Building Continues in WDM

While times are tough...there are bright spots. West Des Moines is still one of them.

2008 will prove to be West Des Moines' best year ever in terms of building permit valuation. In November 2008 alone, the City issued 79 permits with a total valuation of $203,351,682. That amount is higher than annual valuations for some cities and for West Des Moines in the past. Our current year-to-date valuation is $486,866,205, compared to $184,538,064 at this point in November 2007.

This year's building permit valuation is so high in part due to the two new hospitals going up in our community. These facilities will be a tremendous asset to West Des Moines and will complement the excellent system of health care we currently have in the greater metro area. There are still a favorable number of permit applicants for retail buildings, single family homes, and apartment buildings in the mix this year as well.

Restoring Youth Offenders to the Community

When a West Des Moines student between the ages of 11 and 18 commits a crime in West Des Moines, police officers may refer them to the City's Youth Justice Initiative (YJI) program instead of to the formal juvenile court system. Cases are accepted by YJI based on the seriousness of the crime, risk factors, willingness of the youth to admit wrongdoing, and the commitment of the youth's family to help implement all of the program's recommendations for the youth.

YJI bases its approach on the principles of restorative justice. The program focuses on accountability, education, and support for the youth offender and their family, which is achieved partially through ongoing community justice conferences--called "circles"--with the offender, family members, the victim, and other community stakeholders. It is important that the victims of the crime have a voice in the process and participate in the circles. Without this group's involvement, youth offenders are likely to continue to commit crimes or experience increased substance abuse, mental health issues, academic failure, family issues, risk-taking, and gang involvement. An article in the 1998 Journal of Quantitative Criminology estimates that the monetary value of saving a high-risk youth is between $1.7 to $2.3 million.

From July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008, the West Des Moines YJI program provided services for cases involving 70 youth. Nine additional youth received partial services. By the end of that fiscal year, 40 of the full service cases had closed and 30 were continuing. The breakdown of charges included:

31 Drug/Alcohol charges;
26 Theft charges;
10 Fire-related charges;
2 Burglary charges; and
1 miscellaneous criminal charge.

YJI continues to meet its goals for youth in the community. Over that same time period, 95% of juvenile offenders completed their reparation plans, including restitution and community service where appropriate. 5% of youth finished YJI unsuccessfully. 98% of youth who completed the program reported an understanding of the injuries caused by their offending. Altogether, the youth performed over 1,254 hours of community service. 87% of offenders did not re-offend during their YJI program. As of November 2008, 94% of the youth that had completed the program had not re-offended.

High risk youth in the program also showed improved risk factors. 64% of youth with high academic risk significantly improved performance based on school reports. 100% of youth with substance abuse problems maintained six consecutive months of abstinence prior to finishing the program (56% of YJI youth have significant substance abuse issues). Families also site that the Family class they take as part of YJI improves their communication and leads to positive family functioning.

You can read overall results from the last seven years of YJI on the City's website. This program is a unique and effective effort to bring our youth offenders together with their families, their victims, and other community stakeholders in order to prevent future crimes and involvement with the criminal justice system. As an attempt to help our youth offenders become functioning and contributing parts of our community, it is an overwhelming success.

Salt for any season

After months of planning and preparation by several Cities, the first salt will be delivered to our new metro salt storage facility today. The first building of the structure, the joint cities building, was recently completed. The City of Des Moines building should be complete within a couple of weeks. We will start filling today and begin using our new building immediately, as we obviously have a need for salt given the snowfall we've already seen.

The salt storage facility is a tremendous example of what can be accomplished when agencies work together for a common need. This multi-agency salt storage facility allows nine area cities to store 22,000 tons of salt at an industrial area site in Grimes. The Metro Waste Authority agreed to finance the project and to allow the agencies to utilize 10 acres of land they had purchased for a transfer station that may be constructed in the future. One of the biggest challenges that governmental agencies have faced in past winters is the lack of salt availability during peak snowfall months. Last year was particularly bad; many cities ran out of salt early in the season. This facility will allow the cities to reserve the salt they need in storage before the winter months begin, which also means we can purchase the salt when it's at its lowest price of the year, no matter when that occurs.

The first delivery of salt may attract some news coverage today, so watch for more information and a chance to view the facility yourself.

Connected Through Giving

We just wrapped up the 2008 portion of our military care package program at the City. Over the course of the year, we collected items from employees and sent care packages (using the US Postal Service military care kits) to five soldiers - one employee from our Fire Department and four immediate family members of employees who were in active combat overseas. Our employees are a generous bunch. They donated enough items right off the bat to send out several packages. One employee collected cards from her daughter's third grade class for the soldiers, which they especially liked.

Items collected during our initial care package drive earlier in 2008

I am happy to report that all of the soldiers we sent care packages to are now home, or at least back in the United States. Some are set to be re-deployed, and we will resume sending care packages to those soldiers if/when that occurs. We are also going to use some of our leftover items to send holiday packages to extended family members of employees who weren't part of the regular program, and the rest will be donated to West Des Moines Human Services. It is heartening that even in troubled economic times, people are willing to give to those in need or to those who are working honorably on our behalf.