Vicksburg’s lone taxi service has made its last stop and parked its cars, the company’s owner said — leaving many outside the reach of NRoute without transportation and city officials scrambling to find ways to fill the gap.

J 5 Cab Company ended service effective Monday largely because of the combined effect of insurance coverage required by the city and the peak-time success of the mini-bus transportation system on its financial state, owner Tameka Butler said.

Its closure leaves the city without cabs for the first time in more than 75 years.

“The city took over at least half of our day business,” Butler said, referring to NRoute’s beginnings as a city department in 2006. A commission independent from city took over in a year.

“Then, it’s extremely high insurance,” Butler said, adding monthly costs to insure three to five sedans ran $3,300 to $5,500.

Regulations enacted in 2003 strengthened insurance requirements for taxi companies operating in Vicksburg. Minimum liability insurance was raised to $75,000 for injury or death and $150,000 for each accident and for damage to property.

“It put me at a disadvantage,” said Butler, whose father, James Buie, ran the company in Marcus Bottom under the J&B name until his shooting death in 2007. Butler, 30, said she would like to keep the company going, but can’t afford it.

“I tried to keep the company going for my father’s sake,” Butler said. “I apologize to my customers. It’s going to put a hurt on disabled customers.”

Municipal law allows the city to license vehicles for hire, making it illegal to charge riders without a city permit. Butler believes some business had been siphoned off in recent months by older drivers in unmarked cabs who charge riders.

“It’s usually older drivers who have driven for years and know who goes where,” Butler said.

Vicksburg police Lt. Bobby Stewart said he’s had no reports of unlicensed cabs, adding the police department  inspects taxis for ordinance compliance.

Though NRoute’s nine buses cover much of the city, just three stops are made beyond — River Region Medical Center on U.S. 61 North, Hinds Community College’s Vicksburg campus on Mississippi 27 and the intersection of Paxton Road and Abraham Drive, all within about a mile from municipal lines.

Mary Clemons is a frequent rider in J 5’s cabs in the three weeks she’s lived in Vicksburg after a move from Mesquite, Texas. She lives a mile and a half from the bus system’s stop on Indiana Avenue.

“It’s a ways walking and I can’t do that,” said Clemons, who used taxi service for grocery visits and taking a 24-year-old son with Down’s Syndrome to the doctor.

“What are people going to do that don’t have transportation?” Clemons said.

The company’s closing was greeted with surprise by NRoute officials.

“We didn’t expect this,” commission member Gertrude Young said, adding the system’s 12-hour run time during weekdays misses those who work late-night shifts, particularly at the area’s casinos. “We might have to extend our hours because a lot of people work from 3 to 11.”

Executive director Evelyn Bumpers said a survey is under way with the Bolivar County Council On Aging, which included Warren County in its Delta-based rural transportation system in 2006, to provide transportation up to 7 miles outside Vicksburg city limits.  The survey involves reaching potential riders outside the city and action is expected during the 2009-10 fiscal year.

“It’s something we were working on before (J5’s closing),” Bumpers said. “But, we haven’t worked out the kinks yet.”

NRoute ridership has stayed above 4,500 since December 2008, six months after three buses were added to the fleet. It currently operates weekdays from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., except holidays, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. On Wednesday, the commission said it was OK for $668,098 in federal stimulus money to purchase two, 25-passenger buses, one 40-passenger bus, two downtown trolleys and $50,000 in shop materials.

Its success has not deterred the need to help out small entrepreneurs in the city, Mayor Paul Winfield said.

“I’m not shocked, but it’s the first time I’ve heard that,” Winfield said of the cab company’s demise. “It’s tough for small businesses right now.”

Winfield said he wants to hire “a seasoned economic developer” within the city’s Planning Department, adding such an arrangement would differ from the department’s prior structure in that multiple developers would be attracted to help grow small businesses instead of honing in on a selected few.

Whether cab ventures can survive in any governmental climate is usually determined by the insurance market, said Bill Williams, who operated Red Top Taxi Service in the years leading up to the city’s beefed-up taxi insurance regulations.

“I just didn’t want to participate in it because the insurance is just so high,” Williams said.

Until this week, except for a brief absence during 1998-99, at least one taxicab service had operated in Vicksburg since the early 1930s. J&B first appeared in city directories for cab companies in 2000. Five companies were in business at various times from the 1940s to mid-1960s. They were Rocket Cab, Safeway Cab Company, Veterans Cab Company of Vicksburg, Service Cab Company and Yellow Cab.

Red Top, J&B, Rocket and Veterans operated in Vicksburg in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Permits for Red Top and Rocket were revoked in June 2003 for noncompliance with safety checks and proof of insurance, as the city’s taxicab ordinance took effect. Veterans ceased operations in 1998.

Williams sued the city in chancery court and in federal court, saying input from existing cab companies was shrugged off when the rules were enacted. The federal case was dismissed in 2004.

Joseph E. Williams, operator of Rocket Cab, declined comment when reached.

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Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com