By Amy Batista, Special Writer
HIGHTSTOWN Following months of revisions and tabling, the final reading of a new taxicab licensing ordinance was approved in a 4-2 vote at Monday’s Borough Council meeting.
Council members Susan Bluth and Rob Thibault voted against the ordinance. Ms. Bluth still has a concern that the insurance minimum was too low and Mr. Thibault believes that a limit needs to be established on the number of licensed taxicabs.
The ordinance limits the number of taxicab licenses issued by Hightstown to five companies. It allows for each company to have an unlimited number of taxis within the borough a change from a previous draft of the ordinance, which had limited the number to 20 taxis allowed within borough limits at one time.
Last month it was Mayor Steven Kirson casting the tie breaking “yes” in favor of the measure which introduced the proposed ordinance after a disagreement between council members over the number of cabs and minimum insurance requirement for companies.
Councilwoman Gail Doran still had the same concern with the ordinance which was the bidding process and this would affect her vote and had her leaning towards ‘no’ vote.
”I have brought this up before,” Ms. Doran said. “I am concerned with the bidding process for additional licenses.”
”From the point of view of the taxis, there is no boundary between Hightstown and East Windsor,” Ms. Doran said.
”My determination is that it does not represent a substantial change that substantially alters the substance in the ordinance should we chose to remove that,” said Frederick Raffetto, borough attorney.
Ms. Doran made a motion to amend the ordinance to eliminate the bidding process provision for any licenses that exceed the limit of five and council voted and it was approved in a 5-1 vote with Mr. Thibault voting against it.
The floor was opened up for the public to express concerns and their thoughts regarding the ordinance.
Police Director James Le Tellier was asked again about how it was determined that five companies was the right number for Hightstown and he noted again that it came from the original ordinance that failed. He also noted that some of the taxi cab companies are in the process of merger at this time.
”My recommendation is to keep the five,” Mr. Le Tellier said. Mr. Le Tellier noted things to be aware of that the taxi cab drivers will have when they are licensed.
”We issue a secure item now that cannot be counterfeited,” Mr. Le Tellier said. “They have holograms built into them. Everything will be verified before they can be issued.”
Before getting in your next taxi, be sure you check for the following as owners and drivers are expected to display both the vehicle license and driver’s taxi license.The taxi cabs will have their taxi cab license on display before people can get into their taxis. The driver has to display his taxi license so people know that it has been certified by the police department and on the outside of the cab with be a sticker with a number, and must have a motor vehicle check by the police department, according to Mr. Le Tellier.
”With all those things put in place, I’m very confident that drivers will then be operating a vehicle that will comply with the law,” Mr. Le Tellier said.
Drivers must have a New Jersey drivers license. If they are a legal alien they must have a legal worker’s permit issued by the federal government and go through a criminal background check. If they had previous convictions and crimes then they cannot receive a license, according to Mr. Le Tellier.
”My goal is that the cabs become good citizens in town,” said Keith LeProvost of Hightstown. “I’m not against the cabs, I want them to be good citizens. But when people claim there’s a language barrier, or they hope things will go away, it doesn’t work for me. We all have to live together.”
Mayor Kirson noted that if a company receives numerous complaints that they will be reviewed and it will be a reason for them to lose their license.
”If there are circumstances that major, please make sure that those incidents are reported to the police department,” said Mayor Kirson.
”On behalf of everyone in the community I really want to say thank you,” said Ana Pazmino of East Windsor and a member of Unidad Latina en Acción in Hightstown.
”We’ve worked one-on-one and I really feel like this is an issue that needed the community involvement, and we hope that we can also keep on working with this. There’s some other issues, too, that I think that are part of the community. We want to avoid the racism, we want to avoid to taking sides.”
”This is about working with the community,” Ms. Pazmino said. “People change. It’s a process.”
Juan Chuisaca, a Hightstown resident and an owner of the Yellow Cab East Windsor, took the opportunity to thank the council for listening and the police director for working with the cab owners and for the bringing community concerns to them so they could fix the issues after a resident just voiced some concerns.
”We need to hear concerns of the community as well as we need to know what are the things we need to follow, just to make sure we do everything right,” said Mr. Chuisaca.
”I think all the members on council have been very helpful,” Mr. Chuisaca said.
”I can’t thank you enough for being patient with me and to make changes for the good community and for ourselves, too,” Mr. Chuisaca said. “So far we are doing a lot of good things.”
On a vote of 5-1, the council also passed the final reading of an ordinance designating locations for three taxicab stands in the borough. Mr. Thibault voted against it.
According to the ordinance, three locations in the borough, which will now have taxi stands:
The intersection of Railroad Avenue and Rogers Avenue.
The intersection of Broad Street and Franklin Street.
Stockton Street in the cut-out by Railroad Avenue on the south side.
No more than one taxicab from the same owner’s company is permitted to be parked, or to otherwise occupy, the same taxi stand at the same time, so that they are basically not bumping each other out and crowding one particular owner, according to the ordinance.
