Pahrump Valley Times

On Monday, the phone number for Pahrump Valley Taxi, 727-TAXI 727-8294 was answered by a dispatcher again.

The only taxi service in Pahrump has been back in operation for a week, said owner Jit Mann. Service was terminated in late May, when Mann told the Pahrump Valley Times he didn’t have a crystal ball, but predicted service would resume in a month after some restructuring.

But Mann wasn’t happy about the negative publicity since the closure, especially claims by former assistant manager Julie Powers that he wouldn’t be able to resurrect the service in a month. She referred the newspaper to an Internet posting about Mann’s filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2010. There were concerns it would take time for a new operator to get certified by the Nevada Transportation Authority.

“We are open for the last week and I’m suing your company for printing unsubstantiated news,” Mann said angrily on Monday. “We are open and operational. We never had been in trouble. These were the disgruntled employees.”

In the first article on the taxi service closure, Mann alluded to filing theft charges against an employee. Those charges have yet to be filed, he said Monday.

Mann expressed his displeasure with the Pahrump Valley Times and called a newspaper reporter “an idiot.”

A dispatcher at Pahrump Valley Taxi said she has been busy answering calls for service. She said Powers is no longer with the company.

Cab driver Mike McManus said they began taking passengers again last Thursday. For now there is only one cab operating per 12-hour shift with another driver available on standby, but McManus said they expect to get back up to two cabs by this Friday when business will pick up again.