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In this issue of Rolling with Ankeny
- 💧 The lawn-watering ban just eased
- ⚾ Hawks baseball catches fire at the right time
- 🥎 Both schools' postseason dates are set
- 🌡️ The heat warning finally lifts tonight
- 📅 Your week ahead
- ☕ Spotlight: a two-generation family cafe
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For the first time in weeks, you can legally water your lawn in Ankeny again — with a catch. Central Iowa Water Works lifted the Stage 3 ban this week, and a hot holiday weekend is landing right as the rules loosen. Let's roll. 🚲
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💧 The big one: the lawn-watering ban just eased
The mandatory ban that kept Ankeny sprinklers off all month is over. Central Iowa Water Works moved from a Stage 3 Mandatory Water Warning — a flat lawn-watering ban — down to a Stage 2 Water Alert effective July 1, meaning residential customers can water again, at reduced levels.
Here's how it works now. You're asked to water at roughly 50% and follow an even/odd schedule: no watering on Mondays (still one of the region's peak-demand days), even-numbered addresses water Sunday, Wednesday, Friday, and odd-numbered addresses water Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. The utility's guidance for businesses and government properties is coming next week.
The bigger picture hasn't changed: this is the second straight summer nitrate levels forced restrictions across a system serving more than 600,000 central Iowans, and CIWW is still asking everyone to water only when a lawn actually needs it — early morning, no sidewalks, fix the leaks. Translation: green is back on the table, just not a free-for-all.
⚾ Quick hit: Hawks baseball caught fire at the perfect time
Two weeks ago the Ankeny baseball team was mid-collapse, riding a 10-game losing skid. Now the Hawks are the team nobody in the CIML wants to see in July. Ankeny has ripped off five straight wins, including a doubleheader sweep of Dowling Catholic (11-6 and 15-6, on 28 hits) and a 6-1 clincher behind junior pitcher Hunter Minner that locked up the season series.
"The kids played hard," coach Joe Balvanz said after the turnaround began. The timing matters: peaking now is exactly what you want heading into a win-or-go-home postseason.
📍 Source: Ankeny Fanatic
🥎 Quick hit: the postseason brackets are set — here's when Ankeny plays
Both schools now know their tournament paths, and the games start next weekend.
Baseball (Class 4A substate): Ankeny Centennial (17-13) drew the No. 3 seed in Substate 4 and hosts Dallas Center-Grimes on Friday, July 10 at 7 p.m. Ankeny travels to Roosevelt in its own substate opener.
Softball (Class 5A regionals): The second-ranked Centennial Jaguars earned the top seed in Region 2 and will host their regional. The Ankeny Hawkettes drew the No. 3 seed in Region 4 and open on the road at 11th-ranked Cedar Rapids Prairie on Saturday, July 11 at 7 p.m. State tournaments loom later in the month.
📍 Source: Ankeny Fanatic — baseball pairings | softball seeds
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🌡️ Weather: the heat finally breaks
It took three extensions, but the National Weather Service's Extreme Heat Warning expires at 10 p.m. tonight — and this time it should stick, with real relief on the way early next week.
Today (Thursday): Mostly cloudy, high near 90°, with a 30% chance of showers and storms mainly between 4 and 5 p.m. Wind SSW 6–10 mph.
Tonight: Storms likely after midnight (60% chance), heaviest 1–3 a.m., with a half-inch-plus of rain possible. Low around 72°.
Friday: Partly sunny, high 91°, heat index up to 101°, a stray afternoon storm.
Independence Day (Saturday): A 50% chance of morning storms before 1 p.m., then mostly sunny, high near 90°.
The break: Highs slide back to the upper 80s — 86° Sunday, 88° Monday — with lower humidity behind the front.
And after a month off, sprinklers are back on the even/odd Stage 2 schedule (see above) — no watering Mondays.
📍 Source: NWS Des Moines forecast for Ankeny
📅 Your week ahead
A quiet holiday stretch in town, then things pick back up fast:
🏊 Beat the holiday heat: Cascade Falls and Prairie Ridge are open all summer — the obvious move for a 90°-plus Fourth. Pools & hours.
🎇 Light your own: Ankeny allows consumer fireworks July 3 (9 a.m.–10 p.m.) and July 4 (9 a.m.–11 p.m.), on your own property only. Fireworks safety.
🎶 Beats & Eats returns July 9: The free Thursday food-truck-and-music series is back at AMP (715 W. First St.), 5–7:30 p.m., with Brad and Kate, mini golf and a stacked food-truck lineup. Details.
🎪 SummerFest, July 10–12: The Chamber's signature festival takes over The District at Prairie Trail — carnival, parade, live music, capped by fireworks. Lineup.
🥎 Prep postseason, July 10–11: Centennial baseball hosts DC-G (Fri) and the Hawkettes open softball regionals at Cedar Rapids Prairie (Sat) — see above.
☕ Local Business Spotlight: Main Street Cafe & Bakery
Most family restaurants get sold off when the founders want to retire. At Main Street Cafe & Bakery, the family bought in instead — the next generation joined specifically so the founders could build a retirement plan and keep the place in the family.
Bene and John Zehr launched Main Street with Bryan and Leigha Dullard in the mid-2010s as a small cafe in a quiet corner of Ankeny. In 2017, John and Bene's daughter Brooke and her husband Ryan McCauley came on as partners to grow it. A decade later it's an 8,000-plus-square-foot operation on SW White Birch Drive with a second location downtown in the 801 Grand skywalk — and everything in the bakery case, from cookies to bars to full cakes, is made from scratch in house. The menu rotates a few times a year; regulars swear by the Turkey Bacon Avocado Melt and the Baja Rice Bowl. This week they're also selling a fully-cooked Fourth of July meal deal — smoked pork belly, sides and dot cakes for 5–6 — for holiday-weekend pickup.
The basics:
👨👩👧 Two-generation, family-owned since the mid-2010s · scratch bakery
🍽️ Ankeny: 2510 SW White Birch Dr #1,2 · open 7 days, 6 a.m.–9 p.m. · downtown DSM (801 Grand) M–F
📞 (515) 964-7141 · 🌐 mainstreetcafeandbakery.com
⚡ Today's Takeaway
The month-long sprinkler ban is over — water's back on an even/odd schedule — and one more sticky day gives way to a storm-tinged but cooler Fourth. Meanwhile, Ankeny baseball is surging into a postseason that opens next weekend.
We're off Friday for the holiday. Monday: how Ankeny's Fourth actually played out, plus the week ahead — SummerFest week, and prep postseason in full swing.
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