Unofficial count, last updated by the state Nov. 4, 12:25 p.m., with every precinct in. We list every race on your ballot and do not call them.
The Ankeny Brief
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The day-by-day rundown of everything worth leaving the house for.
Off work and not sure what to do? We keep the whole week in one place so you're not digging through five Facebook pages. Here's what's on, plus the stuff you can count on every week.
Day trips and bigger Iowa outings are down in Outdoors.
More to plan with: the weekly rhythm (trivia, live music, markets by night) · holiday events and lights · the full events calendar · the can't-decide Activity Finder.
Five hand-picked local things this week: a spot to support, something to do, a place worth finding, a new opening, and a local doing good.
The Art Center started in 1981 as the Ankeny Friends of the Arts, and this Saturday it takes over Prairie Trail Sports Complex for its 45th annual Santa's North Pole Village Craft Sale: nearly 200 booths, 9am-3pm, $10 at the door, kids 12 and under free. The sale helps pay for its classes, exhibits and youth scholarships. Want it quieter? The Center says to shop from 1pm to 3pm.
B&B Ankeny 12 brings back the original Rocky (1976) for one day, Saturday at 4pm and 7pm. Earlier in the week, try DJ Trivia at Yankee Clipper Tuesday at 8pm or King Trivia at Uptown Garage Wednesday at 6pm. Every night of the week is on the weekly rhythm page.
Free to see, and about the easiest outing we can suggest once the leaves are down. Jester Park's resident herds live on the west side of Saylorville, and it's a good stop when the kids need to be outside for an hour without a plan.
The drive-thru coffee chain is open at 315 NW 36th St, with a walk-up window too. Hours run 5am-10pm, and until 11pm on Friday and Saturday, which is handy if you need a coffee on the way home from a late game.
IMPACT Community Action Partnership runs a pantry at 641 S Ankeny Blvd for Ankeny and north Polk County, and it takes volunteers, including drivers who pick up food from local partners. With the holidays coming, it's a good time to ask what they need: volunteer with IMPACT.
Nominate any Ankeny business, nonprofit, or local find for next week. Recommend it here → (or reply to any issue).
Tap any section to open it. Each one ends with a link to the full guide.
Where we'd send you to eat: the highest-rated spots in town by aggregate review score (mid-2026).
Mexican: Guadalajara, Fiesta Jalapenos, Flame Cantina
Italian & pizza: Portofino's, Nonna's Pizza & Pasta
Breakfast & brunch: Early Bird Brunch, Main Street Cafe
Steak & date night: Filet Steakhouse, Tribute Eatery & Bar
Sports bars & patios: Whiskey River, Cabaret, 30hop, Mullets, Trailside Tap
Seafood, sushi & ramen: Waterfront Seafood Market, Toyo Ramen
BBQ & Irish: Jethro's BBQ, Magee's Irish Pub
Asian: Toyo Ramen, Wasabi (sushi & hibachi)
Wings & pub grub: Buffalo Wild Wings, Wig & Pen Pizza Pub, Sports Page
The full rundown: best restaurants in Ankeny →
Sit-down favorites: Porch Light Coffeehouse, Cafe Diem, Blue Bean, Smokey Row, Twisted Bean
The full local coffee scene, ranked drive-thru to sit-down: the best coffee in Ankeny →
New spot opening? Tell us →. We run a "new this month" feature.
Always worth a look: current standing deals (we refresh these weekly):
Kids eat free (with an adult meal): Mondays: IHOP (4-9 p.m.) and Mullets. Tuesdays: Pizza Ranch (10 and under, with an adult buffet, 4-9 p.m.), Perkins (5-9 p.m.) and Sports Page. Saturdays: Z'Mariks (a kid's bowl per adult bowl). Call ahead, these change.
Happy hour: Whiskey River (weekdays 3-6, plus free chips & salsa + $3.50 domestic bottles on Fridays) and Wasabi's Happy Sushi Hour (3-6pm, Monday through Thursday).
Sushi & Wine Special, Wasabi: Mondays and Sundays, all day, through Nov 30.
