SARANAC LAKE — The state Department of Motor Vehicles is preparing to update its archaic software to end the random, widespread and unexplained system outages that have become more common at DMV offices across the state, including locally.

The rollout will take place over the President’s Day long weekend and will involve an early closure of DMV offices on Friday, Feb. 13 at 2 p.m. This closure is expected to last until the start of business on Wednesday, Feb. 18. Online DMV transactions and phone services will also be unavailable at this time.

During this time, the data for around 14 million licensed drivers in the state will be migrated from the patchwork of old systems to the consolidated new system.

“It is a massive job,” Franklin County Clerk Kip Cassavaw said.

He said it’ll be worth it. The goal is to make trips to the DMV faster. The new system should be better for employees and customers alike, he said. It is meant to save taxpayers money and customers time.

DMV spokesman Walter McClure said this new system will process transactions faster and support the agency’s goal of “one trip to an office and done.” It will also bring the ability to do additional online transactions and make future technology upgrades easier.

McClure said this is part of the department’s effort to “shatter perceptions of the DMV.”

Currently, the hundreds of DMV back-end computer systems are run on what are kindly called “legacy lines.” DMV Commissioner Mark J.F. Schroeder said some of these date back to the days of Nelson Rockefeller. Rockefeller was the governor of New York from 1959 to 1973.

“Just think of your own personal computer. If you don’t update it, either new software or new hardware every three to five years, you get behind,” Cassavaw said. “The DMV is behind 40 years.”

Cassavaw is also the co-chair of the DMV committee for the state Association of County Clerks.

“The operating system that they use looks like something that I would have been using when I was in high school,” Essex County Clerk Chelsea Merrihew said. “I graduated in ’99, for reference.”

The system regularly has outages that cause the cameras for taking license photos to not work or limit their availability to do background checks with the federal government for enhanced licenses. This has been a “constant headache,” Merrihew said.

When an outage happens, it jams up the line of people holding paperwork. The employees can reboot the system, but they often don’t know if the reboot will work or how long the outage might last. Sometimes, customers have to wait more time for the system to reboot. Sometimes people have to come in multiple times before the system is up and running properly.

“The worst is the kids who come in to do their permit tests. They take the test and everything’s fine, as far as we know, and then they go to get their picture … and the system goes down,” Merrihew said. “That’s the ones I feel the worst for. You should see their faces.”

Recently, the Saranac Lake DMV had the camera problem. Some first-time license-earners had to return the next day. The camera was again having an outage. The employees rebooted the system, which took around 15 minutes, and then it worked. This caused a bit of a bottleneck in the line.

Cassavaw said it will take a couple of days to implement and test the new system. He hopes it goes smoothly. DMV employees will work on Feb. 17 to test it and be open to the public on Feb. 18 if all goes well.

The Saranac Lake office will be closed that whole week and reopen on Feb. 24, he said. He wants time to see if the system is working in Malone and then send senior employees down to make sure it works here.

“You hope for the best, but when you’re pulling that much data through … you’re just hoping for the best,” Cassavaw said.

Schroeder said he’s proud of the hard work put into developing this new platform over the past two years. In 2024, the state contracted with software company FAST Enterprises, LLC, which has upgraded DMV systems for 15 other states.

Cassavaw said DMV employees have been training on the new system since November. He’s asking the public to have a little patience. When the offices reopen after the update, it will be the workers’ first time actually processing paperwork on the new system with a customer in front of them.

“Our staff has worked tirelessly to train and prepare for this change; however, we ask for patience as we adjust to the new system in the days immediately after it launches,” Schroeder said.

Cassavaw is encouraging people to not put off their DMV business. Even if their license isn’t quite expired, he is telling people to come get it renewed before the closure. He told people to check the county DMV website for updates at tinyurl.com/32rx8jrv.

Merrihew is planning to have a couple extended hour days in the lead-up to the closure, to give people more time to get their business done. She said she’ll post dates and times for these on her county page at essexcountyny.gov/county-clerk and on Facebook at tinyurl.com/2s467dm7.

Currently, there are also 70 types of transactions that can be done online at tinyurl.com/mptxw3v9.

The new system is being installed in two segments. This one is for the license system — the people side of the DMV. In 2028, the second segment will tackle the registration system — the vehicle side of the DMV.

Merrihew said she’s been getting positive feedback from employees about the coming update — even from longtime employees who are usually hesitant to change. She said they’ve seen the outages get worse over the years.

She said the DMV used to have a dedicated IT department. When former Gov. Andrew Cuomo consolidated all IT departments into one state IT department, she said it compounded existing problems. Instead of having a specialist in their system, IT employees worked on systems across the state and weren’t as intimately familiar with the DMV’s.

In any case, Cassavaw said the North Country is lucky in terms of length of DMV waiting times.

“Our waits in the North Country are nothing like they are in the cities or downstate,” he said. “People take days off from work just to go to the DMV (there).”

Merrihew said she’s heard from summer residents of seasonal visitors to the Adirondacks who save all their DMV business until they come up here on vacation, so they don’t have to go to the big city offices.

This upgrade is meant to make those lines a little shorter.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Cassavaw said.