Fairfield Officials Hail New ‘AAA’ Fairfield Branch Office

State Rep. Laura Devlin (R-134), State Rep. Brenda Kupchick (R-132), Lloyd Albert, Senior VP of Public Affairs AAA, State Sen. Tony Hwang (R-28), Fairfield 1st Selectman Michael Tetreau, Taryn Degray, Branch Manager AAA Southern New England, Beverly Balaz, Executive Director of the Fairfield Chamber of Commerce, Mark S. Barnhart, Fairfield Economic Development Director, Fairfield Police Chief Gary MacNamara and Brendan Coughlin, AAA Director Regional Branch Sales and Service cutting the ribbon for the new AAA Fairfield branch on Kings Highway.

FAIRFIELD- With the focus on local access and quicker service, State Reps. Brenda Kupchick (R-132), Laura Devlin (R-134) and State Sen. Tony Hwang (R-28) along with Fairfield First Selectman Michael Tetreau, Fairfield Chamber of Commerce officials, the Fairfield Police Department and AAA Northeast executives participated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday (November 6) at AAA Northeast’s newest branch office at 1201 King’s Highway, Fairfield.

AAA executives talked about its full-service insurance and travel agencies, and a broad line-up of financial services products, the 1,800-square foot state-of-the-art office building continues to offer AAA members a convenient and accessible location at which to do business.

Rep. Devlin, who is on the legislature’s Transportation committee, touted the opening as a win-win for the Greater Fairfield community and hoped to get to the bottom of DMV’s ongoing glitches.

Devlin said, “AAA is a model business and a perfect partner for our Fairfield commuters and travelers. This new regional AAA hub in town will offer local drivers one-on-one customer service and convenience, making their motor vehicle processing more pleasant.”

Rep. Kupchick, who has continually been in contact with DMV since July due to constituent complaints about constant delays in applying for new licenses while thousands of undocumented citizens in the state have been given ‘drive only’ licenses.

Kupchick said, “This AAA facility is amazing. I want to thank AAA for picking a Fairfield location. This is the exactly the type of business Connecticut should promote and lean on when state government fails. AAA has said they are waiting for state to approval to process vehicle registrations, let’s get this done.”

Sen. Hwang said, “We are encouraging everyone in Fairfield and throughout the region to use this new branch office as much as possible. Want to stay out of DMV lines? Visit AAA and spread the word to friends and neighbors.”

The new AAA office will offer Department of Motor Vehicles license renewal services and Connecticut identification cards. Other services include: travel counselors; maps; brochures; cruise and travel tour planning; home, life and travel insurance; and financial.

The opening of the new Fairfield AAA branch could not have come at a more fitting time with the news that 11 weeks after the transition to the new, $25 million computer system at the state Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), wait times are more than three times longer than they were a year ago. In October of last year, with the old outdated computer system, the average wait time at DMV was about a half hour. According to the DMV’s own numbers, the wait time now averages an hour-and-a-half.

This new DMV wait-time problem is the latest issue with the upgrades to DMV. Since the summer legislators have been getting volumes of complaints about problems at DMV. So much so, that the ranking members of the Transportation Committee have formally requested answers to a list of more than a dozen questions about DMV service delays now that the new computer system has been on line almost two months.

AAA Northeast is a not-for-profit auto club with 61 offices in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut, providing more than 5.1 million local AAA members with travel, insurance, finance and auto-related services. In Connecticut, the Connecticut division has more than a half-million members in Litchfield, Fairfield, and New Haven Counties. Their website is www.aaa.com.