Wing Tuesday / Boneless Thursday, Buffalo Wild Wings: Tuesdays, buy an order of traditional wings and get the second 50% off (at participating locations; check the BWW app); Thursdays, buy an order of boneless and get the second free.
Tuesday Tastings, Grimaldi's: half off glasses and bottles of wine plus glasses of sangria all day Tuesday (21+, dine-in, reserve wines excluded).
Sunday at Whiskey River: a $15 omelet plate with a trip through the build-your-own Bloody Mary bar at breakfast, then free pool and 20 wings for $14 from 6pm.
Got a deal or happy hour we should list? Add it here →. Owners, send us your current specials and we will check them each week.
Food guides: what should we eat tonight? · a night out · best restaurants · pizza · Mexican · breakfast & brunch · ice cream & dessert · coffee
Ankeny High (Hawks) & Ankeny Centennial (Jaguars), the week's scoreboard, straight from the local coverage.
Ankeny Christian beat Janesville 3-1 Thursday for the 1A state title. What's next: the Hawks play Johnston in the 5A semifinals, Friday, Nov 13 at 4pm at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.
Day-to-day coverage lives at Ankeny Fanatic, the town's dedicated sports site. Schedules & brackets: Hawks · Jaguars. Full 2026 schedules, the rivalry & recent results: our Ankeny high school sports guide.
Sports guides: Ankeny high school football · sports complexes & youth sports
Ankeny's built for families: here's where to take them, rain or shine.
Four neighborhood splash pads are free from Memorial Day through Labor Day, 8am-8pm. Just push the button to start the water. (Off for the season now; back Memorial Day weekend.)
A real point of pride: the Miracle League is a free, coed, non-competitive baseball league for kids ages 5-18 with special needs: everyone bats, everyone scores, every game ends in a tie. It plays on a custom rubberized field built to be fully wheelchair- and walker-accessible.
Now playing: Verity, Street Fighter, Clayface and Resident Evil. New Thursday: The Cat in the Hat and Godzilla Minus Zero. Rocky (1976) returns Saturday.
Need a vet? Ankeny has more per capita than most towns its size:
The Kirkendall Public Library runs a full Summer Library Program every year: story times, a book giveaway, and a closing pool party at the end of July, all free. This year's wrapped July 30; the fall calendar picks up with the school year.
Dotted around town are the pink & lime-green "A Helping Hand in Ankeny" pantry boxes: take what you need, leave what you can, no questions asked. Known locations by area:
North: 2425 N Ankeny Blvd (in front of the Coldwell-Banker building)
Southeast: 1100 SE Sharon Dr (by St Paul Lutheran) · 2081 SE Windover Dr · 602 SE Delaware (United Church of Christ) · 317 SE Trilein Dr (Presbyterian lot, south of East Elementary) · 801 SE Belmont Dr
West: 423 W 1st St (at Walnut St) · 1510 W 1st St (Ankeny Funeral Home lot)
Southwest: 517 SW Des Moines St (Holy Trinity Lutheran) · 517 SW Elm St
Northwest: Mel Ray Trailer Park (by the mailboxes, Polk City Dr & Polk City Ct) · 1313 NW Beechwood · 4807 NW 5th St
Boxes move now and then: the current list is kept by the A Helping Hand in Ankeny Facebook group.
Know a family gem we're missing? Recommend it →
Family guides: things to do with kids · pools & splash pads · parks & playgrounds · the dog park · movie theater & bowling · daycare & preschool · pumpkin patches · trick-or-treat & lights · winter in Ankeny
This is the part of town we brag about: Ankeny sits in the middle of one of the best paved-trail networks in the country, ten minutes from a 26,000-acre lake.
Want an e-bike?
Ten minutes northwest:
Some of central Iowa's best fishing sits a short drive from town: no closed season, just a license.
License required (Iowa DNR), no closed season. The full breakdown is in the Ankeny fishing guide →
Three good basecamps within 20 minutes, from full-hookup to rustic walk-in tent sites:
Sites run roughly $12-30/night. Reserve early for summer weekends. (Iowa has no open "off-road"/dispersed camping nearby; Jester's primitive walk-in tent sites are the most rustic option.)
