WDM Named Best Municipal Recycling Program

Bret Hodne, Public Works Superintendent

Last Wednesday evening the Metro Waste Authority held it's annual Awards Recognition Dinner. At this event, the City of West Des Moines, represented by our Public Works department, was acknowledged for it's outstanding efforts in the area of recycling, and took home the award for Best Municipal Recycling Program. Public Works Superintendent Bret Hodne explained the award and the City's efforts to recycle at the subsequent Council meeting on Monday.


Best Municipal Recycling Award

Throughout the City buildings, employees recycle over one ton of materials per month. This includes not only paper but scrap metal, toner cartridges, motor oil and batteries. The MWA considers our strong "buy recycled" program one worth imitating. We were also recognized for the waste prevention practices of making double-sided copies, using reusable interoffice envelopes, reusing packaging containers and keeping mailing lists updated. The fact that each new employee's orientation includes an emphasis on recycling and how to do it was mentioned as well. Our Public Works building maintenance staff takes care of all our paper recycling and our mechanics do the oil.

We have a strong commitment to recycling and the efforts of our employees show it. They should be commended for their efforts.

WDM Maintains AAA Bond Rating

I'm pleased to announce that our Standard and Poor’s bond rating--upgraded to AAA last March--has been affirmed by the rating service and remains at the highest level possible. You can read our official City announcement of the rating here. I'm very proud of our elected body, staff, and the community for having the right priorities and making the kind of decisions necessary to get us here. Maintaining a AAA bond rating ensures us a direct savings in interest paid on the City's bonds. It demonstrates the confidence Standard and Poor's and Wall Street have in our City.

The upgrade was based on several things: continued strong management of the city’s high growth rate; strong management of the city’s financial position; participation and access to the larger Des Moines area economy; and economic indicators that compare favorably with state and national averages. Our ability to handle debt through the self-supporting use of tax increment financing (TIF) is also an important factor in the management of our explosive growth here in the City.

We are one of fewer than 100 cities in the nation to receive and maintain an AAA bond rating from Standard and Poor's. I'd like to personally thank the business community that continues to see West Des Moines as an attractive place to locate and expand, as well as our City Council members who have the foresight to envision a financially strong community that is not afraid to take on the challenges of growth. This is interesting to keep in mind as construction season takes off, and you will see many areas of our City start to take new shape. I hope you will find our new development as exciting as I do!

Learnapalooza 2006!

Thanks to all our City volunteers (we had over 50 this year!) for your excellent work at Learnapalooza on April 1. We had 2800 people come through the doors! This year we had City displays from Human Services, Community Development, Public Works, the Fire Department, and Water Works in the Wacky Walkway at Valley Southwoods. We also have several pieces of Public Works equipment, an EMS ambulance, and fire trucks available for viewing and sitting in outside the school. Our Police Department had a Fit Station for car seat installations in addition to Safety Town at the Gym Jamboree. Parks and Recreation also set up great events for the kids in the gym. In addition to other activities, the Library helped out with Bingo for Books and hand imprinting. I'm very pleased that we have so many employees in the City willing to give up a Saturday to participate in this kind of event. It's a great opportunity for us to educate our residents about what we do and why we do it.

Spring/Summer WDM Magazine Available!

You should have received Issue 9 of the WDM Magazine at your residence this week--if not, we have extra copies at City Hall. Among many other stories, the magazine describes recent mixed use developments in West Des Moines and those planned for the near future. This is a unique opportunity for us to provide you with some insight into what certain areas of West Des Moines will look like in the future. You can even glimpse a couple of site plans and architectural drawings of future developments. In addition to that information, you can see a diagram of the technology we use in our West Des Moines Police squad cars and an explanation of how that technology is used. As always, our Parks and Recreation department has included an insert that will serve as a guide to all of our spring/summer programming, and the Public Library and Human Services department describe their offerings as well. These are just a few examples of the City information that awaits you in the WDM magainze--all our departments have contributed to make interacting with the City and benefiting from our services easier for you! Feel free to let me know what you might like to see in the magazine in the future!

New Public Safety Station

The City Council has awarded contracts for construction for the new public safety facility to be located at 8050 Mills Civic Parkway. The basment area has been dug and footings are expected to be poured in the upcoming weeks--the recent rain has delayed our progress a little! Rochon Corporation was awarded the largest number of contracts with other contractors obtaining construction packages, based on their specialties. The bid packages totals $3,981,889 which is approximately 2.3% under what we budgeted for the station. Watch for progress at the site. I will try to provide pictures as it develops. Construction estimates identify a target completion of early 2007.