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Trust fund benefits 3 organizations in 2017

1/26/2017

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Carroll Daily Times Herald, Rebecca McKinsey

A relatively new Manning trust fund will benefit a variety of projects this year — a school communication TV, a coloring book highlighting Manning’s history and culture, and mats for youth wrestlers.
In its fourth year, the Refresh Manning Trust Fund continues to benefit nonprofit businesses and organizations in the City of Manning. The $1,600 available in grants this year was split among three grant applicants.
The IKM-Manning School District received $750 for a 65-inch TV in the high school lunchroom, used to communicate information about school and community events and local job openings. It will replace a current 39-inch TV, which applicants said is harder to read in the lunchroom but will be used elsewhere in the school.
“The other thing that attracted us from an economic-development viewpoint was that in addition to putting information on the TV about school-related events and community events, they were going to post job openings from local businesses pertinent to high-schoolers,” trust fund committee member Ron Reischl said. “The economic-development point made that application interesting.”
The Manning Historic Preservation Commission received $750 to design, create and print a coloring book featuring historic and cultural places in Manning, including the German Hausbarn, Trinity Church, Milwaukee Trestle, Main Street District, water tower, Leet/Hassler Farmstead and more.
IKM-Manning students will be involved in the book’s design. The books will be available for free at the Hausbarn, Boulders Inn and Suites, Manning Public Library and participating businesses. Each page, in addition to having an image to color, will have historical information about the featured site that would be interesting to both kids and parents, Reischl said.
“We wanted a way to advertise the historical nature of some of the buildings in Manning, especially downtown,” Reischl said. “We felt the best way to get this message out was through the children.”
The final project this year’s grants are benefiting is the Manning Wolves youth wrestling team’s fundraising efforts for wrestling mats. The trust’s $100 grant for the team will contribute to its goal of more than $2,000. The volunteer program started in November of 2016 is open to kids through middle school age. Last year, 25 wrestlers participated, and this year’s enrollment is up to 38. All of those involved in the program are volunteers.
“They’ve been amazingly successful from a participation viewpoint,” Reischl said. “They’ve had good results for a young team competing with more experienced teams.”
All three organizations are providing additional funding for the projects that benefited from the trust.
The fund follows “Endow Iowa” guidelines for those who donate to it, which includes a state tax credit for 25 percent of the donation and a federal tax deduction. Donations other than cash, including stocks, bonds, corn, soybeans and real estate, also can benefit the fund.
Donations for the fund, which need to be $100 or more, can be sent to CFCC, c/o Iowa Savings Bank, P.O. Box 967, Carroll, IA, 51401, with checks made out to CFCC and “Refresh Manning Trust” written on the memo line.
“I’d encourage people to donate,” Reischl said. “The money will stay in town, is the key.”

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Community Shows Up In Spades To Welcome New Vet To AMVC In Manning -

1/26/2017

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Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, John Greving, grew up in Willey and spent the past three and a half years practicing at the DeWitt Vet Clinic before making the move to Manning. Greving will be taking over at AMVC in Manning for Dr. Tom Ulrickson, who will be retiring in June after over 25 years as a mixed animal practitioner in the Manning location. Greving has been working with Ulrickson for the past two weeks, and said he is happy to take advantage of this opportunity for several reasons.

Greving, who served in the Marine Corps for four years, returned to working in the swine industry for Pfizer Animal Health. This position drove his interest in attending Iowa State University, where he received his DVM in 2013. He says he is really looking forward to several different aspects of his new position.

There were pickup trucks and SUVs as far as the eye could see around the Manning AMVC offices late morning on Thursday as the community showed up in full force to welcome Greving. Dr. Ulrickson says they are thrilled to have Greving join the Manning staff and that his experience in DeWitt at a large animal practice will help him be a well-rounded vet, facing all issues  or sizes of animals needing their attention. And when Greving said he had some big shoes to fill, Ulrickson said he has big feet and he’ll will work out just fine.

Greving, his wife Shelly and their three children” Olivia, who is eight; Andrew, five; and Easton two, moved to their new home south of Manning at the beginning of the year and are now settled into their home and community.

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Manning Family Recovery Center Helps Parents Talk To Teens About Drinking And Drugs

1/23/2017

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Today’s teenagers face many different challenges than former generations, but they share the same types of dangers when it comes to exposure to alcohol and drugs. Parents are often left with questions about how to recognize warning signs and how to act if their child is using or considering experimentation. Manning Family Recovery Center’s Clinical Coordinator, Jennifer Tornow, will be helping parents recognize the signs and symptoms and educate them on how to talk to the children and young adults in their life about the responsibility and dangers associated with drugs and alcohol this Thursday, Jan. 12, from 5 to 6 p.m. in the Manning Regional Healthcare Center’s (MRHC) January Medical Mini-Series. The free program will be held in the MRHC west campus conference room number one and is open to the public.

