A newly remodeled driving examination station is open in one of Austin’s most historic buildings.

Thursday, March 09, 2000

A newly remodeled driving examination station is open in one of Austin’s most historic buildings.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety moved its driving exam station to the former Milwaukee Road Depot at 430 10th St. NE.

Gary Groh purchased the building and has remodeled it into an office building. The DPS is the first tenant.

The depot was the hub of railroad activity in Austin during the "glory days" of rail service.

"This is a fully modernized facility with easy access, off-street parking," said Ron Spika, staff assistant for the driving exam section of the division of Driver and Vehicle Services in the DPS.

"It’s literally a one-stop shop for all your driver’s licensing needs from applications to renewals," Spika said.

The exam station offers a full range of services, including applications for licenses, road and written testing for non-commercial and commercial drivers and motorcyclists, driver’s license renewals and photo identification.

The station also is equipped with five testing machines for English- and Spanish-speaking individuals.

The Austin driving exam station will operate during the same business hours as they did at their previous location: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday. The new public information telephone number for the station is 434-2675.

The former location of the driving exam station at the corner of First Avenue and Third Street NE was on Mower County-owned property.

The county and the city of Austin swapped properties to allow the city Housing and Redevelopment Authority to continue with its plans for new housing south of the Courtyard Apartments.

In addition to the driving exam station, the property at the intersection of First Avenue and Third Street NE was a popular parking lot for county government center employees.

The county will be provided downtown parking near the Mower County government center.