by Rebecca McKinsey, Staff Writer
​Daily Times Herald

MANNING
As the women burst into an impromptu rendition of Sia’s “Titanium” in the bathroom at the Manning Recreation Center, their male peers checked out the weight room, one bench pressing 255.
A group of more than 20 young entrepreneurs and businesspeople from throughout Africa visited Manning Saturday, part of their six-week stint in Iowa to learn about business and entrepreneurship through the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders. Universities around the country host groups, including Drake University. The group’s day in Manning was its members’ one taste of rural Iowa.
Their day in Manning included visits to the Manning Hausbarn-Heritage Park and a tour of the German Hausbarn; lunch at Cliff’s Place and a happy hour at BrickHaus Brews; a tour of the Muhlbauer Feedlot; a stop at The Market Place for coffee and shopping — and a bathroom break-turned-workout at the Rec Center.
“The particular topic for us was the partnership we have between private, public and government, and how we use those partnerships to keep the town alive,” said Ron Reischl, chairman of Main Street Manning’s Business Improvement Committee.
Their day included a stroll through the cattle building at the Muhlbauer Feedlot near Manning, a visit that had some fellows shielding their noses from the unfamiliar scent of a bovine throng.
They learned about the timeline on which the cattle are raised and sold for beef each year.
(“Oh, they’re so cute, though,” one fellow protested.)
As Dan Mulhbauer, his wife, Patty, their son, David, and David’s wife, Linda, chatted with the fellows about various aspects of the operation, several took cattle-studded selfies or video, commenting on the cattle’s chuffing noises and reaching out curious hands toward the large, stinky heads.
Outside, Muhlbauer indicated the “sick pen” where injured or weaker animals are taken.
“These guys, around 5, 6 o’clock in the evening, they’re just like boys in town — they want to go out and do something, and they get into fights,” he said. “Or some of them will get together and bully a weaker cow.”
The tour taught the fellows about how four people working full time, with a variety of additional help, keep the cattle herd going, as well as corn, soybean and hay crops, all spanning about 1,500 acres at that location of the family operation.
The group included Elizabeth Kasujja, who works with a healthy-beverage company in Uganda whose proceeds are used to raise awareness about mental health in Africa. She also is associated with Clear Your Mind, a program in Uganda that works with people with depression, and Loving Hearts Babies Home, which finds adoptive families for babies abandoned at hospitals, in dumpsters or elsewhere.
“It is fascinating that we say ‘Agriculture is the backbone of Uganda,’ but we do not have a model farm like the one we visited,” Kasujja said. “It gave me something to think about and got me talking with policy influencers from back home. We need to replicate some of these wonderful practices back home for success.”
Another fellow, Kevin Anungo Shikuku, works in a public health office and for MATS Massive Marketing in Kenya and also is interested in raising insects, including black soldier flies and flying termites, which provide a source of protein for poultry farmers in Kenya.
Shikuku grew up in a small village, farming with his family to raise money for school. He said that given the opportunity, he would return to Manning to live and work.
“How they volunteer to help each other was key to me, as well as how they have preserved their German culture,” he said.
At The Market Place, fellows tried the coffee, did a bit of shopping and charged their phones — but their first stop was the large world map placed near the store’s entrance, which invites visitors to mark their hometowns, states and countries with pins. Africa received an infusion of pins that day.
The day ended on a light note, with the group clambering onto the large concrete “Iowa” sign at Manning’s in-progress Trestle Park for a photo before heading to BrickHaus Brews for pizza, beer and several intense Foosball games.
The fellows, who hailed from almost 20 African countries, said they will take home ideas from their day in Manning.
“We are usually overwhelmed by work over there, because the spirit of volunteerism is not that strong back home,” Kasujja said. “Manning taught me that as a young leader, it will be my responsibility to spark that fire of volunteerism among others and get them to give of their time meaningfully.”

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No Joke - Mr and Mrs Peacock #ExperienceManning at the German Hausbarn Heritage park!!

On Mr. Peacock's latest adventure, they discovered a hidden treasure of a old German Hausbarn The Hausbarn is near the small town of Manning Iowa, Iowa. Learn all about this this house/barn all-in-one and how the people back in the 1600's used to live from Mr. Peacock & Mrs. Peacock in their latest adventure.

