Energy Star Challenge

The City is participating in the federal government's ENERGY STAR Challenge and is encouraging local businesses and organizations to do the same. The ENERGY STAR Challenge is a national call-to-action to improve the energy efficiency of America's commercial and industrial buildings by 10 percent or more. Read about the Energy Star Challenge and see what the City's SASS (Striving After Sustainable Solutions) team is up to on our website. We are encouraging local businesses to take the challenge as well, and we will put those participation certificates up on our website.

Our application for Energy Efficiency and Block Grant funding from the US Department of Energy includes steps to help get us toward that 10% goal. That application is currently being reviewed. See what we applied for and what we hope to do to make the city more energy efficient.

To establish a baseline for this goal, the SASS team requested that MidAmerican Energy conduct audits on our thirteen largest city facilities. Audits have been completed for nine of the facilities. The other four - City Hall, Public Works, the Law Enforcement Center, and the Library - are undergoing a more extensive audit. By working through MidAmerican Energy, we are able to reap greater rebates from MidAmerican for any changes we make. I encourage local businesses to see how MidAmerican can help in evaluating and recommending changes for facilities through their BusinessCheck program- there are links on the SASS pages of our website for that too.

If you are a West Des Moines business that is making sustainable changes or using sustainable practices, let us know! We plan to promote any best practices out there.

Census 2010 Plans Well Underway

It's hard to believe, but the Census Bureau is already gearing up for the 2010 Census. The Census is mandated by the Constitution and participation is required by law, but response rates are still low in some areas of the country. In the 2000 census, Iowa had the nation's highest response rate at 76% (in our area, Polk County had 74%, Dallas County had 76%, and Warren County had 77%). This year the Census Bureau is hoping to boost that rate by giving everyone the same 10-question survey, among the shortest surveys since the first Census in 1790. Beginning in mid-March 2010, more than 120 million questionnaires will be delivered to U.S. residential addresses. The Census Bureau has also announced that more than 13 million questionnaires will be bilingual (English - Spanish) for the first time.

As you can imagine, preparing for and conducting the Census is an enormous project. Last spring, Census Bureau workers walked every street in the nation to match actual residential addresses with those provided in lists from the U.S. Postal Service and local governments. The Census Bureau has reported that it will hire nearly 1.4 million people to conduct the 2010 Census, including follow up with households that do not return their mailed questionnaire.

The City of West Des Moines is assisting in this year's Complete Count campaign by helping to identify and organize resources for the Census Bureau and by promoting completion of Census 2010 by our residents. It is certainly to our benefit to have every resident of West Des Moines - and Iowa - counted, as population is a common criteria for financial assistance, grant funding, and representation in federal government.