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Manning Child Care Center’s $200,000 expansion good for kids, staff

1/11/2017

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Carroll Daily Times Herald, Matthew Rezab

The windchill outside was 8 below zero on Wednesday when Brayden Halbur reared back with the Spider-Man bouncy ball in his little, 4-year-old arm in ready to whip the squishy orb more than 25 feet to his friends.
Luckily for everyone involved Brayden was wearing jeans and a T-shirt inside the newly expanded indoor playroom — part of a more than $200,000 expansion that was completed in September at Manning Child Care Center.
“On cold winter days like today the kids are able to come back here and still run off that energy they need to,” MCCC Director Michelle Starman said. “We were able to put restrooms and a maintenance closet in here as well.”
In addition to the playroom, a 1,100-square-foot classroom was added to accommodate school-aged children. The expansion increases the center’s total space from 4,400 square feet to about 6,500 square feet.
Starman said the new space has made life easier for her, her staff, parents and most importantly the children.
“It’s just amazing; the difference in (the kids’) attitudes toward coming to day care now,” she said. “They have new toys and their own space. We were in a crunch before we built this and not able to move kids around as much because we were so strapped on space. It gave us more flexibility to have older kids over here, and that leaves more room in the preschool room.”
The center’s capacity has increased from 60 children to 84 since the expansion. Starman said around 60 children are cared for on an average day. The six classrooms now at the staff’s disposal is a far cry from the two rooms they were limited to only 10 years ago.
Starman said the center’s staff loves the pliability of the new setup.
“We’ve seen the increase in the number of families we serve, and we just have that cushion now where we can accommodate more families,” Starman said. “Knowing that there’s more room here and we’re not stuffing kids in definitely helps.”
Brad Vollstedt, president of the Manning Child Care Board, said it took a community effort over the course of three years to keep the center growing and get the project accomplished.
“We certainly could have never done it without all the people that did a lot of work for it,” he said. “Especially Main Street Manning and the Manning Betterment Foundation certainly. The people of Manning know how important child care is to economic development. Everyone has been supportive, and it’s been a collaborative effort.”
Since 2013, the center received money from: The Timmerman Trust, Prairie Meadows, Lampe Trust, Iowa West Foundation, Barbara Renze Foundation, $75,000 from a Main Street Manning challenge grant, and the last $14,000 to complete the project from the Manning Betterment Foundation.
Both Vollstedt and Starman said they see child care as a necessity for economic development. The project took shape because Manning is a growing community and they’d like to keep it that way.
“By 2013, (the board) felt that it was a need in the community,” Starman said. “There are lots of in-home providers, but they’re full as well. We still get calls (from parents who need child care) every week, but I can’t just tell them we for sure have space. It’s dependent on staffing.”
Kevin Boyle, president of the Manning Betterment Foundation, said he was happy the Foundation could help put the finishing touches on what was a very collaborative project. He said complaints about the lack of quality child care options in Manning was frustrating area parents and they wanted to do something to help.
“We’re seeing quite a few of our homegrown kids coming back,” Boyle said. “They want to raise their family here in manning which has created an increase in demand. Without quality child care it’s tough to grow a community.”
Vollstedt and Boyle each said they have been impressed with Starman’s leadership both before and after the expansion. Boyle said that now that the staff has grown he’s heard nothing but good things from parents.
“This was a big project,” Vollstedt said. “At one time we thought it was just a pipe dream, but with the work of a lot of people that pipe dream become a reality.”


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Carroll County Libraries Have Increase In Visitors And Increase In Expenses

1/9/2017

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Linda Muhlbauer, City of Manning Librarian, is taking a leadership role in Carroll County. Linda, THANKS for your initiative and foresight in leading the Manning library into the future!!

Carroll Broadcasting Company


Library directors from Manning, Coon Rapids and Glidden spoke to the Carroll County Board of Supervisors this morning (Monday) and provided details about the past year as well as a forecast for their needs in 2017. Linda Muhlbauer of Manning said that each library within the county has seen an increase in usage over the last 12 months, with over 107,000 visitors to the libraries and more than 17,000 program participants. They also discussed an increase in rural usage, particularly with technology. Muhlbauer said these increases are somewhat related to a national trend being seen in the industry.

Muhlbauer said the libraries are seeing a growth in their collections, but they are also seeing the costs of books rise and they are forecasting more expense this year for new additions. Last year, the libraries altogether requested $79,682 in funding. This year, they are asking the county to consider an increase of over $7,000 to $86,893. Muhlbauer said that in addition to increased costs of materials, they have seen regulatory changes that will bring unexpected expenses for implementation.

