Online discussion boards

This blog is an experiment for us as a City--how can we provide interesting, useful information to our residents in an innovative format? One that welcomes feedback and adds something extra to the presentation? This is an important communication strategy for us. Along those same lines, our Community Development department has started using online discussion boards to gather input from residents about various issues. The first discussion board revolved around the Comprehensive Plan our City has been in the process of revising and adopting this year. The newest discussion board is more general and seeks comments, questions, and opinions on a variety of City-related subjects. It asks residents to weigh in on subjects like small business assistance; free wireless Internet in West Des Moines; your opinions on our new housing stock and the ordinances related to it; your feelings on street design and the importance of function and aesthetics. It even asks for suggestions for names for the future Highway 5 and Southwest Connector. Informal polls will be featured on this site, and residents will have the chance to ask their own questions or suggest discussion forums they'd like to see addressed.

I think this is a great move toward involving you more in our City processes and decisions. While it's impossible to get a vote or solicit input from everyone on every issue, we can open up these kinds of gateways for citizen interaction and involvement. Please take a look at this discussion board and provide your opinions, or comment here with other kinds of issues you would like to see discussed.

Where do street names come from?

Street names have many origins. If a street is an extension of an existing road or is in general alignment with a road, it inherits the existing name. For example, even though it is impossible to drive continuously on Cody Dr, if you are on a segment of Cody Dr, you know that you are south of Ashworth and north of EP True.

Developers also get to suggest three possible street names for each road. It is City policy not to duplicate street names within the Westcom dispatch area (there are almost 1000 street names already in Westcom!) Fun fact: there are over 50 variations of streets using the word “wood.” After the addressing administrator views the developer's list, she cross references it to the Westcom database and eliminates any duplicate or similar sounding names.

Where is the North South Line? The N/S is an imaginary line that divides the City. It starts at 1st and Railroad but because our streets are in the grid pattern, the line shifts over several landmarks throughout the City. Jordan Creek Town Center actually serves as the N/S line! The line is the point at which the 100 block of the grid meets. At the line, the addresses get bigger going north and bigger going south. South of the line, all streets running north/south have an “S” prefix to distinguish them from the north/south roads located north of the line. Basically, it serves as a line to directionally split the city so you only have half as much land to cover when you know the address. At 105th Street, the North/South Line will be moved to I-80 to follow that indefinitely. Fairly soon, all new North/South streets in WDM will have a “S” prefix because our line is located in the north portion of our planning boundaries.

Where do the address numbers come from? All numbers mean something and they are not difficult to decode! The entire City is overlaid with a grid that serves as a guide to the number part of the address. The grid flexes and adjusts constantly. Addresses on East/West roads are assigned based on where they proportionately fit in between numbered streets. For example, you know the fictional address of 8826 Mills Civic Pkwy is west of 88th Street and east of 92nd St (addresses get bigger as they move west). Because it is an EVEN number, you also know it's on the SOUTH side of the road (this is true all over the City).

Even utilities get addresses! The electric company needs service addresses for certain utility boxes—most commonly, traffic signal boxes. We have reserved the first and last two digits in the block for utilities (because traffic signal box = intersection = the change of a block) xx00, xx01, xx98, xx99 are reserved utilities so technically there will be no more 4200 Mills Civic Parkways (the City Hall address) unless we can guarantee there will never be an intersection at that location.

So what can you tell about a location by its address? Take 5101 Mills Civic Pkwy. You know this is a utility address because the last two digits are 01; you know it is on the west side of 51st street because it is a bigger number than 5100; you know it is on the north side of Mills Civic because it's an odd number. So those four numbers pinpoint an exact location at the intersection where the address for this utility box is.

This is one example of how something we take for granted is actually a product of a well thought-out, planned, and carefully carried out process. Our Addressing team in the City does a a great job of ensuring that everything runs smoothly, and handles any "bumps in the road" that may come up along the way!

Record Water Usage

On Sunday (June 18) West Des Moines set a new record for gallons of water used. The City used 15.13 million gallons of water that day alone. Our previous high was 13.85 million gallons, but we have been breaking that as we go along in June. More than 14 million gallons have been used on average every day this month. Last year, our average water usage was 7 million gallons a day. It's not uncommon for the high for any year to approximately double the average of the year, but setting a record this early in the season is very unusual--hopefully with the rain and some cooler temperatures the numbers will taper back off. But given this usage, numbers for July and August could skyrocket! Our City has a 21 million gallon capacity for any given day.

