Carbon County's retirement fund portfolio performed well during the first quarter of the year, Carbon officials report.

During the county retirement board meeting on Thursday, county controller Robert Crampsie, who is also the secretary of the retirement board, reported that the first quarter performance report shows that the retirement fund is up $3,654,190 from the year's adjusted beginning balance of $61,573,857; and has a year-to-date rate of return of 5.93 percent."The performance for the first quarter was excellent even though it was very volatile," Crampsie said. "We continue to see those big swings up and down from one day to the next but overall the first quarter performance was very, very good."Crampsie also announced that the portfolio's value as of March 31 was $65,228,047, which is up $38,551 from last month."We're just a little bit less than a million away from hitting our all-time high," he said, noting that the all-time high of $66.2 million was recorded in October 2007. I think that is really remarkable when you take into consideration that last year we paid out $4.4 million in disbursements."Following Crampise's report, the board heard a report from Manning and Napier Overseas Fund of Pittsburgh, who manages the county's overseas portfolio.The county hired Manning and Napier in January 2009, and provided $2.25 million to begin the portfolio on Feb. 23, 2009.Since then, the portfolio has performed significantly well, netting the county retirement fund an additional $1.9 million over its initial investment.Crampsie credited the company for its outstanding work and dedication to its clients.