Let's Catch Up! July '26

BUDGET WOES; YOUR INPUT WELCOMED

As you’ve probably read or heard, the Iowa State Legislature passed new property tax laws this spring that force Des Moines and other Iowa cities to trim budgets for fiscal year 2027-28. The Des Moines City Council faces the daunting task of cutting $12 million from our General Fund.

David Derong, a communications team member from the City Manager’s Office, has developed a nifty Budget Savings Calculator for residents to weigh in on priorities. We welcome your thoughts on how to prioritize options.

Results will be tabulated after July 31. The current timetable calls for a September 14 City Council vote on the path forward. So far, through July 13, more than 1,000 residents have completed the survey.

Two notes:

• Cost savings need to total at least $12 million before you hit the Send button.

• At the end of the survey, there’s a field to enter your additional thoughts or suggestions. Or, email me.

EYE-OPENER TOUR AT WASTEWATER PLANT

It finally happened: As one of three City Council members representing Des Moines on the board of the Wastewater Reclamation Authority (WRA), I got my long-awaited tour of the agency’s facility at 3000 Vandalia Road a couple of weeks ago. There, 124 full-time City employees manage wastewater for about 600,000 Central Iowans.

Led by WRA training specialist Craig Hennager, our group of three Council members and a Polk County representative toured quite a bit of the 125-acre facility and walked beside some incredible motors—some as big as 2,000 horsepower. That’s Craig gesturing in the photo above, as we viewed the WRA’s final effluent (cleaned water) heading into the Des Moines River.

It processes 67 million gallons daily (2025 average) for 18 member communities, counties, and sanitary sewer districts. That’s a lotta water, equivalent to 102 Olympic-size pools. Every freakin’ day.

The WRA also captures about 1,4000 MMBtu (million British thermal units) of natural gas every day and sells it directly to a third party. That’s roughly the equivalent of what 5,500 Des Moines homes use daily.

The WRA owns one of the few Iowa facilities that provide liquid-hauled waste disposal services to industrial, commercial, and agricultural waste producers. WRA deputy director James Beck told me about 70 liquid hauled waste trucks pay a fee to empty daily at the site.

Finally, a WRA crew annually applies about 4,000 truckloads of biosolids (nutrient-rich organic material) to 2,500–3,500 acres of nearby Central Iowa farmland.

The WRA schedules group tours. Learn how yours can participate.

NEW HOME RISES AT ARTS FESTIVAL

A swarm of 150 volunteers logged more than 600 hours to build a new Greater Des Moines Habitat for Humanity home during this year’s Des Moines Arts Festival. It’s the eighth time Habitat has organized a home construction as part of the arts festival in the Western Gateway Park.

As the arts festival wrapped up on June 28, the 1,200-square-foot home built at Locust and Twelfth streets was trucked to East 11th Street and placed on a basement foundation. In the coming weeks, another legion of volunteers will complete plumbing, heating, drywall, and painting.

Jenna Ekstrom, Habitat’s executive vice president for strategy, told me the house should appraise for about $245,000. Habitat offers an affordable mortgage program, allowing the owner to pay no more than 30 percent of monthly income.

A single mom, an Amazon employee, has completed Habitat’s homeownership program and plans to move in with her four children in mid-November.

SPRUCING UP INGERSOLL AVENUE

Eileen Jayjack, 10, chalks sidewalk flowers June 21 in front of the Star Lofts at 2701 Ingersoll Avenue as part of the Avenues of Ingersoll & Grand’s Art on the Avenues week. Behind her, Cat Rocketship and Dani Awesome created the Nothing But Flowers mural. Brianne Sanchez, Eileen’s mom, chairs the Avenue’s arts and culture committee, which sprinkled seven events throughout the weeklong celebration.

On June 22, a second mural, History Has Eyes On You, by Mollie Wallace, was dedicated at the Vogue Vision parking lot, 2405 Ingersoll Avenue. June 25, a DART art bus shelter with Karen Strohbeen’s design was dedicated at 2510 Ingersoll Avenue.

NEW LADDER TRUCK FOR STATION 6

Des Moines Fire Chief Jonathan Lund, left, and District Chief Devon Sadler push a new ladder truck into Fire Station 6 during a July 6 ceremony.

The new, 75-foot truck is sometimes called a “quint” truck that combines five tasks: an onboard water pumper, a 300-gallon water tank, hoses, aerial ladder, and ground ladders. Improvements on the new truck include cameras on the outriggers, allowing the Station 6 firefighters to quickly spot the truck and then safely begin climbing the ladder in about 90 seconds.