Carroll already has the catalog and is funded at a higher level than the smaller community libraries. State funding currently represents about three percent overall. Muhlbauer also presented a spreadsheet that gave the supervisors an overview of funding for like-sized counties. This comparison revealed that funding provided by Carroll County is two cents per thousand on average lower than these other counties. The supervisors thanked all three librarians, Muhlbauer, Maura Marsh from Coon Rapids and Erin Wolf from Glidden, for their presentation and said they will be using the information presented to make their budgeting decisions at a later date. The funding provided by the county to the libraries is distributed at 50 percent to the Carroll Public Library with the other 50 percent evenly divided between the other three.

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Board president reflects on 2016

1/6/2017

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Carroll County is blessed with many great citizens and communities.
As Main Street Manning Board president, I would like to provide insight into one of those communities — Manning.
At the end of the year, it is common to reflect on the past 12 months. I entered 2016 thinking the pace would slow down ... but it didn’t.
The year started with the Entrepreneur Boot Camp for Women hosted by Drake University in January. Women from Crawford and Carroll counties attended the two-day entrepreneurial workshop, which received great reviews. From the relationships established in the Boot Camp, an informal group called Startup Sisters of West Central Iowa formed and has continued to meet. The group is led by Cindy Lawler from Random Ruby’s of Carroll and meets monthly at BrickHaus Brews in Manning.
Boulders Inn Manning, LLC broke ground April 1 and opened the new Boulders Inn & Suites Oct. 4. The Boulders team indicated the Manning community raised the required investment faster than any of its other 11 communities. Many of the local shareholders said they invested not only for profit opportunity but simply to be part of a team that brought a needed economic development to their community. Hats off to the investors!
In April, Gov. Terry Branstad presented Main Street Manning with a Game Changer Award at the annual Main Street Iowa Awards Banquet. The three-year $800,000 downtown revitalization of 17 building facades on Main Street led to the coveted award. The award recognizes “inspirational, catalytic occurrences or influences that have left significant and lasting impacts on the Main Street programs and Main Street districts.”
A capstone project of a Drake University School of Journalism and Mass Communication class was the development of a public-relations plan for Manning. Over the summer, Main Street Manning hired one of the Drake graduates to help implement portions of the plan. The recommendations are both thorough and expansive, and Manning will use them for years to come.
Char-Mac Assisted Living, with its 36 rooms, opened in June. This project filled medical and housing gaps in the community. We are thankful to have this award-winning company and management team to serve those in need.
In July, Manning hosted dozens of young business leaders from sub-Saharan Africa. Their one-day visit to Manning was designed to share Manning’s use of private-public partnerships in our economic development activities. Upon completion of their weeks-long immersion in Iowa and U.S. culture, they indicated their visit to Manning was one of the highlights. Check out the YouTube video of the visitors dancing on Main Street on the ManningIA.com homepage.
Main Street Manning entered into its ninth and 10th partnerships with Iowa State University’s College of Design. In the first project, eight graduate students developed designs for the Main Street green space area where the old hospital was located. In the second project, 25-plus students developed architectural artwork designs for Trestle Park and the Little League baseball fields along Highway 141 and a new sign for the Carroll County Freedom Rock on the east edge of Manning.
Looking forward, there is at least one change scheduled for next year. Main Street Manning’s primary fundraiser, Main Event Family Feud, will be replaced by a version of The Newlywed Game. Should be interesting — and entertaining.
Want to learn more? Visit the Main Street Manning Facebook page and ManningIA.com.
Happy New Year to y’all!
--Ron Reischl served as the Main Street Manning board president from Jan. 2011 until Dec. 2016.


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PASSING THE TORCH

1/6/2017

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After 6 years with Reischl, Main Street Manning welcomes new board president Blum
by Rebecca McKinsey, Staff Writer