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Carroll Daily Times Herald, Rebecca McKinsey

Before long, visitors to Manning’s Trestle Park might lock their bikes on a colorful steel bike rack mimicking the design of an iconic Manning structure and sit down on an attached bench to peruse a book or newspaper.
That public art project is one of several designed and proposed by Iowa State University students that Manning might move forward with implementing.
Through one of the city’s frequent partnerships with Iowa State University, Manning solicited public art designs from ISU students in an interdisciplinary class taught by Department of Architecture lecturer Reinaldo Correa. After a meeting Saturday with Correa, city and economic-development representatives narrowed down the proposed designs in their continued quest to choose at least three, if not more, of the projects to be constructed in Manning. They plan to raise funds or seek out grants to complete as many of the projects as possible, said Ron Reischl, chair of Main Street Manning’s Business Improvement Committee.
The class was tasked with designing public art, signage or structures for three areas — at the Trestle Park planned at the north edge of Manning, at the entrance to the city’s German Hausbarn and the Carroll County Freedom Rock and along Highway 141 by the city’s Little League baseball fields. Students visited Manning in September before crafting their designs.
Many of the projects students proposed were interactive — including a metal sculpture that incorporates monkey bars, a sculpture kids can walk through that mimics the image of grasses blown by the wind and a tree-like sculpture that catches the wind in its “leaves” as children spin it, merry-go-round style, to create natural music.
One design depicts a fire pit at Trestle Park, incorporating bricks from Main Street and a protective metal grate designed to resemble Iowa’s prairie grasses.
One of Manning’s finalists for the artwork along Highway 141 was designed by student Tara Kraft and features four steel columns, one to represent each of Manning’s popular attractions — the water tower, the railroad trestle, the German Hausbarn and Trinity Church. LED lights inside the tower-like structures would light them up at night.
Students offered a variety of sign ideas for advertising the Hausbarn and Freedom Rock as well, ranging from one featuring a soldier and firefighter to a pyramid-like structure announcing the attractions.
The assignment allowed students to move past computer work and see how their work might be implemented in the real world, Correa said.
“Coming up with these ideas and seeing they can become a physical thing is very rewarding,” he said. “As they’re transitioning from academia to the professional world, it’s a story future employers would be very captivated to hear.”
Once Manning selects several projects to pursue, the city and Correa might work with the students whose designs are chosen to complete more extensive design work, Correa said.
In addition to hoping to complete projects in each of the three proposed places, Manning officials also are looking at ways to incorporate other student designs throughout the city, such as at the hospital green space or in “parklets” that are being considered for Main Street, Reischl said.
The collaboration with this ISU class has been vital in Manning’s economic-development efforts, he added.
“To include artwork and add culture to our effort of improving quality of life will encourage people, especially younger generations with children, to consider Manning as a place to live,” Reischl said.

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Carroll Daily Times Herald, Rebecca McKinsey

ISU students’ designs to be incorporated in Manning

A tree sculpture that sings. A fire pit incorporating prairie-grass designs. A metal sculpture incorporating monkey bars.
When the city of Manning asked a design communication class at Iowa State University to devise designs for public art and signs in the city of about 1,500 that continues to cast out a net for new ideas, the students delivered.
The class of almost 30 presented a variety of designs and ideas to Manning Mayor Harvey Dales and Main Street Manning Board President Ron Reischl last week. Once some of the designs have been finalized and narrowed down before the end of the year, a few members of the class will travel to Manning to discuss the city’s implementation of several of the proposed projects. Eventually, Manning will incorporate several of the designs into the city’s streetscape, along Highway 141 and at the in-progress Trestle Park.
“The students appreciate and love the opportunity to work on a real-life problem, and they look forward to the chance of their designs being integrated into a real-life project,” Reischl said. “It’s hugely beneficial for both parties.”
The designs, most of which stem from proposals from Manning’s most recent participation with Iowa’s Living Roadways Community Visioning Program, offer ideas for public art in Trestle Park, another in-progress project in Manning, as well as along Highway 141. A separate proposal asked for ideas for a sign at Manning’s east entrance announcing the Carroll County Freedom Rock and the German Hausbarn.
Students in the class visited Manning in September, allowing them to see the city for which they were crafting ideas.
Much of the artwork or projects students proposed was interactive — including a metal sculpture that incorporates monkey bars, a sculpture kids can walk through that mimics the image of grasses blown by the wind and a tree-like sculpture that catches the wind in its “leaves” as children spin it, merry-go-round style, to create natural music. For many of the projects, students also created animations to demonstration to Manning representatives how their pieces would function.
Another design depicts a fire pit at Trestle Park, incorporating bricks from Main Street and a protective metal grate designed to resemble Iowa’s prairie grasses.
“Harvey and I were blown away by that one,” Reischl said. “We’re going to make that happen.”
Manning’s collaborations with the Iowa State University College of Design have resulted in several concrete projects in Manning, including signs for the city’s renovated downtown buildings and the “Welcome to Manning” signs on either end of town.
“As has occurred in all of our past interaction sand projects with the College of Design, we were blown away by the breadth of ideas and the large diversity of ideas,” Reischl said. “It will be very difficult to choose one or two designs.”
In fact, the initial idea for creating a park around the historic railroad trestle on Manning’s northern edge came from a group of College of Design students visiting Manning some time ago, Reischl said.
He added that he enjoyed visiting Ames and speaking with students about the thought process behind their designs.
Manning will likely complete additional fundraising for some of the projects the students have proposed, Reischl said.
The interdisciplinary class involved in this particular collaboration with Manning incorporates students of a variety of ages and from a variety of majors, including advertising, design and engineering said ISU Department of Architecture lecturer Reinaldo Correa, who teaches the class.
Correa, who has a background in public art and architecture and who used to work with RDG Planning & Design in Manning, said he enjoyed collaborating with Manning.
“I thought this was a good opportunity for students not only to learn design but to meet members of a community and use design as a means to empower and create art and design that would help the infrastructure and experience of a small town in Iowa,” he said.
For some of his students, he added, this was their first opportunity to complete design projects out of the classroom and work on designs that might move past the theoretical stage.
“As soon as you do a project of this sort, dealing with real people — it became very tangible and real for them early on,” Correa said. “Students are saying they have something in their portfolio that’s meaningful. Ron, Harvey and (City Manager Dawn Rohe) have been really hands-on, and when students see that, they feel as though they’re doing something that’s meaningful.
“Seeing a design go from an idea to a tangible, physical form in the real world is very gratifying.”

