The trail near the pond at Waukee Towne Center will be closed starting Monday, March 30 for 4 weeks. The trail will be closed between 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m., Monday through Friday as workers install erosion stone around the pond.
Alice’s Road will close to through traffic between NE Horizon Drive and NE Dellwood Drive starting Tuesday, March 24 for phase 2 of the improvement project with City of Clive. Use Hickman Road, 156th Street and Douglas Parkway to travel around the closure. You will be able to access Horizon Drive from Alice’s Road to the south. The Dellwood Drive intersection may be open to the north for a few weeks but will eventually close as work progresses. The closure will last for the entire 2026 construction season. Check the project web page for additional updates on construction progress.
Warrior Lane will be closed from the south side of Ford Lane and Park Road to the north side of University Avenue starting Wednesday, March 4, 2026. The road will be closed for several months as construction crews make road and utility improvements. Ford Lane will only be accessible from the north during this time. Please plan alternate routes and allow some extra time as you travel through this area.
This is part of phase 2 of the University Avenue Area Improvements project, which will eventually close the last gap in University Avenue between Warrior Lane and 6th Street. It also includes improvements to several roads that connect to University Avenue. Thank you for patience as we work through this important and complex project to improve our transportation network.
If you are visiting Triumph Park or any other City of Waukee property or public space and see a problem, please report it. For an emergency or other issue that requires fire, paramedic or police response, please call 911 or non-emergency dispatch at 515-222-3321. For other urgent safety or maintenance issues, tell a park staff member or call Waukee Parks and Recreation at 515-978-0007. For other concerns or maintenance issues, such as broken equipment, potholes or minor vandalism, you can submit to the Report a Concern form to notify park and city staff. Please include as much detail as possible, such as location, time of day or anything else that can help staff respond effectively. The form is anonymous, but you can include your contact information for our staff to use if they have questions about the situation.
Miracle League is a 6-week baseball league for kids ages 5-19 with special needs, whether physical, emotional, social or cognitive, who want to play baseball. The Spring Season for this non-competitive, coed league runs in April/May and the Fall Season runs in September with games played on Saturday mornings, 9-10 a.m. at Triumph Park. Each game consists of two innings and every player bats once each inning. Every player scores a run before the inning is over and the last one up gets a home run. Community volunteers serve buddies to assist the players throughout the game. Home, the Miracle League mascot often makes an appearance to cheer the players on.
The Miracle League removes the barriers which may prevent these aspiring athletes from playing baseball, such as natural grass fields used in conventional leagues. Teams play on the Greater Iowa Credit Union Miracle League® Field, a custom-designed, rubberized turf field that accommodates wheelchairs and other assistive devices while helping to prevent injuries.
Register your player online through Waukee Parks and Recreation. You can sign up to get notified of seasonal program opportunities and registration windows at Waukee.org/NotifyMe. Scroll down to the News Flash section and choose "Waukee Parks & Recreation" along with any other types of news you want to get from the City of Waukee.
The Waukee Canopy Program with Waukee Parks and Recreation has only 4 trees left as of March 31. Bur Oaks will be a huge shade provider in the future if your property has the space. Note that the Canopy Program is only offered in the spring this year. Other changes include larger trees and delivery to your home instead of a pick-up night at Public Works. Get the details or reserve your tree at Waukee.org/Registration. This is only open to residents within city limits of Waukee.
The deadline for Waukee Citizen of the Year nominations is April 3. If you know a resident who has a significant positive impact in Waukee and goes above and beyond for our community, submit a nomination with the Waukee Area Chamber of Commerce here. The winner will join a long line of incredible community members, receive an award to recognize their contributions, have a day named in their honor with a proclamation from Mayor Clarke and get a chance to ride in the Independence Day Celebration parade on July 4.
Droppett recycling has a new redemption drop site in Centennial Park next to the Enclosed Shelter at the corner of Warrior Lane and University Avenue. You can collect the money or donate it to a community organization. Create your account at Droppett.com to get the welcome packet and bag tags.
While Droppett will recycle non-deposit containers, like plain water bottles, sports drinks or iced tea, the 5-cent redemption credit will only be paid for eligible Iowa deposit containers. Check for the mark on the top of the can or the bottle label for a carbonated or alcoholic beverage before bagging or boxing.
You can also drop eligible cans and bottles in the small shed in the Fareway parking lot. Glass goes in the fenced area outside. Cans and plastic bottles go inside. Proceeds from donations support the bands at Waukee high schools.
Throughout the month of March, the City collected food and home staples to lend a helping hand to neighbors in need. We'll donate these items to the food pantry at WayPoint Resources. Thank you to all of you who dropped items off. We love to see the community support!
As you clean out your closets, storage rooms or garage, plan for Spring Clean-Up events in Waukee. Find more details on these events at Waukee.org/SpringCleanUp.
1. Give unwanted items a new life.
For items in good condition, consider donating to a local organization or putting it up for free on a community swap group on Facebook. Have a lot of items? Host a garage/yard sales for Citywide Garage Sale Day on Saturday, April 25. This is not a City of Waukee-sponsored event, but it is a designated day for residents to join many others in hosting garage sales at their Waukee homes. There is no facilitated flyer or website to track garage sales; however, some residents promote their sales on Facebook Marketplace or community group pages.
2. Put it out for curbside Spring Clean-Up, April 27-May 1, 2026.
During the free, curbside portion of Spring Clean-Up Week, City garbage customers can place large items on the curb for disposal on their normal garbage collection day, Monday through Friday. Put bulky items, such as furniture, oversized electronics and other large items up to five feet in length, on the curb no later than 7 a.m. on your garbage pick-up day. Smaller items should be bagged or boxed. Residents in apartments, townhomes and Midwest Country Estates may have private garbage collection and are not eligible for curbside pick-up during Spring Clean-Up week. Please refer to the property manager for guidance on disposing of large or bulky items.