Want something different? Hipcamp lists 220+ options within a short drive: here are the 10 closest:
Ankeny is stacked with places to play: most free and first-come:
Want a team? Ankeny Parks & Rec adult leagues run through the year: softball, sand volleyball, kickball, pickleball and bags. Register at ankenyiowa.gov/register or call 515-963-3570.
Always confirm legal dates, zones, and tags at iowadnr.gov. Public land close to home: Chichaqua Bottoms Greenbelt. Fishing needs only a license, no season.
Already wrapped this year: Ankeny SummerFest (Jul 10-12), RAGBRAI (Jul 18-25), Hinterland (Jul 30-Aug 2), the National Balloon Classic (Jul 31-Aug 8), the Iowa State Fair (Aug 13-23) and the World Food & Music Festival (Aug 28-30), all back next summer.
Outdoors guides: trails & bike paths · High Trestle Trail · Neal Smith Trail · Saylorville Lake · Big Creek State Park · Jester Park · parks · camping · golf · disc golf · pickleball
When the weather turns, or the kids are finally in bed.
More a short drive away in the metro: axe throwing at Lumber Axe (Des Moines), arcades, and indoor ranges.
The Prairie Trail Sports Complex has indoor basketball, pickleball, volleyball and tennis with drop-in times and leagues, the go-to when it's too cold or wet to play outside.
Runners have a home too:
Run a club we should list: car club, garden club, anything? Tell us →
Indoors & night-out guides: movie theater & bowling · live music · Prairie Trail & The District · hotels
Some of the best nights out aren't at an Ankeny address. You've got a car. Here's the metro and the easy day trips, with rough drive times from town.
Worth planning a whole day or evening around:
Beyond the lakes north of town (see Outdoors), these are the metro's signature green spaces:
No ticket needed. Great when you just want to wander:
When you want more than Ankeny's own (excellent) lineup:
A little farther, but easy round-trips and a true change of scenery:
Pack a bag. Within a half-day's drive: a big-city zoo, Mississippi river towns, Iowa's lake country, and a baseball field in a cornfield.
The full rundown, with what to do and who each trip is best for, is in our day trips & weekend getaways guide →
Drive times are rough door-to-door estimates from central Ankeny. Add a little for downtown parking or game-day traffic. Got a favorite spot we're missing? Recommend it →
Nearby guides: Saylorville Lake · Big Creek State Park · Jester Park · day trips & getaways · where to stay
Bargain-hunting, fresh sweet corn, taco trucks, and the weekend treasure hunt.
Pulled fresh from the public sale maps. We refresh this list weekly in season:
No sales posted this week, check the live maps below.
See the full live map (and post your own) at gsalr.com or GarageSaleFinder, but the real action is on Facebook: Ankeny Community Swap & Meet (87K members) is where most sales and finds post first.
The Uptown Ankeny Farmers Market is the anchor: Saturdays 8 a.m.-noon, May 23-Sep 26 at the Market & Pavilion (715 W 1st St), 100+ vendors across the season with more than half there every week. Saturday, Sept 26 is closing day for 2026. For roadside sweet corn and melons:
More on Patch's Ankeny sweet-corn map and the state's licensed farm-stand directory.
Beats & Eats at the AMP (715 W 1st St) is the easiest place to graze: select Thursdays, 5-7:30 p.m. in June & July, with a different rotating lineup of trucks, live music and kids' activities every week.
Beats & Eats is done for the year. The city runs it on select Thursdays in June and July only, so the trucks are back next summer. For a Thursday night out now, Truckin' Trivia at Firetrucker Brewery starts at 7pm.
Ankeny licenses 40+ trucks. The regulars, by craving:
Tacos & Mexican: Tacos Don Juan, Tacos Meza, Amigos, Nina's, Gorditas Villa Madero, The Walking Taco
BBQ & comfort: Jethro's, Comfort Food, Loaded, Off the Griddle, Flame, Charlotte's Kitchen
Around the world: Karam's Grill (Mediterranean), The Eggroll Ladies, Sugarcane Fusion, On the Hook Fish & Chips, Graziano's (Italian)
Sweets & treats: The Outside Scoop, Sweet Swirls, Loudi's, Let's Go Cookie Dough, Daylight Donuts, Whip Delight
Cold drinks: Kona Ice, Tropical Sno, Jack Frost Drink Lab, Iowa Beer Bus, Roasted Mary's
For everyday lunch, Tacos Don Juan parks in the Sportsman's lot on SE Oralabor Rd. Track who's where on StreetFoodFinder or the city's licensed list. Running a truck? Tell us → and we'll feature it.
Market guide: the Uptown Farmers Market
Ankeny is a school town: a third of residents are raising kids here.
A full five-day week, no early-outs listed. Here is what is on the trays and the calendar:
Menus are the K-5 plan and can change; middle and high school menus differ, so check SchoolCafe for yours. Building-by-building details are in our back-to-school guide.
Top-rated elementaries: Prairie Trail, Northeast, and Crocker. The new $41.5M school is being built to keep up with the growth.
Ankeny schools back students from preschool through 12th grade with a full Student Services team:
Out in the community, the free Miracle League (see Families) gives kids with special needs their own accessible ball field: everyone plays, every game.
The crosstown rivalry: Ankeny High (Hawks) and Ankeny Centennial (Jaguars). Centennial's Quiz Bowl team has won back-to-back Iowa state titles, taking its first ever from Ankeny High, then defending it in a record ten-overtime final over Johnston.
On the field, both are big-school contenders in the CIML (Central Iowa Metro League), Iowa's deepest conference, and frequent state qualifiers across the major sports. The Hawks brought home a Class 4A football state title in 2020. One town, two large schools: the head-to-head games (football kicks off late August) are the tickets to have.
For the weekly game scoreboard: scores, playoff runs, and where the Hawks and Jags sit in the standings. See the Sports section → Deeper day-to-day coverage of both schools lives at Ankeny Fanatic and each school's athletics site.
School guides: back to school 2026 · schools & boundaries · daycare & preschool · the library
Biggest name in town: Casey's General Stores, an Iowa Fortune 500 (2,950 stores, 40,000+ employees), is headquartered right here.
Like much of the metro, Ankeny PD uses Flock Safety automated license-plate readers (ALPRs), cameras at select intersections that photograph passing plates and basic vehicle details (make, color, type) to flag cars tied to active investigations. It's a public-safety tool and, for a lot of towns right now, an open privacy question. We're not here to pick a side, just to point you to the receipts.
Official: the city's own Ankeny PD Flock transparency portal →: program details and usage numbers, straight from the department.
Citizen-mapped: DeFlock's crowd-built ALPR map →: volunteers plotting camera locations nationwide, Ankeny included.
New to this? We break the whole thing down: what the cameras capture, how long the data's kept, and both sides of the debate: the full guide to Flock cameras in Ankeny →
Ankeny took a real hit on June 11: 60mph gusts and quarter-size hail brought down trees and damaged roofs, siding, and vehicles across town. If it happens again, here's who to call:
Permits, big projects, and where the orange barrels are, all from City of Ankeny & Iowa DOT records.
September slowed again. The city permitted $14.8M of construction, down from $19.2M in August and $44.8M in July. The largest single job is that $2.44M office on N Ankeny Blvd, and homeowners kept busy with 42 fence permits. We follow public money milestone by milestone, straight from the record, no spin.
Getting around while it's built:
Where this year's money is going:
The $46M capital budget funds these; the Council's stated goal is upgrading essential infrastructure while holding the levy flat.
Here's what actually lands on it: the decisions that shape a fast-growing town:
Ankeny's big enough to span several overlapping districts: here's who holds each office right now (mid-2026):
Not everyone in Ankeny is in the same state Senate/House district. Look up your exact one by address.
Full guide: every Ankeny office, how to contact them & what's on the ballot →
2026 is a turnover year locally:
Every race, candidate by candidate: unofficial Nov 3 results →
Want to get involved at your kid's building? Every elementary runs its own Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO): Ashland Ridge, Crocker, East, Northeast & Northwest all have one; details at ankenyschools.org/parents/pto.
Decided: Ankeny voters approved the 1-cent local option sales tax on Sept 8, with 64.04% voting yes in the official canvass. Ankeny's sales tax goes from 6% to 7% on Jan 1, 2027. The city estimates more than $12 million a year, with half going to property tax relief and half to capital projects (streets, parks, trails, public safety equipment, facilities). Groceries, rent, gas, prescriptions and vehicles are not taxed. Details: ankenyiowa.gov →
The Nov 3 general election is over, and the numbers stay unofficial until counties canvass.
Polk County Election Office: 2309 Euclid Ave, Des Moines · (515) 286-3080.
Our election guides: results, race by race · the Ankeny voter guide.
Nearly 30 congregations in town. Yours not listed? Add it →
The stuff every resident ends up googling, answered in one place, or browse the full Ankeny guides index →
No Zillow guesses here. Sales figures come straight from Polk County Assessor records, through July 28, 2026, the latest the county has posted. Polk County, September: median asking price $313,450, homes for sale 2,352, up 18% from a year ago (why the sales stop in July).
Median by month: April $299,900 → May $339,990 → June $330,000 → July $352,000. Spring spiked, dipped, then July closed as the strongest month of the year so far.
Most active streets this year: NW 17th St (20 sales), NE Verona Dr (17), NE 12th St (16) and NE 11th St (15).
Housing & moving guides: the housing dashboard · neighborhoods · cost of living · apartments & rent · is Ankeny a good place to live? · the Des Moines commute · public transit & DART · senior living
Every business newly registered in town, freshest first, straight from the state's public record.
Data through September 30, 2026. A registration means a filing, not that a storefront is open.
We love featuring businesses started by Ankeny grads and lifelong locals. Own one, or know one? Tell us your story → and we'll spotlight it here.
A weekly snapshot of real openings within about five miles of town, pulled from public job listings, with the national trucking-board spam filtered out. Tap any role to see pay and apply.
Preschool Teacher at KinderCareApply → Car Wash Attendant at Silverstar Car WashApply → Teacher, Ankeny KinderCare at KinderCare EducationApply → Adult Med-Surg Clinical Nursing Instructor at Chamberlain UniversityApply → Prep Cook at Chili'sApply → Delivery Driver at GopuffApply → Registered Nurse On Call Hospice at Heartland HospiceApply → Senior Universal Banker at Availa BankApply → Mechanical Detailer at Baker GroupApply → Mobile Mechanic/Service Technician at L&H Hydrovac, LLCApply → Part-Time Warehouse Generalist at PDIApply → Controls Technician at Accu-Mold CorpApply →Business guides: what's newly opened · jobs & largest employers
Every fast-growing suburb looks like it sprang up overnight. Ankeny didn't. It took exactly 150 years, four fires, a world war, a dairy farm, and one very persistent rail line.
On July 11, 1874, Des Moines businessman John Fletcher Ankeny and his wife Sarah bought 80 acres along a proposed rail line for $1,600, platting the town the next spring and naming it after themselves.
They platted the whole town and named it after their own family, then stayed in Des Moines the entire time. They never moved to Ankeny.
The Ankeny Area Historical Society Museum (301 SW 3rd St) is free and volunteer-run: a 1905 farmhouse plus a 2005 barn, covering Ankeny and its neighboring towns.
That's the short version: the full 150-year story is here →
More about Ankeny: the Ankeny almanac · fast facts (ZIP, area code, county)
Ever wonder who Albaugh, Casey's, or Tone's actually are, or who Ankeny is even named after? Short, sourced profiles of the people and companies that built this town.
This whole thing is better with you in it. Know a great restaurant, a local find, a deal, a can't-miss event or garage sale, or run a local business yourself? Send it our way. The best picks land in the Brief.
Recommend a spot →Prefer email? Just send it to [email protected].
