DMV to open satellite office on Fishers Island, cutting residents' trip by hours

For Fishers Island residents, a routine trip to the Department of Motor Vehicles could well be a full day's errand, requiring an hourlong ferry ride followed by a nearly two-hour drive, and that's just one way.

The remote island, part of Southold Town and closer to Connecticut than Long Island, is only accessible by ferry from New London, Connecticut, and residents have been advocating for years to bring a satellite office to their island. That effort will soon pay off as the installation of a new office gets underway, with plans to provide residents basic services such as driver’s license renewal and vehicle registrations. No on-island driving tests will be provided.

At the town’s annual meeting on the island on Aug. 2, town officials announced the office could be open as early as this winter, but will only be open for limited hours a month.

"The hours of operation will not be daily,” said Elizabeth Cashel, 62, a resident who led the effort as a liaison between the island and the town board. She estimated the office would open for about six hours a month.

Cashel said the office will be located within the Fishers Island Community Center, a bustling hub on the nearly 5-square-mile island, which reported a population of 424 people in the 2020 Census.

The building also contains a cafe, fitness center, bowling lanes and conference rooms.

Cashel said DMV officials have already visited the building to assess security and IT needs and have begun delivering and installing workstations and other equipment. 

Southold plans to hire and train three people to operate the office. “[The DMV Commissioner] can deputize someone to be in control of the equipment, instead of sending a state employee over to Fishers Island to do transactions for a day, which is what used to happen 15 years ago,” said Assemb. Jodi Giglio (R-Riverhead), whose district includes Fishers Island.

Giglio said she worked with the DMV to coordinate training for the employees, who have not yet been hired. Rather than commute to White Plains for training for 10 straight days, the bulk of the training will be completed online with one day of in-person training.

Currently, Fishers Island residents who need to access DMV services have two options: travel to New London by ferry, take another ferry to Orient Point and drive to the closest office in Riverhead — a 57-mile trip that takes around three hours and costs more than $100 each way — or drive from New London to the closest office in White Plains. 

Riverhead has one of four DMV offices in Suffolk County. A fifth in Port Jefferson is slated to close later this month as the agency attempts to cut costs and shift resources.

Walter McClure, a spokesperson for the DMV, said they have been working on a "creative plan" to station a satellite office on Fishers Island, but he declined to answer specific questions about the project, including potential costs.