Nevada contracting out for special license plates

RENO (AP) — The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles is outsourcing the making of the state’s 150th anniversary license plates to an Oregon company.

DMV spokesman David Fierro tells the Reno Gazette-Journal that it turns out prison inmates can’t make the special plates at a factory at the old Nevada State Prison in Carson City.

The Nevada Cultural Affairs Foundation, the Nevada Sesquicentennial Planning Committee and the governor’s office picked the design with raised white reflective letters on a dark blue background and the “Battle Born” emblem.

Fierro says officials believe only Irwin-Hodson Group of Portland, Ore., can produce the embossed plate.

The commemorative plates cost $33.50, with $25 going to support statehood celebrations.

The manufacturer gets $7.50 for each pair of plates.

So far, the DMV has ordered 8,500 sets.