MOUNT VERNON — Taxicabs disappeared in Mount Vernon about 15 years ago, but they might be making a comeback.
City council members suspended the third reading and adopted legislation on Monday that amends the city’s taxi regulations.
“Recently, the mayor received an inquiry from someone who has apparently acquired several old Checker cabs and has repainted them and wishes to start another taxi service here in the city again,” Law Director Rob Broeren said.
“Because of that, we took a look at our old legislation and decided maybe we could do a little better this time.”
Broeren said the city created a taxicab commission in 2009 to regulate the licensing and registration of taxicabs and drivers.
Broeren said the operator at the time, Dad’s Taxi, “withered away” after a few years, and the commission has not met since 2011.
The regulations do not apply to Uber and Lyft.
“The state has specifically removed the municipality’s ability to regulate the ride-sharing companies. We can only regulate actual taxi cabs,” Broeren explained.
The legislation eliminates the taxicab commission and transfers its oversight to the city’s utilities commission.
It also transfers licensing and registration to the city inspector.
(See PDF of amended regulations below.)
Council clarifies frequency of recycling pickup
The council also amended the city code (Section 755.04) relating to curbside recycling and adopted the revised ordinance on its third reading.
Broeren said recycling pickup is a consistent problem in the city.
“When the legislation was originally done, they buried how often recycling is supposed to be picked up in the definition section rather than in the actual operative sections,” he said.
Haulers are to pick up recycling weekly. However, because it is buried at the front of the chapter, waste haulers overlook that requirement.
“Secondly, some of the companies that provide trash services in the city don’t pick up weekly; they have people buy a biweekly or a monthly pickup,” Broeren said.
“The legislation we drafted here makes it clear that recycling is picked up on the same schedule that you pick up trash. If you get weekly trash service, you have to have weekly recycling. If you have biweekly or monthly pickup, it’s monthly [recycling].”
The legislation also moves the regulation from the definitions section to the operations section of the code.
Council member Amber Keener clarified that the legislation does not require residents to recycle. It merely states that haulers must offer the opportunity and bins for recycling.
Ideas for waste hauling alternatives
Councilman Dale Miller said after attending a recent waste-haulers meeting, he had the impression some of the smaller companies were trying to skirt the pick-up rule to remain competitive.
He told the haulers that his responsibility as a councilman is to protect the best interests of the citizens of Mount Vernon, not take care of their business.
“That did spark a little bit of debate and some ideas, that maybe sometime in the future we may want to reexamine this whole thing and maybe look at going to a single-source supplier,” Miller said.
“I spoke with a representative of Rumke; they said they could offer almost a 40-percent discount if we’re going to a single-source supplier. That is one alternative.
“The alternative that I personally like a little bit better is if we go to a single-source supplier, the side of the truck says the City of Mount Vernon.”
Councilman John Ruckman thinks the city can do both.
“I think we can look out for the citizens of Mount Vernon and look out for the businesses that are operating in the city. We just have to level that playing field and make sure that people are not exploiting a loophole that was never intended to exist,” he said.