Maybe all that is why the new truck, ordered in 2024, cost $1.76 million—twice as much as the 2018 vehicle it replaced.

Chief Lund noted that the 2018 truck responded to more than 20,000 calls and logged more than 106,000 miles. It becomes a backup truck when one of the 11 Des Moines stations has a truck in the maintenance shop.

The push-in tradition takes its cue from 1800s-era fire stations, with horse-drawn equipment. After detaching the horses, the firefighters pushed the equipment into the cartroom stall, the old-school name for where crews parked horse-drawn carts.

Chief Lund expects the next push-in of new equipment will celebrate the delivery of seven new ambulances (total cost: $3,011,372) in late 2027.

SOAKING WET AT JORDAN PARK

Camilia Flores-Marin and her children, Edgar and Diego, enjoy the new sprayground dedicated July 2 at Jordan Park on the City’s southeast side.

The new sprayground is one of 15 that have replaced 15 traditional wading pools since 2012, Parks & Recreation assistant director Jenny Richmond told me. The City also cut ribbons this year for new spraygrounds at Sayers Park and Gray’s Lake Park.

“Our parks are currently home to 21 spraygrounds,” Jenny said. “No wading pools remain in our system, but we do offer four spray pools, which can be thought of as a combination of a sprayground and wading pool.”

Ashby, Crivaro, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Union parks have spray pools that require staffing. Spraygrounds, which require no staffing, provide longer operating hours than staffed wading pools or spray pools. Their standard operating hours are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

During Stage III of the Central Iowa Water Works Use Plan now in place, hours are reduced to either 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. or 2 to 8 p.m., depending on the location. Details.

GRAY’S LAKE WATER FOR CITY PLANTS

Des Moines Parks & Recreation employee Doug Fourst finishes filling the 350-gallon water tank on his pickup truck at a new “filling station” on the north shore of Gray’s Lake.

Parks department equipment technician Jeremy Smith “MacGyvered” a slick pump operation, so Doug and other employees can fill a tank in about five minutes. An employee pulls on a pair of waders and retrieves the pump daily.

Parks & Recreation assistant director Jenny Richmond told me crews use 5,000–16,000 gallons of Gray’s Lake water weekly, depending on watering schedules and temperatures, for new plantings, flower beds, and planters. Parks also has a cistern at its offices on East ML King Parkway that captures rooftop rainwater.

Together, the two programs reduce the department’s reliance on Des Moines Water Works drinking water supply to maintain the City’s planting investments.

DOWNTOWN LIGHT SHOW

The former Southwest First Bridge, between Principal Park and the Mullet’s restaurant, has a light array worth seeing in person.

MUSCO Sports Light of Muscatine designed the light system in the new Riverside Bridge Park as part of the $1.2 million upgrade to the bridge, built in 1937 as a vehicular bridge.

Riverside Bridge Park, the City’s first park on a bridge dedicated to pedestrians and cyclists, includes a shade structure and benches.

CITIZEN ABEL THROWS OUT FIRST PITCH

The president and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway was on the mound June 25 to throw out the first pitch following naturalization ceremonies at Principal Park.

Greg Abel, a Canadian native and Des Moines resident, was among 29 candidates from 16 countries and five continents who became U.S. citizens during the 18th annual ceremony at the ballpark.

U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Locher declared Principal Park a courtroom (worth the admission price of the I-Cubs game) and then administered the oath of office to the freshly minted citizens.

The ceremony has introduced 562 new citizens to Principal Park fans. Over the last six years, another 5,000 candidates have become citizens at non-game day ceremonies at Principal Park.

QUICK NOTES

• Gold lid recyclers. Sixty-seven Des Moines households, and counting, have earned the elite Gold Level status this year for being super recyclers. The City-wide elite total stands at 2,219. Think you’re worthy of the Gold? Here’s how to qualify.

• Treating ash trees. The City continues to treat 538 ash trees on City property to prevent emerald ash borer infestations. Public Works director Jonathan Gano told me the trees must be treated every other year. Des Moines had an estimated 167,000 ash trees before the invasion in 2016; about 47,000 were on city streets and parks. Here’s more on the ash tree treatment.

• Pet licensssssses. Did you know our City Clerk’s Office licenses snakes over 6 feet long? The office reports just two residents licensing their slither—yes, that’s what a group of snakes is commonly called. One resident holds 28 licenses. No word on leash laws.