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Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority (DART) General Manager Brad Miller went in front of the Polk County Board of Supervisors last week to ask for a $1.6 million loan that would help cover foreseeable payouts on lawsuits associated with five pedestrian accidents that occurred within the past 16 months. The board denied the request.

However, alternative plans for the funding were presented during the meeting, one of which included route modifications that would reduce ridership by nearly 1.3 million riders and save DART approximately $1.2 million annually. Other alternatives that Miller presented included structured settlements, which Miller said DART’s legal counsel strongly opposed, property tax increases, which the Board of Supervisors strongly opposed, or a private bank loan, which Miller said would be difficult to obtain because “our limit is fairly tight because our building is our main collateral and the building is close to 30 years old.”

Miller said DART realized the minimum amount of private loans it could obtain when it received a bank loan to purchase bulk fuel. “Because the fuel is low now, we have gone out to the private commercial market and gotten a loan” to buy bulk amounts of fuel.

Miller said, “it’s incumbent upon us to come up with a solution. We are certainly going to turn over every stone, whether we work with private banks, whether it’s a combination of things with service reduction. … We need to move forward and keep doing this important planning.”