office at East Hills Shopping Center is set to close in about two weeks.

The new office, under prominent St. Joseph attorney James Montee, will open its doors on the North Belt Highway next to Rod’s Hallmark on Sept. 14, according to the Missouri Department of Revenue. The state selected a proposal from Mr. Montee’s Saint Joseph License, a limited liability corporation, over three other competitive bids, and on July 30 began a contract with him to run a second motor vehicle license office in Missouri. Also this summer, the state awarded him the contract to operate the Lee’s Summit office.

With the old St. Joseph office closing on Sept. 9, a Wednesday, and the new office opening on Sept. 14, a Monday, there will be a brief interruption in mid-month service, as neither office will be open that Thursday, Friday or Saturday for people seeking vehicle tags or driver’s licenses.

“Besides moving the office from one location to another, an inventory will have to be completed to account for all the license plates, tabs, machines, etc.,” said Ted Farnen, a revenue department spokesman.

The new site at 2319 N. Belt Highway up until Wednesday was used as a Rod’s Hallmark closeout store. It sits in a strip mall between the main Rod’s Hallmark location and what was formerly a Mexican restaurant.

Rod’s vacated the closeout location Wednesday, and Mr. Montee took possession of it Saturday, the attorney said.

Mr. Montee, who said he selected the site for customer convenience, plans some construction before opening, such as internal and parking lot improvements.

The state ran St. Joseph’s license office Downtown until it closed its doors in June 2005, part of a cost-savings effort under Gov. Matt Blunt’s Republican administration. The new office opened up at East Hills Shopping Center under the private operation of Matt Gerstner later that summer.

Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon in January called for the re-bidding of all of the state’s license offices. Mr. Gerstner didn’t re-apply for the new office’s management.

When the state-to-private-office transition took place in 2005, few employees were re-hired. Except for management, Mr. Montee said he hired back most of the Lee’s Summit office clerks and he plans to hire a mix of St. Joseph’s current staff and outside personnel, pending employee interviews.

The new manager, Sandra Gutshall, still is conducting interviews. Ms. Gutshall previously served as manager in the St. Joseph office from May 2005 to December 2007 for KCFA Management. She works at Bethany’s license office as manager and is assisting Saint Joseph License with the Lee’s Summit office, where Mr. Montee said employees have drastically reduced customer wait time.

“I know that they retrained and better supervised some people in Lee’s Summit,” he said.

He’s hoping for similar results in St. Joseph. His public bid stated the new office would provide chairs for waiting, and clerks would provide at-chair service to elderly patrons who noticeably had difficulty moving. Drivers now stand while waiting in lines.

The new St. Joseph office will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and will be open every Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., under the bid. Also, the office plans on offering extended hours the last five days of the month.

Alyson E. Raletz can be reached

at alysonraletz@npgco.com.