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    The Waukee Aquatic Center does not receive enough support to survive
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    The Waukee Aquatic Center does not receive enough support to survive

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    A majority of Waukee voters on Tuesday supported the city's construction of an aquatic center — but not enough to actually approve the project — while voters across Dallas County rejected a new courthouse but approved an expansion of the county board of supervisors.

    Waukee had proposed a $33 million aquatic center that required 60% voter approval to pass. According to unofficial results, the project received 54.9% of voters as of Tuesday.

    The center would have had 250,000 square feet of amenities, including pools, slides, a wading pool and a lazy river. It would have been built at the intersection of Sixth Street and University Avenue, west of Sugar Creek Golf Course.

    “The voters have decided that this is not an investment that they want us to make at this point,” Waukee Mayor Courtney Clarke said Tuesday.

    But it's important for the public to get involved after the city received requests to build an aquatic center, Clarke said.

    The aquatics center would be located near the city campus, plans for which have not yet been finalized. Clarke said she isn't sure how the measure's failure will affect those plans, but it is clear that Waukee's growth in the West will continue.

    “This area of ​​our city will end up being the hub,” Clarke said, adding that it makes sense to have public facilities there.

    Also in Dallas County, Republican Matt Schultz won the district attorney election with 51.4% of the vote over Democrat Meggan Guns, according to unofficial results. Republican Todd Halbur won the election for county auditor over Democrat Robert Oller with 56.8% of the vote, unofficial results show.

    New $56.9 million criminal court rejected by majority of voters

    Dallas County had proposed building a three-story, 78,000-square-foot, $56.9 million criminal courthouse next to the Dallas County Law Enforcement Center on Highway 6, east of Adel.

    The project would have required 60% approval to pass. But 51.1% voted against the project, unofficial results show.

    County officials said the courthouse at 801 Court St. in Adel does not have enough space to keep up with the increase in court cases. The new building would have included six courtrooms for criminal and juvenile cases. It would also have housed the Dallas County attorney's offices, juvenile court services, probation and parole staff and the clerk of courts' criminal division.

    The existing, historic courthouse would have been preserved for civil law, civil law, family law, divorce and foreclosure proceedings.

    The Dallas County Board of Supervisors will expand from three to five seats

    According to unofficial results, about 66.8% of voters agreed that the Dallas County Board of Supervisors should be expanded from three to five members.

    Mayors of cities in Dallas County led the effort to bring the proposal to a vote. The mayors said adding precincts will distribute the workload more equitably, make it easier to comply with Iowa's open meetings laws and ensure broader representation in Iowa's fastest-growing county.

    Each supervisor represents a newly drawn district, but is elected jointly by all district voters.

    Clarke, the Waukee mayor who led the campaign to collect signatures for the ballot petition, said Tuesday that the Board of Supervisors' decisions in the near future will determine how the transition process goes. Clarke said voters could choose to have supervisors elected by districts in another election, or the board could make that change itself.

    If the election remains at-large, the county will oversee the redistricting process, she said. But if supervisors are elected by district, the state will oversee the redistricting, Clarke said.

    In any case, there will be redistributions in 2025 and the new supervisors will be elected in 2026.

    Clarke said she was surprised at how many voters supported the expansion — 36,304, according to unofficial results.

    Who ran unopposed in Dallas County?

    Several other district officials ran unopposed for their offices:

    • Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante won a full term.
    • Dallas County Auditor Julia Helm won in District 2 and represented Waukee, Adel and Dallas Center on the Dallas County Board of Supervisors.
    • Dallas County Treasurer Summer Portzen won a full term.

    (This story has been updated to add new information.)

    Phillip Sitter covers the western suburbs for the Des Moines Register. Phillip can be reached via email at [email protected] or via X at @pslifeisabeauty.

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