Manchester Vitality Endowment enlisted the help of four University of Iowa engineering students to help create designs that the group and the City could use to improve the Farmers Market area and a slice of land near the Marion Street Bridge that overlooks the river.

Preliminary plans to beautify the area along the Maquoketa River were presented by University of Iowa engineering students at the April 27 meeting of the Manchester City Council. Working in partnership with the Manchester Vitality Endowment (MVE) committee, the students went through the process of developing renderings as part of their schooling. “It has been a vision from Manchester Vitality… since our inception to try and do something with this eyesore that we have coming over the bridge,” Julie Frick with MVE said.