LOWVILLE — The new Lewis County Department of Motor Vehicles office will open for business Monday morning.

"I just think it's a great thing," said county Legislature Chairman Jack T. Bush, R-Brantingham. "People won't have to go through security, and they'll have a place to park."

The office, now at the rear of the first floor of the county courthouse on North State Street, will be closed all day Friday, County Clerk Douglas P. Hanno said. That will allow county and state crews to move office furniture and equipment to the new location at the former Cream of the Crop Ice Cream Shoppe, 7049 Route 12, just south of Lowville in the town of Martinsburg.

"The ladies have been boxing things up," Mr. Hanno said.

County crews will handle much of the moving, while some state workers will be on hand to move the more sensitive equipment, he said.

Workers from the county maintenance department and Lowville construction firm Adirondack Garage Door this week installed the four-station customer service countertop at the new office.

"The county did a lot of the work themselves," Mr. Hanno said, noting Highway Department employees and maintenance staff handled partition work.

One customer service station is designed for better wheelchair access. Motion detectors have been installed for better off-hours security, Mr. Hanno said.

While the 1,200-square-foot building won't provide any more space than the current office, it will ensure much easier customer access, he said.

Mr. Hanno estimated that at least half of all courthouse visitors go to DMV.

County officials have long encouraged area residents to renew their driver's licenses and vehicle registrations at the local office, rather than by mail or Internet, because the county keeps 12.7 percent of locally collected fees. By making DMV office visits more convenient, they hope to see increased usage.

Drop boxes for after-hours DMV paperwork will be located at both the new office and the courthouse, Mr. Hanno said.

While initial plans were to move the office in early April, delays in getting contracts signed and coordinating electrical and telephone lines with state systems pushed the project back a month, he said.

Legislators in February approved a two-year lease agreement on the building with Day One Associates for $1,000 per month plus utilities.

The lease agreement initially gave the county the option to buy the 1.7-acre parcel, with the price to be determined by an appraisal to be performed within 45 days of the date of occupancy. However, that caveat later was removed.

The plan to buy the property if the move proves successful is "still on everybody's mind," Mr. Bush said.

However, formal purchase-option language was removed out of concern that the value could change in the two years between the appraisal and potential purchase, particularly if more development occurs along the Route 12 corridor, he said.

"If I was the owner, I wouldn't want that," Mr. Bush said. "You want the best deal for the taxpayers. But, on the other hand, you have to be fair."

The parcel is assessed at $65,600, according to county land records.