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Manning and Carroll are two of the 22 communities who have been awarded Resource Enhancement and Protection (REAP) grants from the Natural Resource Commission of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The Milwaukee Trestle Trail Park in Manning has been awarded $29,184 to assist with the construction of a 2,700 foot concrete trail that will run from downtown at Third Street, along the West Nishnabotna River and end at the Trestle Park on the north end of Manning. This park is designed with a primary focus on young adults with outdoor exercise equipment, volleyball, horseshoes, a shelter house and more. There will be some features for children included as well. Manning is also working with the National Park Service and the surrounding counties on regional trail development that would tie into the city’s trail system. The Carroll Community will be receiving a large grant, $122,218, for use in development of Segment A in the Carroll Recreational Trial system. This portion of Phase I will connect Northeast Park and Veteran’s Memorial Park with an approximately eight-tenths of a mile trail segment. In total, REAP has distributed nearly $2.4 million dollars this year.

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Several months ago, the City of Manning reached out to the National Park Service (NPS) to initiate the formation of a group to explore the possibility of regional trail systems in the underserved parts of Carroll, Crawford, Audubon and Shelby Counties. On Monday, Oct. 3, the NPS announced they would be awarding technical assistance through the Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance (RTCA) program to the city for regional trail planning in 2017. Brian Leaders, with the NPS, will facilitate regional trail group meetings as well as solicit public input to work toward a plan. The goal is to connect Manning to other local communities, and then eventually to the Des Moines metro system, the Raccoon River Valley Trail and the Pottawattamie County system as their trails are completed. The long-range vision is to have trails from the Des Moines metro to Omaha/Council Bluffs with spurs to meet existing local trails. So far, the group consists of: the cities of Manning and Coon Rapids; the Manilla Economic Development Group; Shelby County Trails,; Frontier Iowa Trails; Crawford County Economic Development; Carroll County Conservation; the American Discovery Trail; Bolton and Menk Engineering; Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation; and the National Park Service. Groups or individuals wanting more information or who are interested in helping with this plan can contact Manning City Administrator, Dawn Rohe, through the contact points included with this story on our website.

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Carroll Daily Times Herald, Rebecca McKinsey

