Two Towns Want Ankeny's Ambulances

Two of Ankeny's small-town neighbors want the city's firefighters and paramedics on call when someone dials 911. On Monday night, the council took up agreements to send Ankeny Fire and EMS to Alleman and ambulance service to Elkhart — a quiet measure of how far the city's reach now extends past its own borders. Let's roll. 🚲

Monday's council agenda carried two deals that would put Ankeny's emergency crews on the hook for its neighbors. The first is a 28E agreement — Iowa's term for a shared-services contract between governments — to provide fire and emergency medical services to the City of Alleman, the small town about 10 minutes north. The second is a separate 28E agreement to provide emergency medical services to the City of Elkhart, just northeast.

Translation: when those agreements take effect, a 911 call in Alleman or Elkhart can be answered by an Ankeny rig. For two towns too small to staff full-time fire and ambulance crews of their own, leaning on a bigger, faster-growing neighbor is the practical play — and for Ankeny, it extends a service footprint that already stretches well beyond city limits.

A related item rounded out the fire theme: the council also took up a resolution updating the fee schedule for certain fire-code operational permits — the charges businesses pay for things like hazardous-materials storage and special-event permits.

One note on timing: the city had published Monday's full agenda but not the official minutes by press time, so vote tallies aren't yet on the record. We'll confirm the final results once the minutes post.

📍 Source: June 15 City Council agenda — Ankeny CivicClerk portal

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💧 A $1.5 million sewer project just hit reset. After a public hearing, the council moved to reject all the bids it received June 9 for the Deer Creek Sanitary Trunk Sewer Extension, Phase 1 — even after setting the project's official cost estimate at $1,549,885. Rejecting bids usually means the numbers came in wrong (often too high) and the city will rework and re-advertise the job rather than overpay. The pipe still gets built; it just goes back to the drawing board first. CivicClerk agenda

🎨 A mural is coming to an Uptown restroom. Among Monday's new-business items: a resolution approving a temporary fabric mural on the west side of the Ankeny Market & Pavilion restroom in Uptown, for a stretch of up to six months. It's a small, low-cost piece of the same Uptown arts push that brought the new "Music on the Trail" series to the High Trestle trailhead this month. CivicClerk agenda

🏛️ Also on the docket: final passage of a rezoning (Ordinance 2259) turning a residential parcel from single-family to multi-family capped at 12 units per acre with no apartments; a second look at amendments to the city's Human Rights Commission rules (Ordinance 2261); and the mayor's reappointment of Todd Ashby to the Polk County Aviation Authority through 2030.

Ankeny's school board met the same night — Monday, June 15 at 6 p.m. — but, like the council, hadn't posted minutes by press time. We're watching for the recap and will flag anything that affects families when it lands.

📍 ACSD board meetings

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A bright start to the week before the humidity returns.

📍 NWS Des Moines forecast for Ankeny

Today (Tuesday):

Tomorrow (Wednesday):

Walk into most eyewear shops and you're talking to whoever's on shift. Walk into VisualEyes on South Ankeny Boulevard and you're talking to Charles Ericson — an optician with more than 35 years in the business, who spent those decades working alongside ophthalmologists across Des Moines and Ames before opening his own locally owned shop. His pitch is right there in the name: "Love Your Eyewear."

In practice that's a big selection of fashion and designer frames, contact lenses, and sport- and safety-specific eyewear — plus repairs and adjustments on the glasses you already own. Need an exam? Dr. Negrete, O.D., is available on site. Already have a prescription from somewhere else? They'll fill it.

The basics:

Ankeny's emergency crews are on track to start answering 911 calls in Alleman and Elkhart — one more sign the city's pull now reaches well past its own lines. Sunny and 75° today; bring an umbrella by Wednesday.

Wednesday: the new businesses and neighborhood news we've been tracking — plus whether those two town deals got the council's final yes once the minutes post.

Know a local deal, event, or story we missed? Reply to this email.

Rolling with Ankeny — Local news, local deals, no fluff. 🚲