Public Works Week Pictures

National Public Works Week at the VJ Farmer's Market was a success! Our staff answered a lot of great questions and got excellent feedback from residents. The kids had fun with the Traffic Light Bean Bag toss and mini putt course as well. Here are some pictures from the event.

National Public Works Week

Mark your schedule now to attend a demonstration of public works services and equipment on the 300 block of 5th Street in Valley Junction on Thursday, May 25, from 4:00-7:00 pm during the Farmer's Market. In addition to games and prizes for kids, our Public Works department will be on hand (along with representatives from Metro Waste Authority and Artistic Waste) to answer any questions you may have about what they do! This celebration will take place as part of National Public Works Week, which starts May 21. This is a great chance for you to learn about an important component of our City services to you!

Thanks to everyone who came out for the National Police Week celebration last Thursday! Here are some pictures from that event.

Free food

Rock climbing

Jump House

WDM Police Officers

WDM Balanced Scorecard

The Balanced Scorecard is a performance management system we use in West Des Moines to translate strategy into tangible objectives and measures. We determine what short-term actions will facilitate the achievement of our long-term objectives, setting goals and regularly measuring our progress toward those goals. We identify our goals and measures from four different perspectives in the City: Serve Customers, Manage Financial Resources, Improve Processes, and Support Employees. This system has been great for us not only because we can track our successes and our improvement needs, but because it integrates senior management with front-line employees and connects our vision to our organizational activities. We are also constantly able to reevaluate our City strategy to provide the best services for you.

To coordinate the citywide scorecard, we created a Strategy Map that identifies the strategic themes of our organization: Planning and Community Development, Collaboration, Sustainability, Resource Management, Community Enrichment, and Community Safety. Better descriptions of these themes can be found in the Balanced Scorecard Brochure, which can be found on the www.wdm-ia.com hompage under Featured Items. These themes are used to guide our resource allocation and programming. We also designed a set of objectives for our operations that works towards our "Customer Focused" themes. The map is useful because it creates a visul representation of our strategies, how they interconnect, and their underlying purposes. A look at the brochure will lay out the activities and processes we measure--with information coming from the Citizen Survey, citizen input and complaints, bond rating agencies, internal databases, and electronic resources, among other places.

I really encourage you to take a look at our brochure. It provides a pretty good overview of our priorities as a City and a fuller picture of the services we provide. Keep in mind as you browse it that each City department has their own departmental scorecard that goes into much greater detail concerning their specific activities, goals, and measurements. The Scorecard is a tool we have used at every level in the City, and it's a great way for us to stay on top of what we do for you.

It's National Police Week!

It's National Police Week, and in celebration our Police Department will be holding its annual Open House on May 18 (this Thursday) from 5-8 PM at the Law Enforcement Center on Mills Civic Parkway. A brief schedule of events is included below. I'd encourage you to attend--free food and beverages will be served and there are many activities that will capture the interest of both children and adults. Our Police Department puts a lot of work into this event and into activities throughout the year to educate West Des Moines residents about what they do. Come join the fun!

5:00 pm Memorial Service
F-16 Flyover
WDMPD Honor Guard will present colors
Bagpipes will play
National Anthem

5:30 pm Bar-B-Q
Free hamburgers, hot dogs, hot wings, pizza, chips, beans, etc.
Jump House
Helicopters- Mercy One and Iowa Helicopter
Fatal Vision obstacle and OWI crash vehicle
Meth Lab truck
Fire and EMS vehicles
DSMPD vehicle and Police Officer
Climbing wall for children
Much more...

Main Street Iowa Award for VJ Unplugged

I attended the 19th Annual Main Street Awards ceremony on April 28 at the Marriot downtown along with Councilman Jim Sandager and representatives from the Historic Valley Junction Foundation. Our Wi-Fi (wireless Internet) project VJ Unplugged (located in the VJ historic business district) was up for an award for Best Partnership Effort Between Organizations. I’m pleased to announce that the project won this award thanks to cooperation between the City, the Foundation, Communication Designs, and our sponsors! The award is part of an Iowa Department of Economic Development program that utilizes investments by private entities to rehabilitate and purchase downtown property in 34 communities designated “Main Street Communities” in Iowa. This award speaks to the uniqueness of this project and the collaboration between employees and volunteers that made this happen.


Photos from the VJ Unplugged Wire Cutting Ceremony 10/06/2005

If you haven't had the opportunity to try out the Wi-Fi down in Valley Junction yet, I encourage you to do so. Anyone in the VJ service area--north of Railroad Avenue, south of Vine Street, west of 4th Street, and east of 6th Street--can get connected free of charge if your computer is Wi-Fi enabled. You need a computer or a personal digital assistant (PDA) equipped with a standard Internet browser and a Wi-Fi compliant wireless Ethernet card. Available since the October 6, 2005 "wire cutting" ceremony, VJ Unplugged is an exciting benefit for both the merchants on 5th Street and residents who can take their laptop down to VJ and enjoy free Internet while patronizing the shops and restaurants. If you have any basic questions about the service, please call our VJ Unplugged line at 273-0685 or email vjunpluggedhelpdesk@wdm-ia.com.