Living in Carroll

Cyville55

Member
Oct 10, 2009
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My girlfriend (soon to be fiance) and I are planning on moving to Carroll sometime soon. We currently live in Waterloo, but would like to move closer to her family in western Iowa. Just wondering if anyone could give me any ideas for places to work there, or for anyone that lives there, what the town and people are like. Thank you.
 

cutshot

Member
Oct 28, 2008
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It's a community of about 10,000 people. Very nice, clean town, 2 high schools, progressive hospital, and fairly prosperous. Carroll has a very low unemployment percentage, but I think it's a little slow this time of year. Do you have any special training or talents? Again, very nice community!
 

twojman

Well-Known Member
Jun 1, 2006
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Clive
My girlfriend (soon to be fiance) and I are planning on moving to Carroll sometime soon. We currently live in Waterloo, but would like to move closer to her family in western Iowa. Just wondering if anyone could give me any ideas for places to work there, or for anyone that lives there, what the town and people are like. Thank you.

Don't go any further west. Denison is not good.
 

Cyville55

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Oct 10, 2009
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I graduated from a community college with a AA in Civil Engineering Technology, but have been looking for a career change. We have been through Carroll a few times, and have been pretty impressed by it.
 

CyCo

Member
Jun 19, 2006
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Beaverton, Ore.
Great town and a great county! Fair amount of hawk fans, but nice ISU Cyclone club group. From your education, I suggest you look for IDOT jobs in Ames and live somewhere in between.
 

garn91

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Jun 1, 2006
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Ankeny
Carroll is a great regional town, but IIRC, the taxes in Carroll are through the roof. Look at the surrounding towns like Breda, Auburn, etc to live in. Yeah, they are small towns, but housing and taxes are much cheaper than Carroll and you're at most a 10-15 minute drive to Carroll.
 

GrindingAway

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It's a decent town. I was always told Pella Windows in an awesome place to work. They gave me an offer but I didn't want to engineer windows.

While you are in town look up Lois Feldman.
 

CloneIce

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Apr 11, 2006
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2 awesome things bout Carroll:

1. Lois Feldman

2. Those two bandits who broke into a house and disguised themselves by putting magic marker on their face!
 

cycloner29

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Dec 17, 2008
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Ames
Carrol is a black hole, good luck surviving there :wink:

Ahhh.... Are you referring Ossy's on the east side of Carroll. Templeton is about 15 miles south of Carroll so the Rye is close. All the surrounding communities are Catholic so a lot of summer "picnics". Let the beer flow!!! Nice community as a whole!! Two 3A schools with Carroll Kuemper and Carroll High (new school in the last 5 years).
 

balken

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Apr 14, 2006
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The GF might be able to score a job at Ossy's and you could try becoming a runner for the real Templeton Rye.
 

GrindingAway

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Carroll is a great regional town, but IIRC, the taxes in Carroll are through the roof. Look at the surrounding towns like Breda, Auburn, etc to live in. Yeah, they are small towns, but housing and taxes are much cheaper than Carroll and you're at most a 10-15 minute drive to Carroll.

I grew up not far from Auburn and last time I was home drove through with my dad on the way to Carroll. When I grew up Auburn was just another small run down looking town in the area. In this last trip through they was all kinds of improvements going on and it's looking like it's going to be very nice. Still small, but if you ask me small is good. Roy Reiman (Reiman Publishing/Reiman Gardens) is from Auburn and according to my dad funding the project.
 
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jonnyb21

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Apr 18, 2006
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Carroll is a very nice family friendly community. As one other suggested, Templeton is just 15 minutes to the south and the home of Templeton Rye. In addition, if you're looking to build a home, you can get a good sized lot for under $10K!

Templeton Iowa
 

Tank

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Sep 13, 2008
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Niceville, FL
Grew up just south of Carroll near Manning, Mom graduated from Carroll Kuemper, Grandparents lived right across from the Country Club on the east side of town for almost 20 years and I worked at Pella Windows for a summer. From all of that, Carroll is probably one of the nicer towns in the area. Good schools, hospital, movie theater, shopping, restaurants, homes. Taxes though are the highest in the area, so if you can handle the "small" town feel; live just 10-15 minutes outside of Carroll in Arcadia, Breda, Auburn, Manning, Halbur, Dedham, etc... If I were you though, I would live in Carroll b/c the other small towns I just mentioned are the black holes where the average age is around 60. Good luck!
 

Clone83

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Mar 25, 2006
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It has a very strong Catholic school, Carroll Kuemper, which is part of the Hawkeye Ten conference that includes schools like Harlan, Atlantic, Shenandoah, CB Lewis Central, Glenwood, Red Oak, Creston, Clarinda, Denison.

Carroll HS though is often very good in football and basketball (like even top 1 or 2 in the state, see rankings over the last year). I didn't live near there, but we played Carroll HS one year in football. This was a long time ago, but they were ranked 2nd in the state then.
 
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burn587

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I've spent a lot of time working around Carroll and my dad's side of the family is from there so I spent a lot of my childhood visiting Carroll. I do not see the appeal of the city whatsoever. Much like the Huxley topic, the cops will pull you over for 5 over the speed limit and for running yellow lights. Get used to a lot of yellow lights on highway 30 too, the lights aren't synchronized so you can pretty much get stopped at every intersection through town, much of the time for no reason at all. Kuemper is a good school but it's definitely the smaller school. Honestly Ames is only an hour and five minutes east, why not just live there? Anything west of Boone is eastern Nebraska IMO. And I totally agree with the poster about Denison, it might be the worst town in Iowa, I have had to spend way too much time there for work and I hate it.
 

Clone83

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Mar 25, 2006
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Choose Spencer. Better business town and near Lake Okoboji.
Spencer always seemed like a good place to live. I've never been to it, but the Clay County fair is huge rivals the Iowa State fair.

Also, Cyville55, not sure if you have ever been to Okoboji, but it is great, unlike about anywhere else in Iowa. If you go up there much or often, you will also see a lot of the same people over the years. Not just from Des Moines, Omaha, Sioux City, Sioux Falls, and Minnesota, but I am talking rural northwest and western Iowa. Most are very friendly and down to earth (and a large number Cyclone fans). It is expensive to own a place right on the lake, but there are other lakes around, and if you lived in the area you not only get to enjoy it year round but might be better positioned to realize certain opportunities.
 

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