For now, Council leaves cab ordinance intact

Since January 1, no legal taxi cabs were running on Nome’s roads as the only taxi company Checker Cab has chosen to suspend their operations and to not reapply for their six cab licenses that they held until the end of 2025.
This became a problem on the street as people without transportation, visitors and those who regularly depend on taxi services found themselves walking.
As the City of Nome regulates cab services, all eyes were on the Nome Common Council last Monday when the council grappled with the task how to entice cab companies to keep the cabs legally running on Nome’s streets.
In a special meeting on January 5, the council passed the first reading of an ordinance amendment to get rid of taxi cab licensing, which among other things, gives out via lottery a limited number of licenses. It would have left the requirement for a chauffeur license to operate a taxi intact.
Basically, the city regulates the vehicles via the taxi cab licensing and the driver through the chauffeur license.
Steven Longley, who has offered “rides for donations” in the past, had come before the council multiple times to lobby for getting rid of the licenses, or so-called medallions. He attended last Monday’s meeting again and applauded the council for a proposed ordinance amendment to that effect. However, this came not to pass.
During public comments, he pointed out that it is hard for drivers to get CDL physicals as there are only few doctors in Nome who can perform them, and that the local hospital is unable to do drug tests routinely, all requirements for a chauffeur’s license.
Nobody from Checker Cab was present to state their case.
Jeremy Jacobson provided comment, saying that he is concerned if the council do away with the taxi cab licensing section of the ordinance, it would leave out language that requires commercial insurance for the vehicles. He saw safety as a focal point.
Longley in his comment argued that the state requires insurance and a state trooper with the commercial division could come up and enforce the state law.
Council member Adam Lust was concerned about what sort of consumer protection this would leave for the public if the city just bows out of the licensing process.
The city council can from time to time revisit how many cab licenses it wants to give out via a lottery process. In 2005 it was 13, currently the number stands at 11. Six of these were owned by Checker Cab. Five were revoked when the late Rob Luce was no longer running his Mr. Cab taxi service.
In discussion it became clear that the council lost their appetite for revoking the licensing verbiage and instead found it more fruitful to revisit the number of licenses given out and even get rid of a cap of licenses. But the motion on the table didn’t allow for tweaking of the ordinance and thus the council with Henderson, Adam Martinson, Mark Johnson, Maggie Miller and Adam Lust present, voted down the motion to get rid of taxi medallions.
Driven by the urgency that presently no cab is running legally, Henderson wanted to see a decision made that night. “We got a bit of a crisis going on here,” he said. “We got all of these folks running around, offering rides or services, potentially, illegally. I think we can move forward with the current ordinances in place and start the process to issuing new permits, get those out.”
Council member Johnson made a motion to direct City Clerk Dan Grimmer to start the process of a lottery for 11 permits. Henderson seconded the motion and all council members present voted yes.
In other business, the council heard from NJUS General Manager John Handeland that NJUS sent a lineman to Unalakleet to help with a severe power outage that left the Hillside and the fuel tank farm without power. 
In Nome, a different disaster struck. Shoppers at AC may have noticed an unpleasant smell as last week AC’s water meter froze and burst, Handeland reported. Temporarily fixing the issue caused an outage for certain parts of Nome. They put in a valve for their fire system that is not holding, Handland said. He put NJUS customers on notice that there will be a scheduled water outage and that NJUS would provide notice and updates through Facebook and notices on the radio. “If you notice your water is not flowing, you may wish to turn off your circulating pump during that duration. If the water is not running, there’s no water to run, so hopefully your pipes are well insulated.” He said it would affect the neighborhoods from AC up to Icy View.
Mayor Kenny Hughes reported that the city hosted a Korean delegation and the Mayor of Busan. He said they toured the port, the museum and other parts of Nome.
“There were no promises made other than that we would talk to them as any other interested party,” he said.
The council adjourned and went into executive session for matters dealing with personnel. No decision was to be made after the closed session.