When Ron Reischl faced his impending retirement from IBM in Austin, Texas, almost a decade ago, in a city he loved and thought he’d never leave, his mind nevertheless kept returning to his hometown.
Manning.
And in 2008, after more than 30 years away, Reischl moved back to the small Iowa town where he grew up.
Reischl, 65, also can’t pinpoint exactly how it happened that he became involved in Main Street Manning, but by January of 2011, he was working as the economic development organization’s board president.
Now, in line with the organization’s bylaws, he is finished with the position after serving as board president for six years. Jeff Blum, formerly the chairman of Main Street Manning’s Business Improvement Committee, is the organization’s new board president, while Reischl will take Blum’s former role as the committee chairman. Reischl’s first role with Main Street Manning was serving on that committee.
Main Street Manning has accomplished quite a bit during the past six years, most notably an $800,000, three-year revitalization of 17 downtown building facades, Reischl said.
“That really changed the face of our downtown district, and it has had a profound impact,” he said.
Manning has been recognized with a variety of awards for the joint project between the city and Main Street Manning.
Also notable, Reischl said, was Main Street Manning’s assistance with an expansion at the Manning Child Care Center and its involvement in the creation of the Refresh Manning Trust Fund, a perpetual fund designed to financially support nonprofit entities in Manning.
For Reischl, Manning has always been special, since its residents enveloped his family when his brother died and again when his father was injured in a farming accident — local farmers converged and completed the family’s harvest in just a day or two.
“Moving away from Manning, I admired it from afar,” Reischl said. “Being here, I came to sincerely appreciate the number of volunteers and the passion of the volunteers in Manning. That’s probably the biggest reason Manning has been successful, and it goes back generations — the passion and willingness for volunteers to get involved.”
In addition to working with the Business Improvement Committee, Reischl plans to continue to tackle the need for additional housing in Manning, which has been identified as one of the city’s major roadblocks to drawing in new employees and businesses.
“I’m extremely optimistic about the Main Street organization going forward,” Reischl said. “And I’m proud and optimistic of the makeup of the board.”
Main Street Manning’s new board has 10 adult members — five men and five women — and the majority are less than 40 years old, Reischl said. It also has four student members: two IKM-Manning seniors, who are voting members, and two juniors.
And Reischl, who has worked with Blum extensively during the latter’s last few years with the board, is confident about Main Street Manning’s future under Blum.
“I’m 100 percent certain he’ll do a great job,” he said.
Blum, 33, graduated from Manning High School in 2001 before attending Iowa State University to study industrial engineering. He married his high-school sweetheart Jamie, a 2000 Manning graduate, and they moved to Omaha for five years before deciding several years ago they wanted to raise their family in a town more like Manning.
They first looked at cities similar to their hometown closer to Omaha before deciding they preferred the real thing.
“We’d always planned on ending up in (Manning) someday,” Blum said. “So we made the jump back.”
Now, Jeff Blum works as an operations manager at Manning manure-application company Puck Customs Enterprises, and Jamie owns Blum Physical Therapy in Manning. They have three daughters: Annabelle, 6, Evelyn, 4, and Josephine, 2.
And for the past few years, Blum has been actively involved in Main Street Manning, mostly with the Business Improvement Committee that works with local employers. He’s also served on the Main Street Manning board for three years.
Main Street Manning provided Blum with the perfect opportunity to become involved in the city that raised him, he said.

“(Main Street Manning lets you) be involved in something that’s not only doing good for the community but is advancing the future,” he said.

And for a young couple moving back home, helping to ensure the city’s future was important, he said.
Blum complimented the work completed in recent years by Main Street Manning and city officials, including Reischl, Manning Mayor Harvey Dales and City Administrator Dawn Rohe. Main Street Manning also has had two executive directors in the past few years, Colleen Nelson and Cindy Ranniger.
“It’s amazing the things they’d say ‘yes’ to and the things they’d go after,” Blum said. “Seeing people that have that determination and drive, who will make almost anything their mission if it’ll benefit the future of the community, is rewarding.”
With new leadership for Main Street Manning’s board this year, the organization will inevitably look different in the coming years, Blum said — and he’s looking forward to the challenge.
One of Main Street Manning’s upcoming goals will be additional analysis of the city’s merchants and stores in an effort to better keep spending within the city’s bounds.
“We want to hone in on what niche markets we have here and see what we can take advantage of, not only keeping Main Street vibrant but supplementing existing businesses with ideas and continuing to grow and expand,” he said.
“I think it’ll be a fun challenge for everyone.”

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Students sing, snack with elderly

1/5/2017

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Carroll Daily Times Herald, Staff

Young and more experienced voices joined earlier this month when Manning-area students and families visited elderly residents of their city to share treats and sing Christmas carols.
Students delivered goodie bags and sang Christmas carols at the Manning Plaza Nursing Home and the Char-Mac Assisted Living Center Dec. 14 after holding a soup and sandwich supper at the Manning United Methodist Church to raise money for area organizations that work to combat hunger, a joint effort between the United Methodist Church and Sacred Heart Church.
About 50 students packaged and delivered goodie bags to elderly residents at the nursing home and assisted living center and sang Christmas carols with the residents on a cold evening.
The women’s group at the United Methodist Church provided supplies for more than 120 goodie bags to be delivered, and the IKM-Manning FFA donated fruit for the goodie bags.
Also tied in to the evening was the Methodist church’s Kids Hope program, a five-year partnership that pairs church members as mentors with IKM-Manning students. The Kids Hope members held their Christmas party the evening of the soup supper, and kids involved with the program participated with the caroling and soup supper.
The third annual soup supper fed 150 and raised $500 for Wolf Pack for Hunger and Adopt a Family.
The third annual Wolf Pack for Hunger is scheduled for April 19. The project brings together area residents and students to package meals for families both locally and abroad.
Adopt a Family, another Manning program, provides meals, services, gifts and other items to area families who need them.


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