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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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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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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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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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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