The city of Urbandale wants the U.S. Postal Service to take note that Urbandale is, well, Urbandale, while Grimes and Johnston are, well, you probably get the drift.

Urbandale City Manager A.J. Johnson and a host of other city officials think it’s about time that the U.S. Postal Service clear the ZIP code confusion that exists with their city and Grimes and Johnston. 

Johnson, whose own insurance agent has suffered from the delusion that he was in one town when, in fact, he was in Urbandale, noted that while the conflicting ZIP codes can lead to some humor, such as the unofficial city slogan, “Urbandale, we’re a city that doesn’t know its own boundaries,” said the issue can cause a real problem for businesses.

The point came up a little more than a year ago when a company went to the city of Johnston for some economic development help and was the told its effort was to no avail for the simple reason that the business was located west of 86th Street on Northpark Drive.

“If they’re in our community, we want to help them; we want them to know we are here to help,” Johnson said.

Working through the Greater Des Moines Partnership, Johnson and Economic Development Director Curtis Brown learned there is something called an “acceptable city” ZIP code. The number stays the same, but a business can choose to say whether it’s in Urbandale, Grimes or Johnston.

“But why would they?” Johnson said, only slightly with tongue in cheek.

Actually, for the acceptable designation, both the cities of Grimes and Johnston had to send letters of approval to the Postal Service to say they are OK with the arrangement.

So, when all the paperwork is filed and appropriate approvals registered, the ZIP codes 50131 and 50111 can be applied to Urbandale or … well, you get the drift.