Motor Vehicle Administration

Police to crack down on illegal out-of-state plates By KIMBERLY YAKOWSKI kimy@herald-mail.com Hagerstown City Police have begun cracking down on city residents whose vehicles bear illegal out-of-state license plates. Over the next few weeks, people with out-of-state license plates can expect to find notices on their vehicles informing them of Maryland auto tag requirements, said Lt. William Carvel Wright III. Wright said officers will place Motor Vehicle Administration brochures on vehicles to give the owners a chance to determine whether they are in violation of state law or qualify for exceptions.

A Hagerstown woman has filed a claim against the Vehicle Emissions Inspection Program saying its treadmill tests damaged her daughter's car. The Motor Vehicle Administration says the claim has not been resolved because its inspectors have not been allowed to examine the car. Kathy Rhodes says the 1985 Dodge Lancer stopped dead shortly after failing a test at the VEIP station northwest of Hagerstown on March 20. "We got as far as the...

A Hagerstown company has expressed interest in joining a state program to repossess the license plates of uninsured motorists, according to the Motor Vehicle Administration. Two private firms - one in Baltimore County and one in Howard County - have been hired to find 200 sets of license plates that belong to drivers who have failed to pay fines imposed by the state for allowing their insurance to lapse. Marjorie Murphy, a representative with the MVA, said Widmyer Driving School sent a letter to state officials expressing interest in the work.

State, MVA unfair to grieving family members To the editor: Reading the papers the last few weeks has made me sick on my stomach. There was an article about a lady who just lost her husband and, while grieving, got a notice to turn in tags or immediately pay $110 to remove her husband's name off car title, etc. I believe a vehicle jointly owned should be considered owned by both. If both have handicapped placards or tags, the tags shouldn't even have to be changed.

Local kiosk least-used in state The self-service vehicle registration kiosk in Hagerstown was the least-used of 11 in Maryland last year, according to the Motor Vehicle Administration. The number of 1999 transactions at each machine, as provided by the MVA, were: - Hagerstown , Washington County: 1,196 - Salisbury , Wicomico County: 1,331 - Glen Burnie , Anne Arundel County: 2,135 - Silver Spring , Montgomery County: 2,155 - Prince Frederick , Calvert County: 2,288 - Laurel , Prince George's County: 3,262 - Westminster , Carroll County: 5,001 - Greenbelt , Prince George's County: 5,136 - Owings Mills , Baltimore County: 5,484 - Columbia , Howard County: 6,803 - Towson , Baltimore County: 10,356.

Mail Call for 1/8 "The Board of Education keeps asking for more money, this is why other projects have to suffer. Because County Commissioners can only do so much. So let's stop the big salaries of the supervisors at the Board of Education. " "I miss Jean at the Nibble Quik. She always gave service with kindness and a smile. " "About the Christmas cards, if you would like to recycle them and also baby jars. I have a Girl Scout troop. We would be more than welcome to use them.

shappell@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN - Each spring as the temperature rises, so does the number of motorcycles on roads. This year, the State Highway Administration and Motor Vehicle Administration are trying to make conditions safer for motorcyclists and other motorists through new programs, including an intermediate motorcyclist course. David Buck, spokesman for the Maryland State Highway Administration, said the agency was targeting motorcycle safety as part of its "12 Months of Safety Campaign.

By KAREN MASTERSON Staff Writer A Hagerstown automotive shop can now inspect, order a new title and issue license plates all under the same roof. For $30, car owners can skip the trip to the Motor Vehicle Administration and get their title and license plates from Frederick Street Automotive Inc., according to shop manager Allen Stone. Add another $42 and the shop will also provide an inspection. Frederick Street Automotive, which specializes in transmissions and air conditioning, has been a Maryland state inspection station for years.

HAGERSTOWN -- A state official said Wednesday that a fast-track licensing program created to help motorcyclists get their license in one day won't lead to more inexperienced riders on the roadways. On Wednesday, more than two dozen people participated in the program at the Motor Vehicle Administration south of Hagerstown. An MVA spokeswoman said 18 riders received motorcycle licenses. Three people failed the test, she said. Thomas Bachur, an instructor with the Maryland Motorcycle Safety Program, said the road portion of the test was designed to be far too complicated for novice riders to handle.

