52nd Annual Carroll Band Day Parade

Tradition marches on as the 52nd Annual Carroll Band Day Parade sponsored by the Carroll Chamber of Commerce, takes place on Saturday, October 3 @ 10:30 AM. Fifteen High School and Middle School Bands will showcase their marching and musical talents before local and out-of-town spectators lining the streets from Adams Elementary to the Carroll Stadium. 50+ local business and organization parade entries will also be a part of this community tradition. As an addition to trophies being awarded to the top 3 performers in each Class 1A, 2A and 3A , a traveling trophy will be awarded to the best overall band performance along with trophies for best drum major, color guard and baton twirler.

Carroll's already low crime rate drops even further

In case you missed it, click here to read The Daily Times Herald's coverage of Carroll Police Department's annual report. The lastest crime statistics reflect one of the best reasons to live and work here...a very low crime rate.

Safety is something we tend to take for granted. As Carroll Police Chief Jeff Cayler said in the DTH article, "We're lucky, we really are, to live in this kind of environment. We should count our blessings that we live in an excellent place. A lot of it is due to the cooperative effort of the people who live here, their community pride and our excellent police officers."

Take time today to stop and yourself and others in the community a well-deserved pat-on-the-back.

Carroll County Leadership Institute Holds First Session

Last night from 5:30 - 9:00 P.M. 24 individuals from various Carroll County businesses joined together for the first session of Carroll County Leadership Institute. John Brockelsby, DMACC and Jim Gossett, Carroll Chamber of Commerce lead the group through conceptual models of leadership and encourage participants to apply this information to their careers. There was lots of group interaction and input.

Carroll County is fortunate to call these 24 people residents.

Chart of the Week

Real Estate Sales Report - Carroll Multiple Listing Service

Chamber President Mike Franey of Mid-Iowa Insurance and Real Estate shared information on the status of residential real estate sales activity with Carroll Area Development Corporation members today. The table at the right points out how the Carroll Multiple Listing Service stacked up against like size towns' MLS. This report for the month of August, 2009, compares owner-occupied single family unit sales with comparable communities and the state of Iowa. Also included is information about median sale price in August and number of Days on the Market.

Is there information you are interested in concerning the economic health of Carroll and Carroll County? Take a look at the labels at the bottom right of this blog, click on "Chart of the Week" to see past posts. Let us know your thoughts and ideas for other indicators and we will find them for you. Just comment on this post or email me: cadc@carrolliowa.com.

St. Anthony Regional Hospital Receives "Best in Value" Award

St. Anthony Regional Hospital recently received 2009-2010 Hospital Value Index: Best in Value Awards from Data Advanage, LLC., and independent hearlthcare data company.

The award recognizes St. Anthony for:

• Best in Value: Superior Patient Satisfaction Merit Award
• Hospital Value Index: Top 100 Hospital
• Hospital Value Index: Best in Region
• Hospital Value Index: Best in State

Data from approximately 4,500 hosptials nationwide was ranked to measure their success in quality, affordability, and efficency and patient satisfaction.

Congratulations to St. Anthony from the Carroll Chamber of Commerce for this honor.

Great Weather and full field for the 47th Annual Chamber Golf Outing

Committee Chair, Rich Hartley is on job watching for a hole-in-one on hole #10.

It was a day filled with great golf, fun, food, a chipping contest, tons of prizes and even a shoe shine while you wait your turn to tee off. A big thank you to all the sponsors and everyone who played in the event, we appreciate your support!

Tourism Benefits with the Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway

Three Lincoln Highway upcoming events on 9/24, 29, 30. In reality, these events are not history events as you might assume. All three are designed with business and local city leaders as the target audiences. Business people who would benefit from tourism promotion along the Lincoln Highway are invited to attend.

The 9/24 lecture is about how byways can have a positive impact on a community from an identity perspective as well as economically. As we become more successful in making the Lincoln Highway statewide a transportation magnet for out of state "see America" coast-to-coast retired baby boomer travelers, they will be stopping here for meals and lodging IF we can show them byway attractions as well. But the business community has to want to be part of that if they expect to see any benefit. Find out how you can be a part of this effort at a free lecture at Santa Maria on 9/24. Lecture starts at 7:00 pm, meal at 6:00 pm (if they have reservations).

The bus tours on 9/29 and 9/30 are also for leaders and business owners that want to actually see what the tourist will see between Grand Junction and Westside. Seen from the eyes of a New York traveler who knows nothing of Iowa, our history and land is new to them and not boring. With some interpretation sites to point out, we can attract tourists just as Route 66 does in the south. Route 66, by the way, has their biggest draw from European travelers (mostly German) who spend major bucks on their "See America" cross-continental trips. Carroll is on the Lincoln Highway route from NYC to Frisco.

