Garner, IA - An area county received an increase in funds to hand out to local communities. The Hancock County Foundation receives State Gaming Funds like every county that has no casino in Iowa.
     
Over the years the foundation has helped local organizations like the community pool and the VFW in Garner. This year the funds have doubled since 2005 and now the county has over $100,000 to share.

"By doing that we help some agencies spread their money a little further and we help fund some of their projects," said Hancock County Foundation President Howard Parrott.

The foundation is currently taking applications for grants throughout the county.  Applications are due November 10th.

A local library have recently received funds from Hancock County Foundation and now have a library equipped for the 21st century. The Garner Highschool Library received about $5,000 from the foundation to purchase new books.
 
That's not all they did, the library now has an online catalog to check out and look up books throughout the school district.

"Students can actually go online at home or at school and see that we have in the collection and even read a chapter of the book," said Librarian Dawn Bassett.

Bassett says the online catalog provides links to each school library within Garner and the school is looking to add a link for the public library.