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Community Insurance named Leading Partner with EMC Ins. Co.
EMC Insurance Companies has announced its 2010 “Leading Partners” and has distinguished Community Insurance Agency as one of the highest-performing EMC agencies in the country, placing them in the top 15 percent of all EMC agencies nationally.
This annual award is based on key indicators including retention, profitability and growth, which are reviewed over a three-year period.
EMC developed its signature “Agency Performance Value” (APV) tool in 2005 to measure an agency’s performance against all other EMC agencies nationally. Agencies are evaluated on loss ratio, premium volume, policy and premium growth, policy and premium retention and the position of ECM within the agency.
Community Insurance Agency, serving the area since 1963, is a full service independent insurance agency, offering quality home, auto, health, life and business insurance with locations in Coon Rapids, Bayard, Glidden and Audubon. For more information about the agency, visit www.crcommunityinsurance.com.
EMC Insurance Companies is a property/casualty insurance carrier headquartered in Des Moines. With assets exceeding $2 billion, EMC is one of the largest property and casualty entities in Iowa and among the top 60 insurance entities countrywide. Approximately 80 percent of the company’s business is in commercial lines, with the remaining 20 percent in personal lines. To learn more, visit www.emcinsurance.com.
Shown above are the local CIA agents Marcia Young, Julie Pingrey, Gayla McCool, Lori Cadwallader, John Hyland and Larry Schwenk.
City and Municipal Utilities receive insurance dividend check
John Hyland of Community Insurance Agency presents a check for $18,378.00 to Keith Dorpinghaus, mayor of Coon Rapids. The safety dividend is calculated on the premium and losses for five lines of insurance. This is the 27th year that a dividend has been returned to the various cities. This is one of the largest returns in the history of the program.
The Iowa Association Safety Group Program continues to be the dominant insurance program for the cities in the state of Iowa with approximately 415 cities insured in the program in Iowa.
City receives insurance dividend check
John Hyland of Community Insurance Agency presents a check for $2,634.00 to Gary Haverman, Mayor of Bayard. The safety dividend is calculated on the premium and losses for five lines of insurance. This is the 27th year that a dividend has been returned to the various cities. This is the largest return in the history of the program.
The Iowa Association Safety Group Program continues to be the dominant insurance program for the cities in the state of Iowa with approximately 415 cities insured in the program in Iowa.
CIA featured in Big I magazine “Viewpoint”
Iowa Independent Agents of Iowa recently recognized several Iowa agencies who give back to their communities. A special 16 page section of the Big I magazine “Viewpoint” highlighted the philanthropic endeavors of a handful of Iowa agencies.
Community Insurance Agency was one of those selected as making their community a better place to live.
Below is the article, written by Ron Lutz, as it appeared in “Viewpoint”. Five-hundred copies of the special edition were printed and handed out at the State Capitol in Des Moines on February 5 as a part of Insurance Day on the Hill.
Hyland and Schwenk
get things done
in Coon Rapids
When most Iowans hear the name Coon Rapids, they think of the Garst family and its highly successful seed corn business founded decades ago by the legendary Roswell Garst. No question, the Garst imprint still looms large on this north central Iowa town. But you can also add the names John Hyland and Larry Schwenk to the list of Coon Rapids’ movers and shakers.
Following college and a two-year military obligation, Hyland, a native of Churdan, Iowa, went to the big cities of Minneapolis and Chicago to cut his teeth in the insurance business four decades ago. But when he returned to small town Iowa in 1972 to become general manager of the nine-year-old Community Insurance Agency on 5th Avenue in Coon Rapids, this town of 1,400 got themselves another civic leader.
Explains Hyland: “My wife and I wanted to raise our three children in a small town environment, and we certainly made the right decision. Coon Rapids and Community Insurance have been awfully good to us these past 38 years.
“The management philosophy of this agency was already in place when I got here---that being if you are going to live and work in a community you need to put some time, effort and money back into the community so it can survive and indeed prosper.
“Larry (Schwenk) and I have tried to uphold those principles all these years, and as we have immersed ourselves in civic projects in this community, many of the townspeople and those living on neighboring farms have looked to us for their insurance needs.”
A current Coon Rapids project that has Hyland and Schwenk excited is a $2.5 million assisted living facility attached to the existing Thomas Rest Haven on the east side of town. Part of the funding came from state and federal grants as a result of Coon Rapids being designated in a first-year state program in 2005 as one of Iowa’s first three Great Places.