Call Francie O'Leary (past Chamber Board Member)to learn more. 712.792.4415.

Chart of the Week

Carroll Airport Much More Active Than Most People Know.

Did you know that the Carroll Municipal Airport (Arthur N. Neu Airport) serves an average of 35 visiting aircraft each week? Most people don't know how active the local airport is. But a recent economic impact analysis released by IDOT's Office of Aviation, the activity level of Iowa's airports is outlined.

A nice executive summary and the full report with details of the activity of each airport is available at http://www.iawings.com/. Click on the image to the right to take a look a the various activities at the Carroll Municipal Airport.

Beware of Phony Awards

A good Chamber member brought to our attention an attempt by an organization to scam Carroll businesses into accepting a "prestigious" award. The award looks nice, like crystal. Shiny. Etched. Trouble is, the business has to pay to earn the award.

Emails notifying businesses they have won awards from a national association appear to be part of a widespread scheme destined to get your business to pay for "vanity"awards and plaques. We are not listing such organizations here because we do not want to give credence or publicity to such underhanded tactics. However the Better Business Bureau has received numerous inquires about a group claiming to be a national organization based in Washington, D.C.

The Better Business Bureau offers several tips to avoid losing money in a "vanity award program:

• Learn everything you can about who is giving the award. If it is coming from a mystery company, chances are it simply wants your money.
• If you didn't apply for an award or the group cannot tell you haw you were nominated, changes are the award is not legitimate.
• Most legitimate awards to not come with costs for the recipient. I there is a cost, scrutinize it even more closely.
• Ask specific questions about how your company or organization was chosen for an award and find out how many similar awards are given each year.

2009-2010 Carroll County Leadership Institute

The first session of 2009/2010 Carroll County Leadership Institute beginns Wednesday, September 23rd. Don't miss an opportunity to be a part of this County wide opportunity! Contact the Chamber for more information - 712-792-4383 or get a registration form on the Chamber web site click on Leadership 101.

WHO-TV Sports Broadcasts from Carroll

A HUGE Crowd turned out at the Chamber Wednesday to be on WHO-TV













WHO-TV's RVTV is a week long expedition for sportscasters Keith Murphy, Andy Fales and staff to have a little fun and get Iowa and Iowa State fans amped up for the big football rivalry this Saturday in Ames. A satellite truck, and four staff arrived ready to take in all the enthusiasm of Carroll. Having stopped in Grinnell and Fort Dodge, Carroll fans and the Chamber were ready to give the crew an experience they wouldn't forget.


They arrived at the Chamber around 1 p.m. Shortly after, Cyclone and Hawkeye fans began to arrive to arrange tents, grills, buses and other paraphenalia to root for their respective teams while Murphy and Fales broadcast their daily radio show on KXNO sport radio from the conference room in the Chamber office.


By mid-afternoon, Carroll restaurants began showering the crew with food. Every hour, another establishment arrived with a most delicious assortment of meals and treats that made quite an impression as you can see in the photo of Murphy watching Fales chow down on the 5 o'clock live satellite feed. See the video here: http://tinyurl.com/mzkrww.


At 6 p.m., WHO featured the community with an interview of the Chambers Business Development Director Rosanne Nees talking up the town: http://tinyurl.com/n5t6vp.


Each broadcast was loaded with good talk about Carroll, with the noise from the trains a common thread. Rosanne supplied the crew with goodies including earplugs as a sleep aid. WHO had a very nice feature on the history and attractions in Carroll, as well as a long feature on Adam and Shawn Haluska, the much more.


The crowd was whipped into a frenzy for each telecast. A smaller group, but perhaps the most enthusiastic fans were at the 10 p.m. broadcast: http://tinyurl.com/m3lsol.


All in all, lots of great publicity for Carroll as Keith Murphy commented in one of the telecasts, the nicest setting ever for RVTV, with local businesses, fans and the Chamber setting the bar high for hospitality. Murphy commented on the RVTV Blog that Carroll was one of the top RVTV tour stops ever.

Chamber Sponsored Workshop

The room was full as Jim Gossett Chamber Executive Director presented "Coping With & Managing Conflict". There were exercises on handling conflict, tips on resolving conflict, and an inciteful analysis of personality styles. Thank you Jim for taking the time to share this material with the members.