It's not much more than displaced dirt right now, but Manning’s new Trestle Park is approaching a reality with the completion of colorful designs that soon will move from paper to ground.
Representatives from the Community Visioning Program recently presented mostly finalized designs and plans for a variety of projects that have been earmarked for potential completion in Manning in the coming months and years.
The plans, which encompass five separate landscaping and beautification projects that could be implemented in and around Manning, came with an estimated $2.5 million price tag. However, Manning wouldn’t plan on forking over that much, said Ron Reischl, board president of Main Street Manning.
“Even if we do all of these, we’ll do it for less,” he said.
For one thing, the city’s relationship with colleges and universities will allow it to move forward with some of the proposed projects with the help of students looking for hands-on experience. To move forward with one of the proposed projects, Manning is working with Iowa State University College of Design students to help design four signs that would be situated along Highway 141 and would feature four of Manning’s main attractions — the water tower, the railroad trestle, the German Hausbarn and Trinity Church.
The best-known project on the list is a trestle-themed park that will lie along Manning’s north side. Others include additional greenery and ornamentation along Main Street, a downtown “green space” at the juncture of Main Street and Highway 141 and a sign marking the entrance to Great Western Park.
Plans for the trestle park have been in the works for some time after the need for a space catering to young adults was identified.
“We already have a nice children’s park in Manning,” Reischl previously said. “We have none oriented to young adults, who are certainly the future of the community.”
The plans for the park include a “natural play area” for children, incorporating elements such as a slide that, rather than having children climb steps, starts at the top of a hill. Nearby is open space for adults to play Frisbee and areas for sand volleyball, bags and barbecuing.
Funds for the first phase, which includes those elements and more, have been raised, Reischl said. Because of a timeline attached to one of the grants benefiting the project, the park will be completed by the end of next year. Later additions could add space for campers, tents and other activities.
The downtown green space designs include a movable corner stage and amphitheater with sound barriers, as well as landscaping to create an attractive entrance to the city’s downtown.
“The big part of doing something at Highway 141 was to draw people’s attention to that corner — to say, ‘You’re at Main Street. You’re downtown. You’re at the heart of Manning,’” said Jen Cross, a landscape architect with RDG Planning & Design’s Omaha office, at a recent design meeting in Manning.
The plans for Great Western Park are simpler — a sign marking the park’s entrance, for now, although efforts to make certain areas of the park more handicap-accessible could be incorporated as well, Reischl said.
The final plans presented to the city through the Community Visioning program aren’t set in stone, he said — for instance, the plans for Main Street include adding trees along the sides of the road, while the city might first focus on grading tall curbs to make them more easily accessible.
This is the second time Manning has undergone the Iowa’s Living Roadways Community Visioning Program, created through a partnership between the Iowa Department of Transportation and Iowa State University Extension Landscape Architecture and Trees Forever. The program, offered to cities with a population of less than 10,000, requires cities chosen to participate to earmark $2,000 that will remain in the city and be used for one of the proposed projects. Trees Forever, landscape architects and other agencies then work with the city to develop and incorporate beautification, design and transportation improvement ideas.
Manning first went through the program in 2012. Ideas proposed at the time included enhancing the area’s trail system and adding amenities along the trails, developing signage and logos for the city, enhancing Main Street with street trees, bike racks and flower baskets and incorporating landscaping themes and planting native species along Highway 141.
Once Manning exhausted those ideas, incorporating many of them, the city returned to Community Visioning with a new slate of proposals and was accepted to once again undergo the planning and design program. These ideas are the result of the second collaboration. Manning is one of 10 Iowa communities participating in the program this year, and one of only a few that have done so twice.
What cities do with the ideas developed through the Community Visioning program is up to them — it depends on their initiative and funding, said Brad Riphagen, field coordinator with Trees Forever, recently.
“Whether the projects get going is a matter of finding dollars,” he said. “Manning has been very successful at finding the dollars.”

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With all of the construction taking place on the new Boulders Inn Manning, the community put out a call last May for suggestions on renaming 311th Street that runs to the east and west as access to the new hotel and to the historical Hausbarn. Residents were asked to vote on three selected options, Heritage Drive, Heritage Parkway and Veterans Parkway. The overwhelming winner was Heritage Drive. Now that paving has been completed on a portion of the roadway, from the East Street entrance to a little past the Hausbarn entrance and parking area, the Hausbarn has made an official notification of their change of address to 130 Heritage Drive. Boulders Inn Manning is still under construction with an estimated opening in October of this year.

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Drake University has joined 35 other colleges and universities across the country and will be hosting a contingent of emerging African Leaders aged 25 to 35 years old. While in Iowa, the Mandela Washington Fellows will spend approximately six weeks studying business and entrepreneurship at leadership institutes. Their studies will extend beyond the classroom in a one-day visit to rural Iowa with 25 members of the group travel to Manning on Saturday, July 23. Manning will be rolling out the red carpet and introducing the group to one of the most innovative business and entrepreneurial-minded small towns in the state. After a morning of presentations, they will be touring the recently restored Main Street, Puck Custom Enterprises and take a driving tour of the community. At the conclusion of the day, the public is invited to meet and mingle with the fellows at Brickhaus Brews from 4:30 to 6 p.m.

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