State, MVA unfair to grieving family members To the editor: Reading the papers the last few weeks has made me sick on my stomach. There was an article about a lady who just lost her husband and, while grieving, got a notice to turn in tags or immediately pay $110 to remove her husband's name off car title, etc. I believe a vehicle jointly owned should be considered owned by both. If both have handicapped placards or tags, the tags shouldn't even have to be changed.

Sixty-six motorcycle riders died, and an additional 1,509 were injured on Maryland's roadways in 2011. To bring those numbers down, the Maryland Highway Safety Office is using its Motorcycle Safety and Awareness program to stress the importance of being more careful on the road. On Wednesday, state and county officials were at the Motor Vehicle Administration building south of Hagerstown to promote the program. They'll be there again all day Thursday. “If there's a crash between a car and a motorcycle, the motorcycle always loses,” said Peter Moe, motorcycle safety coordinator for the safety office.

HAGERSTOWN -- A state official said Wednesday that a fast-track licensing program created to help motorcyclists get their license in one day won't lead to more inexperienced riders on the roadways. On Wednesday, more than two dozen people participated in the program at the Motor Vehicle Administration south of Hagerstown. An MVA spokeswoman said 18 riders received motorcycle licenses. Three people failed the test, she said. Thomas Bachur, an instructor with the Maryland Motorcycle Safety Program, said the road portion of the test was designed to be far too complicated for novice riders to handle.

HAGERSTOWN pepperb@herald-mail.com Hagerstown Police Department Chief Arthur Smith said Monday in an e-mailed statement that City Councilwoman Alesia D. Parson-McBean should not have been given a requested ride to the Motor Vehicle Administration when she was pulled over Jan. 20 for expired registration on her vehicle, an infraction for which, he said, she should have been cited. "While this was a discretionary decision it clearly had the effect of giving an appearance of preferential treatment," Smith wrote in the e-mail about the ride Parson-McBean was given to the MVA office off Sharpsburg Pike after the traffic stop about 11:30 a.m. in front of police headquarters on North Burhans Boulevard.

Even after nearly 25 years in the newspaper business, it never ceases to amaze me how elected officials never cease to amaze me. The sudden resignation of Hagerstown Mayor Richard Trump last week probably would be a good topic for this column - seeing how nobody saw it coming. But I, along with many of our readers who have phoned and e-mailed us, still are having a hard time getting past the story about the Hagerstown city councilwoman who was caught last month driving a car with an expired registration.

daniels@herald-mail.com Without mentioning her by name, Hagerstown City Councilwoman Kelly S. Cromer said Tuesday night she felt Councilwoman Alesia D. Parson-McBean was wrong in accepting a ride by a city police lieutenant to the Motor Vehicle Administration. "The majority of the council members, including myself, do not find that we are above the law. We also do not feel that, as a mayor and council, we are more special than the average citizen," Cromer said, referring to public comments to the contrary by Hagerston Police Capt.

So, another nice, quiet weekend for our City Council members, I assume? Nothing out of the ordinary to report. I'll just leaf back through the weekend papers to make sure, and - oh dear. This group still has another, what, 3 1/2 years left in its term, so I'm going to be an optimist and predict that sometime between now and 2009, all members of this board will be able to make it through one complete month without doing something that makes the rest of us want to avert our eyes.

shappell@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN - Each spring as the temperature rises, so does the number of motorcycles on roads. This year, the State Highway Administration and Motor Vehicle Administration are trying to make conditions safer for motorcyclists and other motorists through new programs, including an intermediate motorcyclist course. David Buck, spokesman for the Maryland State Highway Administration, said the agency was targeting motorcycle safety as part of its "12 Months of Safety Campaign.

Police to crack down on illegal out-of-state plates By KIMBERLY YAKOWSKI kimy@herald-mail.com Hagerstown City Police have begun cracking down on city residents whose vehicles bear illegal out-of-state license plates. Over the next few weeks, people with out-of-state license plates can expect to find notices on their vehicles informing them of Maryland auto tag requirements, said Lt. William Carvel Wright III. Wright said officers will place Motor Vehicle Administration brochures on vehicles to give the owners a chance to determine whether they are in violation of state law or qualify for exceptions.

Mail Call for 1/8 "The Board of Education keeps asking for more money, this is why other projects have to suffer. Because County Commissioners can only do so much. So let's stop the big salaries of the supervisors at the Board of Education. " "I miss Jean at the Nibble Quik. She always gave service with kindness and a smile. " "About the Christmas cards, if you would like to recycle them and also baby jars. I have a Girl Scout troop. We would be more than welcome to use them.