Schwenk explains that the State of Iowa initiated the Great Places program to assist communities across the state in accessing funds for civic improvements. Communities were required to follow an application process in which they spelled out why their community deserved Great Places status. Town officials and others, including Hyland and Schwenk, all had a hand in convincing state officials that Coon Rapids should emerge as one of the three Great Places.
The 12-bed Parkview Assisted Living facility is slated to open in late spring. Mary Jane Venteicher, administrator of Thomas Rest Haven, notes in a letter to Viewpoint:
“The Community Insurance staff was very instrumental in the success of our recent capital campaign…..John Hyland, Larry Schwenk and Gayla McCool served on the campaign steering committee and the agency also contributed a generous cash donation to the project. The campaign’s goal was $290,000, and it was a contribution solicited by John that put the campaign over its goal in less than four months!”
She continues: “The assistance provided by these dedicated agency personnel proved to be invaluable to our campaign and to the very successful ground breaking ceremony that followed. Community Insurance has always provided superior service to us as our worker compensation agent, and their volunteer effort in this campaign is just another indication of the community-minded spirit always exemplified by their quality organization. “
Adds Coon Rapids Mayor Keith Dorpinghaus: “I have known and worked with the Community Insurance Agency for more than 30 years. John Hyland and Larry Schwenk have been at the ‘front’ of nearly all campaigns and fundraising for the community. They truly believe in the importance of giving back to the community and that has been good for ‘both’.”
Hyland and Schwenk both are past presidents of the local Chamber of Commerce, and are active in local civic groups such as Kiwanis, Rotary and Lions. A plaque on a wall in Hyland’s office signifies 32 years of Rotary Club participation. Another plaque is his Kiwanis Citizen of the Year Award in 1986.
Here is a sampling of other civic projects in which Community Insurance Agency (CIA) has been an integral part in recent years:
• The Coon Rapids golf course sports a first class fountain donated by CIA in memory of a local life-long businessman and avid golfer.
• CIA participates in year-round school activities: Provided programs for the summer softball and baseball games and tournaments; sponsored fireworks for the homecoming football game; donated to the after-prom party; supported the year book; conducted insurance and real estate classes for the senior family living class for more than 20 years; taught drivers education classes, and helped sponsor individual athletes and students participating in national and international studies.
• A new Great Places-funded sports complex that includes an aquatic park and shelter house, baseball and softball diamonds, and new locker room for the softball team is partially completed. CIA staff members are among the large number of volunteer laborers working on the project.
• Each Christmas the communities of Coon Rapids and Bayard hold an Avenue of Trees event and CIA is an active participant in both towns. The same is true of the Carroll County Fair in which CIA can be counted on for an entertaining entry.
• When the community holds a fundraiser for a family or individual who has been unfortunate enough to encounter high medical bills, or is facing a life-threatening medical problem, CIA is there to lend a hand, whether financially or with volunteers to help run the event.
• Hyland and Schwenk worked countless hours on committees that planned two housing developments in town, the latest called the School Street Project in which single family homes were built with public funds and then sold to private owners.
• An existing four-mile bicycle and pedestrian trail is being extended another four and a half miles along the scenic Raccoon River, primarily with Great Places funds, and CIA staff members continue to be heavily involved in the planning and execution of this project. The new trail will run from the Garst Farm south of town north to an underpass below Highway 141 and then alongside 5th Avenue.
• One of the most highly anticipated projects in recent years is the 5th Avenue streetscaping renovation that will begin with an impressive metal art sculpture and towers at Highway 141 and 5th Avenue and proceed north three blocks to Main Street. Again, Hyland and Schwenk and other CIA staff members, along with dozens of other Coon Rapids residents, have spent countless hours working on committees determined to make this $1.5 million project a truly spectacular part of the Coon Rapids landscape.
A Coon Rapids tradition receives recognition
 Community Insurance Agency has long been known as a “Coon Rapids tradition” and recently that was further recognized as Employers Mutual Casualty Company presented a plaque to CIA for 50 years of dedicated and loyal service.
Shown here, from left, agent Larry Schwenk and General Manager John Hyland receive the 50-year plaque from EMC company rep, Derek Bleil from Des Moines.
CIA was recognized for 50 years of continuous representation with EMC, starting in 1956. A combination of two local agencies was purchased by Community Insurance Agency in 1963. Employers Mutual of Des Moines is a large, regional company with over $2.8 billion in assets and has been a major insurer in Coon Rapids and the surrounding area for more than 50 years.
In presenting the plaque, Bleil added, “it’s an honor to present this 50-year plaque to Community Insurance Agency, as it represents the dedication and professionalism that this agency has developed. We appreciate their partnership and look forward to the years to come.”
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