Items NOT accepted on the curb:
3. Safely dispose of household hazardous waste, appliances, tires or electronics on Saturday, May 2, 8 a.m. to noon at Waukee Public Works.
Hazardous waste, appliances and tires will not be collected from curbs, but you can take them to the designated drop-off site for free disposal. Once again, all drop sites will be at Waukee Public Works, 805 University Avenue. This building is just west of 6th Street behind the transportation depot for the Waukee Community School District. Signs will mark the entrance and exit for the loop on drop-off day.
Household Hazardous Waste
Many common home, garden, and automotive products contain chemicals that can be harmful to people, pets, wildlife, and the environment. If a product label includes words such as “danger,” “poison,” “warning,” or “caution,” it may be hazardous. Household products should also be considered hazardous if they have one or more of these characteristics:
Examples of these items include acid, rechargeable batteries, oil, antifreeze, lawn fertilizer, pesticides, pool chemicals, oil-based paints or aerosols. You can safely get rid of them for free at our drop-off day. Latex paint will not be accepted; however, dried latex paint can be placed in regular trash bins year-round.
The following items will not be accepted at drop-off day:
Appliances
Appliances must be cleared of food, household hazardous waste and garbage prior to drop-off. Accepted items include washers, dryers, dishwashers, refrigerators, furnaces, water heaters, stoves, etc.
Tires
Up to five car tires may be dropped off free of charge. The drop-off fee for each additional car tire will cost $1, and semi-truck and tractor tire drop-offs will cost $5 a piece. Cash only. Rims will not be accepted.
Electronics Recycling
The City is partnering with Electronic Asset Security to help you keep your electronics waste out of the landfill. Drop laptops, TVs, keyboards, speakers, printers, routers, phones, e-readers, CRTs, TVs and more for free. All data-containing devices will have data cleared. Alternatively, electronics are accepted in the weekly garbage collections or on the curb during clean-up week. Your data will not be wiped from devices left on the curb. Learn more about EAS recycling practices here.
If your computer, tablet or smart phone is still in good condition, consider donating it to the Best Buddies program instead. The devices are distributed to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Find the details on what's accepted at ElectronicAssetSecurity.com/Our-Community. Be sure to remove your Microsoft, Google or Apple accounts and anything else tied to your device before donating it. Drop it off during regular business hours at the EAS office in Urbandale and tell them it's for the Best Buddies program.
Find more details about spring clean-up and regular trash or recycling collection at Waukee.org/CleanUp.
The Waukee City Council will have two public hearings for fiscal year 2027. On April 6, 2026, there is a public hearing for the proposed property tax levy. On April 20, 2026, there is a public hearing for the FY27 budget. The meetings start at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, 230 W Hickman Road, and on Zoom. Get meeting details and sign up for agenda notifications at Waukee.org/CityCouncil. At the hearings, anyone may speak in support of or present objections to the proposed tax levy.
The $148.3 million budget includes general fund expenditures of $29.8 million, business and proprietary expenses of $28.6 million, debt service expenditures of $16.7 million and capital improvement expenditures of $49.7 million.
General fund expenses include wages, benefits and operational costs, like consulting, software, fuel, maintenance of facilities and equipment, materials and utilities for all departments, except for utility departments and the golf course. That includes everything from City Council to emergency services to the library to IT. Business and proprietary expenses include wages, benefits and all costs associated with running the utilities: Water, Sewer and Storm Water Departments as well as Sugar Creek Municipal Golf Course, including construction of infrastructure. Debt service is paying back principal and interest on the long term debt that the City has taken out to fund the bigger, expensive projects, like a new government facility or major road reconstruction. Capital improvement includes other major projects, such as new parks, new road construction and remodeling city buildings.
Get an overview of the FY27 budget and read the full draft budget at Waukee.org/Budget.
City Council plans to keep the property tax levy at $12.80 per $1,000 of taxable value. The City's levy makes up about 36 percent of a tax bill.
The City of Waukee finances nearly 60 percent of its general fund operations through property taxes, which pays for police, fire, park maintenance, government operations, library services and more. For a Waukee resident owning a home with an assessed value of $400,000, it costs around $6.65 per day for City services. With the FY27 rollback rate, it will be $6.25 per day. To see where your tax dollars are invested in Waukee, enter your address to get your City of Waukee Tax Receipt at Waukee.org/Tax.
Assessed property value is not taxable valuation. Get all the details on the things that determine how much property tax you pay at Waukee.org/PropertyTax101. This page also helps you understand how Waukee compares to other communities in Iowa and similar cities in other states
To speak at a public hearing, wait for the Mayor to declare the hearing open and ask if anyone wishes to address the council. Come up to the podium or use the Raise Hand function in Zoom. The Mayor will call on each person to speak in turn. When it’s your time to talk, state your name and address for the record. Each speaker has up to 5 minutes to share their thoughts.
Have questions about the budget or property taxes? City staff are happy to help! Email us any time at communications@waukee.org.
The City of Waukee issued 143 building permits in February 2026. Total property valuation in February was $45.7 million.
The City of Waukee issued 125 building permits in January 2026. Total property valuation was $14.8 million.
The City of Waukee issued 95 building permits in December 2025. Total property valuation was $23.6 million.
This month’s Utility Billing News includes information about:
This month’s Utility Billing News includes information about:
This month’s Utility Billing News includes information about: