City Offices Closed on Friday, April 19

The City of Newton business offices will be closed on Friday, April 19. This includes offices at City Hall, the Newton Fire Department business office, the Newton Police Department business office, the Newton Sanitary Landfill, and all offices located at ...

2020 Census Jobs

Earn extra income while helping your community. The Census is hiring for a variety of temporary jobs including census takers, recruiting assistants, office staff and supervisors. Pay rates are $15.00 - $16.50 per hour. Apply for one of the thousands of te...

Mayor Hansen Hosts Coffee with the Mayor

Newton Mayor Michael L. Hansen will host a Coffee with the Mayor the third Saturday of each month from 9 – 11 a.m. at the Newton Public Library located at 100 N 3rd Ave W.

2019 dates for Coffee with the Mayor are January 19, February 16, March 16, April 20...

To Revive Your Old Neighborhood, Think Small

Bernice Radle wants you to think small.

When she comes to Newton this summer for the Preserve Iowa Summit, she’ll encourage hundreds of historic preservationists, developers, architects and community leaders to dream big. But think small. Do smal...

March Newton Housing Development Corporation Update

NHDC reports that even though bad weather has slowed new home construction in the past month, they have remained busy. Craig Armstrong, City Development Specialist and Bruce Showalter, NHDC Director were interviewed about the Newton housing incentives on ...

February Building Activity

For the month of February 2019, 16 development permits were issued: 

• 4 building permits
• 5 electrical permits 
• 2 plumbing permits 
• 5 mechanical permits

Total valuation of the permits in February was $1,367,393.  

Total fiscal ...

March Historic Preservation Commission Update

The Historic Preservation Commission met on Monday, March 4, 2019, for their regular monthly meeting. The Commission is working on a building plaque project for the Downtown Historic District. The Commission currently has two projects underway that are re...

Main Street Iowa Awards Celebration Honors Outstanding Achievements

Main Street Iowa hosted the 33rd annual Main Street Iowa Awards celebration on Friday, March 8th at Scottish Rite Consistory in Des Moines. The program honored the efforts of those who work day-in and day-out to revitalize Iowa’s downtowns &...

Rogers Named 2018 YP of The Year Award Recipient

Community Marketing Manager Danielle Rogers was named the 2018 Ashley Okland Community Service Award winner by The Des Moines Register and the Young Professionals Connection during a ceremony at the Des Moines Downtown Hilton on Feb. 28. Rogers was one of...

February Historic Preservation Commission Update

The Historic Preservation Commission met on Monday, February 4, 2019, for their regular monthly meeting.  The Commission is working on a building plaque project for the Downtown Historic District.  

Maytag Pool Opening Day

The opening day for the 2019 season at Maytag Pool is scheduled for Saturday, June 1. Due to snow make-up days and the school year going into June, we anticipate being open on an abbreviated schedule on weekdays in June until the school year is done. Norm...

2018 Agnes Patterson Park ADA Improvements Project

On January 21, 2019 City Council accepted completion of the 2018 Agnes Patterson Park ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) Improvements Project. This project was completed by JDA Construction of Marshalltown and included parking stalls near the new pit t...

NFD Accepting Applications for Full Time FF/EMT Positions

The City of Newton is currently accepting applications for Full-Time FF/EMT positions. The department will require that you are a EMT-B to apply. For more information, please check out the link below.

Engine 1 Headed for Repair

The Fire Department’s newest engine will be out of service for about 45 days while being repaired in Weyauwega, Wisconsin. In December of 2018, while responding to an ambulance rollover on Interstate 80, Engine 1 lost traction on the icy highway...

Mobile Router Installation Complete in Ambulances

Mobile routers have been installed on all of the Fire Department ambulances. Ambulances and emergency medical services have become very technology driven over the years. These new mobile routers will allow integration of patient reporting software and pat...

New Faces at the Newton Fire Department

Three new firefighters started in March. Isaac Hunsberger of Colfax, Brad Lundquist of West Des Moines, and Trent Baker of Newton accepted full-time positions with the Fire Department. The three have been completing orientation and assimilating to firefig...

SCBA Fill Station Installed and in Service

A new fill station was received and installed in the fire station. The new fill station is capable of containing the force of a bottle explosion in the event of a catastrophic failure during filling. SCBA bottles contain around 4500 PSI of pressure and ca...

New Gear Lockers Installed in Fire Station

Gear lockers for firefighting personal protective equipment (PPE) were delivered and installed by fire department staff in the past month. The gear lockers were made by Ready Rack, a company that specializes in the storage of firefighter PPE. Each set of ...

Opening Burning Not Allowed in City Limits

The Newton Fire Department would like to remind those doing yard work during the warmer weather that open burning is not allowed within City limits.

