A Taxi gets a competitor

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It appears that A Taxi/Hudson Taxi will no longer be the only cab company operating in Hudson.

On Monday night, the City Council approved a license for Kilimanjaro Taxi to operate in Hudson.

The company operated by Elijah Omweno is now based in Menomonie.

Doug Luchsinger, president of the A Taxi/Hudson Taxi company that has served Hudson for the past 19 years, asked the council to deny a license to Kilimanjaro Taxi in a public hearing on the company’s license application that preceded the regular council meeting.

Luchsinger said there wasn’t enough business in Hudson for another cab company. He said his company averages 20 calls a day, with the busiest times being at bar closing early Saturday and Sunday mornings.

But during the council’s discussion on the Kilimanjaro application, Alderman Randy Morrissette II said he believed Hudson could use another cab company.

Morrissette said that when he was managing a local motel, guests sometimes had trouble get a cab to come pick them up.

Mayor Dean Knudson and other council members also expressed the opinion that the city shouldn’t be in the business of regulating competition.

Knudson said the city’s extensive ordinance regulating taxis needs to be re-written.

Tags: news, hudson, city_council, taxi