Lisa Hlavinka | The Gazette

WADSWORTH — The city hasn’t had a taxi service since the 1980s, but that changed this week.

Following months of talks and City Council changing outdated ordinances, Rain Tree Cab Service opened Monday at 774 Broad St.

It’s the first taxi service in Wadsworth in two decades, Ward 3 Councilman John Sharkey said.

The 24-hour company will serve all Medina County and is insured and licensed to provide transportation in a 200-mile radius, meaning drivers can take passengers to Cleveland-Hopkins International, Akron-Canton and Columbus airports, President and CEO Jim Whitmer said.

Halley Rain Tree Cab Service opened Monday in Wadsworth. In addition to providing taxi service, the company offers non-emergency medical transportation and has limousines for special occasions. (Lisa Hlavinka | Gazette)

Rain Tree Cab Service also is authorized to provide non-emergency medical transport within a 200-mile radius, he said.

“In addition to being a taxi cab service, we’re also a non-emergency medical transport service,” he said.

Thus far, the company has contracted with at least two social service organizations to provide transportation to local hospitals. Whitmer said non-emergency medical transport also is available to private citizens.

Being a rural cab firm, Rain Tree also has the ability to provide a delivery service, which is popular with senior citizens needing groceries in the company’s locations in Wooster and Orrville, Whitmer said.

Rain Tree owners were in talks to open the business for four months, but Council had to amend several antiquated ordinances first, Sharkey said.

“What happened was legislation was passed years and years ago, and the language was so obsolete, nobody could comply with it today,” he said.

Council voted to amend the ordinances during a June 24 special meeting.

One obsolete ordinance, which Sharkey described as written in “horse and buggy days,” stated the police chief had to personally inspect each taxi cab once per month. Another said any item left behind in the cab would have to be turned over to police and the company would have to fill out a report.

“Even if we found a children’s mitten or a lighter, we would have to turn it in, take it to the police department and write a written report,” Whitmer said.

The police department will do its own background checks on drivers in addition to the local background check and drug test that Rain Tree does before hiring an applicant, Whitmer said.

The company’s building currently houses four employees from Wooster who will train new hires. Whitmer, who said business usually picks up during the winter months, expects to hire between 30 and 40 people and hopes the Wadsworth location will eventually be “100 percent local.”

The company has about 40 vehicles at all its locations, including four-door cars, handicap-accessible vans and limousines.

Sharkey said the service might help lower driving while intoxicated offenses.

“With DWIs, if a person is out at a bar, and thinks they drank too much, they can call a cab,” he said. “I don’t know the rates, but a cab has to be cheaper than a DWI, and a lot less embarrassing.”

Rain Tree Cab Service can be reached by calling (330) 335-1212.

Contact Lisa Hlavinka at (330) 721-4048 or lhlavinka@ohio.net.