Farmer's Market Thursdays in VJ

Don't let the missing sun keep you away from the Farmer's Market down in Valley Junction tonight. The band at Music in the Junction is Jonny & The Rectifiers and it's still hot enough for a snow cone or lemonade! The Farmer's Market is a great way for people from all reaches of our community to get together, sample new foods and peruse new shops, share stories, and celebrate the old and new in West Des Moines. For a listing of special events in Valley Junction, including the Farmer's Market and their schedule of bands, visit this site.

National Safety Month

June is National Safety Month and I invite you all to celebrate your right and responsibility to be free from danger, harm or injury! Safety is an issue we often take for granted in our day to day lives. We have come to expect it, especially at work—to anticipate that our work environments are safe and free from danger. At our City offices, this expectation--and our continued assurance of well-being--is due in large part to our Citywide Safety Committee. Since its inception, the goal of this committee—made up of a coalition of management and non-management employees from all city departments and Water Works—has been to identify and remediate hazards in the workplace.

A Job Hazard Analysis was completed on all jobs within the City. With this information, comprehensive citywide policies and written programs were developed and implemented. This process involved hundreds of hours outside of the committee members’ regular tasks, but has created a program that empowers all employees to have the safest work environment possible. Committee members continue to review and work to improve the program. By becoming educated through the safety awareness training and fully participating in the City’s safety programs, employees help maintain a high level of workplace safety. The benefits of this participation are twofold: 1) We all go home healthy and uninjured at the end of the day; and 2) we experience fewer injuries and fewer lost work hour expenses are incurred. It is truly a win-win situation for our City and our taxpayers.

There are also City officials working to make sure that YOU, our residents (and "daytime residents"), are safe at work. Our Building Inspection Division is responsible for ensuring safe building environments and the structural integrity of buildings in West Des Moines. City inspectors review construction project plans for compliance with the City's codes and ordinances and conduct on site inspections to monitor the security of actual construction. To see the different objectives of our Building Inspection Division, and how they monitor compliance, visit HERE!

WDM Accident Analysis for 2005

Both public safety calls for service and reports involving accidents in West Des Moines decreased from 2004 to 2005. Reports involving property damage increased, while injury reports decreased. The percent change per type of accident and top ten locations for accident reports are represented below.

Percent Change Per:
Calls for Service: -19.0%
Accident Reports: -2.9%
Property Damage Reports: -2.9%
Injury Reports: -12.5%
Fatality: 300% (up from one to four)
Car vs. Deer: 2.7%
Hit/Run Property Damage: 2.2%

Top Ten Locations for Reportable Accidents
1. 2000 I-35 (Mile Marker 69): 24 reports
2. 101 Jordan Creek Parkway: 19 reports
3. 1000 Jordan Creek Parkway (Ashworth Rd): 17 reports
4. 3500 University Avenue: 16 reports
5. 1 Ashworth Road (1st St): 15 reports
6. 1500 I-35: 13 reports
7. 1700 Grand Avenue: 12 reports
7. 2200 I-235: 12 reports
7. 5405 Mills Civic Parkway: 12 reports
7. 1600 50th Street (Westown Parkway): 12 reports

The number of calls and number of reportable accidents vary significantly at each location because reports are only made in the case of personal injury, hit and run, or damage estimated above $1,000; multiple calls can be received for the same accident; and sometimes the parties involved exchange information and move on before a police officer can arrive at the scene. Therefore, the locations with the most reports are not necessarily the locations with the most accident calls. For more information about a particular intersection, take a look at the Accident Reports link on the Police Department’s section of the City of West Des Moines website under “For Residents."

Major sources of accident reports appear to be inattentiveness in large parking lots where people are not careful when backing up, icy conditions at 2000 I-35 (Mile Marker 69), and drivers failing to yield the right of way at major intersections. Among other things, our Police Department has plans to increase information to the public about parking lot driving and safe progression through intersections and improve communication with the Department of Transportation to ensure proper road treatment during and after winter storms.