Some changes are coming to the transportation system in Dallas County, though the details of the transition are currently unknown.

For more than a decade, the County has had contracted services with Heart of Iowa Regional Transportation Authority (HIRTA) to help with general transportation services. Since the original agreement was made, however, HIRTA has moved to being the direct provider for each of the counties they serve, including Story, Marion, Boone, Warren, and Jasper. Dallas and Madison counties were the only holdouts still in contracted services, which the HIRTA Board recently voted to change. Dallas County Supervisor Kim Chapman, who serves as the County’s representative on the Board, was the lone dissenting vote on the motion.

The action will take effect on July 1st of this year, and between now and then the Supervisors will need to figure out how it will impact other County operations, namely Homecare Services. Homecare currently operates the transportation services in Dallas County, though they use and maintain the HIRTA vehicles. As HIRTA takes over the services completely, Chapman says the current drivers will need to apply to work for HIRTA, and it will also affect the funding Homecare receives in the coming fiscal year. It’s also unknown exactly how the direct provider services will function, as the Supervisors have said they will not support subsidizing the cost of running HIRTA.