As the new executive director of
Lewis Marchino has worked for Region 9 for 11 years, and this week she replaced Ed Morlan, who retired after 27 years as executive director.
The economic development district is a nonprofit public-private partnership that helps spur job creation within its five-county region by providing loans to startups that have limited funding.
Region 9 also helps fund the Southwest Colorado Small Business Development Center, and it helped start the Southwest Colorado Accelerator Program for Entrepreneurs.
Lewis Marchino wants to ensure Region 9 has the funds to continue in its economic development efforts.
“I don’t just want to be a loan program,” she said.
She also wants to help with redevelopment of properties with contamination issues.
In December, she plans to apply for a grant that would pay for the assessment of properties that have redevelopment potential and interested buyers but may be contaminated.
These assessments can tell both the seller and potential buyers what cleanup, if any, the property requires and how much that would cost, she said.
The goal is to help prevent rural buildings, which may have asbestos or other problems, from being abandoned in favor on new construction, she said.
For example, in Cortez, a new gas station was built across the street from an abandoned one.
“We want to have them redevelop, not just sprawl,” she said.
She expects this assessment grant could be Region 9’s big project during her first year.
Before getting into economic development, Lewis Marchino came to Durango in 1990 as a reporter for KREZ-TV, the former La Plata County satellite of KRQE-TV in Albuquerque.
She left journalism in part because she didn’t feel she was having a direct impact on the community.
Before starting at Region 9, she was the executive director of Operation Healthy Communities, an organization that helped start the Regional Housing Alliance and the Community Health Action Coalition.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
