Whitefish’s taxi troubles appear to be over.

Lee Sturdevant of Kalispell has leased the Kalispell Taxi permit from the estate of former operator James Michaels and plans to have a taxi service up and running in both Whitefish and Kalispell within a week.

The state issued a one-year permit to Sturdevant on Friday.

The announcement was made Monday by state Public Service Commissioner Ken Toole, who talked about taxi issues and answered questions at a town meeting in Whitefish. Sturdevant, who worked in the aviation industry and now is retired, arrived midway through the meeting and said he hopes to have his vehicles ready within a few days.

The telephone number for the new service will be 752-4022. Sturdevant said the service will be based in Kalispell, but he intends eventually to station a vehicle in Whitefish.

Sturdevant’s service area will cover a radius of 50 air miles from the downtown Kalispell Post Office. He also will be allowed to service Lincoln and Sanders counties and can go in and out of Libby, but not within the city of Libby.

Since Sturdevant is leasing an existing permit, he’s not subject to protests by the operators of the Flathead Valley’s two other taxi permit holders: Flathead-Glacier Transportation operated by Randy Johnson and Whitefish Mountain Resort operator Winter Sports Inc.

Flathead-Glacier Transportation covers the entire county and is required to provide service in Whitefish, Toole said. Community leaders have said, however, that it has been difficult to get the provider to service Whitefish.

“If people have been told ‘no,’ I need to know about it,” Toole stressed. “A permit requires an obligation to provide service and the service has to be reasonable. I need to hear in writing if they’re not providing service.”

Winter Sports currently is not operating a taxi service with its permit.

“They could lease it,” Toole said. “I assume they don’t want” to operate a service.

When Josh and Peggy Hertlein closed their Whitefish taxi service last summer, it left a big void in the resort community.

Brian Murchie recently started a nonprofit taxi service called The Ride Guy that he plans to continue in Whitefish. It began over the holidays as a free service to shuttle bar patrons. Since then Murchie has gathered signatures from more than 500 citizens supporting him.

“We’ve got community support,” Murchie said. “We want to align our goals with Lee [Sturdevant].”

Murchie will use donations to pay for the service, and said he has many offers from businesses willing to financially support his service. The Ride Guy can be reached by cell phone at 250-7573.

A Whitefish Chamber of Commerce survey indicated about 30 local business owners would be willing to subsidize a taxi service to some degree.

Sturdevant said he also is considering a nonprofit taxi service but said “it’s a lot harder than it looks.” Nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) tax status can operate taxi services and aren’t regulated by the state.

Toole agreed, saying the taxi business in Montana “is more complicated than anyone thinks.

“We spend a surprising amount of time on taxi issues and the reality is that in Montana, they’re about people who don’t have any other alternatives,” Toole said.

Disabled people, senior citizens, tourists and bar patrons are among those who need taxi services the most, but Montana’s relatively low population even in urban areas makes it difficult to make a living with a taxi service.

“It’s not a simple business to be in,” Toole said. “It’s fairly capital-intensive. You have to buy cars, know how to organize and dispatch. Taking calls on a cell phone isn’t a very sophisticated business plan.”

The market also tends to get “diced up” by hotels and resorts that run free shuttles for their patrons and services such as Medi-Cab, which provides non-emergency medical transportation.

“That leaves you with the airport and bars,” Toole said, “and how many of us want to do bars?”

 Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com