It was a full house at Monday’s Carroll County Board of Supervisors’ meeting as a contingent of residents from the Manning area was on hand to show their support for a proposed project. Hausbarn Heritage Park Director, Freda Damman, and member, Allen Muhlbauer, spoke about an upgrade to Willow Creek Park, which includes the Carroll County Freedom Rock and the campground to the north of the Hausbarn. The county donated the park to the group in 1999, and Damman explained how it has added to their bottom line.
Since 1999, they have added five sites, with 14 that now offer both 50 and 30 amp service at each. They have seen this pay off in added income, increasing from $1,095 in 2013 to over $4,800 this year. They have also been able to use other county funding to re-roof the restrooms at the park. There is, however, an issue that has come to light about the difficulty campers are having accessing the provided dump station. Muhlbauer says they end up parking on the street.
Bids were solicited for installing full hook-ups, and they received two, from Soll’s Service in Manning and Halbur Hardware Company. The lowest bid, from Soll’s, was around $9,250, but they would not be able to do the work until next spring. Halbur Hardware came in at a little over $12,380, but said they could begin right away. There has been $3,500 already raised and about $1,500 in in-kind labor pledged, so the organization is seeking $7,385 from the county. Supervisors discussed the possibility of grants to support the project as well as fronting the money, then having Hausbarn Heritage Park use a portion of their camping proceeds to pay some of it back over time. Muhlbauer and Damman both say they had not considered those options, but would want to investigate them further as other updates are being considered with camping income. The matter will be coming back to the supervisors at their next meeting, Monday, Nov. 5 at 9 a.m. in the board room at the Carroll County Courthouse.
