License to build
New driver’s license center under construction in FD
- Messenger photo by Bill Shea <br> Workers from Jensen Builders Ltd., of Fort Dodge work on the foundation of a new state driver’s license services center on First Avenue South in Fort Dodge Wednesday afternoon. The truck-mounted boom was used to pump cement into the foundation.
- Submitted graphic <br> This is what the new Iowa Department of Transportation Driver’s License Services Station will look like when it is completed this summer. It will be located on First Avenue South east of 32nd Street.
- Messenger photo by Bill Shea <br> Plans for the new Iowa Department of Transportation Driver’s License Services Station are on a wooden stand in front of a truck while workers from Jensen Builders Ltd., of Fort Dodge, work on its foundation.
- Messenger photo by Bill Shea <br> A truck with a boom was used to pump cement into the foundation of a new driver’s license services station being built along First Avenue South in Fort Dodge.
- Messenger photo by Bill Shea <br> Workers from Jensen Builders Ltd., of Fort Dodge work on the foundation of a new state driver’s license services center on First Avenue South in Fort Dodge Wednesday afternoon. The truck-mounted boom was used to pump cement into the foundation.
- Submitted graphic <br> This is what the new Iowa Department of Transportation Driver’s License Services Station will look like when it is completed this summer. It will be located on First Avenue South east of 32nd Street.
- Messenger photo by Bill Shea <br> Plans for the new Iowa Department of Transportation Driver’s License Services Station are on a wooden stand in front of a truck while workers from Jensen Builders Ltd., of Fort Dodge, work on its foundation.
- Messenger photo by Bill Shea <br> A truck with a boom was used to pump cement into the foundation of a new driver’s license services station being built along First Avenue South in Fort Dodge.
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Area residents will be going to a new site to get their driver's licenses starting this summer.
A new driver's license services station is being built near the intersection of First Avenue South and 32nd Street, across the road from Fort Frenzy. Crews from Jensen Builders Ltd., of Fort Dodge, are working on the foundation now.
The building is expected to be completed by June 1 and the state Department of Transportation is expected to move in a month after that, according to Jim Kestersen, the managing member of the limited liability corporation organized to build the facility.
The driver's license station in Fort Dodge has been located at 2313 First Ave. S. for decades. It has to be moved because the strip mall it is located in was purchased in January 2020 by Nestle Purina PetCare, which has a plant immediately to the south.
Kestersen said it will be ''pretty darn easy'' for the Department of Transportation to move a few blocks east to its new facility.
''They can tell people 'You just go three stoplights down and you're there,''' he said.
He said the staff of the Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance facilitated talks between Todd McCubbin, lead Realtor at Kestersen Realty, and Department of Transportation officials. As a result of those talks, DOT Fort Dodge LLC was organized to build the 4,500-square-foot facility and lease it to the state agency.
Kestersen said the construction project is being paid for entirely by private funding sources.
''That's a big deal in my opinion,'' he said.