Open burning is the process of burning any materials where the products of combustion pass directly into th...

Heisdorffer Completes National Fire Academy's Managing Officer Program

The United States Fire Administration's (USFA) National Fire Academy (NFA) recently announced that Rex Heisdorffer has successfully completed the Managing Officer (MO) program. 

"The Managing Officer program is designed to provide company lev...

Fire Crews Beginning Pre-Plan Updates

With the inspections being completed, it is the time of year that fire crews will be out updating preplans. Preplans are documents that list all of the hazards to firefighters in the buildings. Having that information prior to emergency response is critic...

So Many Library Programs, So Little Time

On average the Library hosts three storytimes a week for children and at least one adult program. However, sometimes the Library has 5 storytimes a week and an escape room that takes up every night in the meeting room.

We encourage patrons to check out the...

Parent Cafe with Jasper County Health Department

The Library has partnered with the Jasper County Health Department to offer Parent Cafe at the Library. Parents can bring their preschoolers to story time in the Story Time Room while parents stay in the meeting room to speak with Jasper County Health Dep...

Tuesday Titles

Every Tuesday the Library posts to Facebook and asks followers to comment with a few favorite titles and in return receive reading recommendations from our Librarians. The posts have generated quite a conversation and shown the diverse reading tastes of o...

Harry Potter Escape Room

When registration opens for the Escape Room all three lines for the Library are ringing constantly. Registrations fill up quickly and usually on the first day allowing 20 different teams of 4-8 contestants to play. During the first week of March, the libr...

What’s New with Libby?

The Libby eBooks & audiobooks app was recently updated to make your digital library faster and easier to use than ever before. Enhancements include:

• Easy-to-customize lending periods: You can still choose your own default lending periods for the digita...

Adventure Passes Available!

The new Adventure Pass program funded by the Friends of the Newton Public Library is now available! The program, called Adventure Pass, provides free general admission to the Science Center of Iowa, the Blank Park Zoo and the Greater Des Moines Botanical ...

Have You Read 1000 Books?

The 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program is an ongoing program at the Newton Public Library designed to encourage parents to read every day with their child. Studies show that being read to every day is the single biggest predictor of later success in s...

SRO Britton Attends Youth Prevention Training

School Resource Officer Julie Britton recently attended two youth specific training courses that will assist in educating students about substance abuse and responding to mental health issues within the school setting.

Officer Britton was certified to tea...

Newton Police Department to Hire Second School Resource Officer

The Newton City Council and Newton Community School District unanimously approved the addition of a 2nd school resource officer to serve primarily at the new middle school.

The City and NCSD have had an agreement for a full-time SRO to serve in the school...

Annual Police Activity Report

The Newton Police Department’s calls for service reported incidents and the overall crime rate for 2018 was relatively unchanged from 2017. Calls for service increased by only 2% and total incidents reported increased by only 1.5%. 

Crim...

Parks Operations Update - Caring for the Cemeteries in Winter

Preparing sites for burials is a challenge this time of year. With the snow and thick frost layer, it adds extra steps and time to the process. The first step is to locate the grave site itself. This requires the staff to remove snow from the immediate ar...

Parks Operations Update - Continuing Education

The Parks Operations has been busy with snow removal, cemetery burials, ice rink maintenance, and some continuing education. Several Parks Operations staff members attended the Shade Tree Short Course in Ames, Iowa. This two-day event has a trade show wit...

Public Works Operations / Landfill Cover Dirt

Landfill operators are tasked with properly covering trash at the Newton Sanitary Landfill. The Iowa Department of Resources (IDNR) requires compacted clay “cover material” to be placed and maintained over waste in the active portion o...

Public Works Operations / Street Maintenance

With the major amount of snow, cold temperatures and numerous freeze-thaw cycles, potholes have become more apparent throughout the community. The crews have been out filling up these holes with a “cold patch” mix material. This materi...

Forck Attains Wastewater Operator Certification

Water Pollution Control Operator, Matt Forck, recently took the exam for Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) Grade 1 Wastewater operator certification. Matt passed the exam and is now certified as Grade 1 Wastewater Operator. The IDNR requires 12 ...

Water Pollution Control Operation & Maintenance Supervisor Attends Certification Workshop

WPC Operations and Maintenance Supervisor, Brad Hansen, recently attended the Wastewater Grade IV Certification Exam Prep Workshop held at the DMACC Ankeny campus. 

The 2-day, 15-hour comprehensive workshop is for wastewater operators preparing fo...

Parks Operations Update - Winter Maintenance Work

Parks Operations staff has been busy assisting with a lot of snow removal this past month. Parks Operations staff is equipped with three pickups with snow plows and two small tractor units with snow removal attachments. Crews are responsible for downtown ...