Romano: focus is on growth

Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU -- Economic development is one of the primary duties of the Mat-Su Borough assistant manager, and Marian Romano says she has the skills to track and boost projects that are in progress at the borough.

Romano is wrapping up her first week as the borough assistant manager. Perhaps best-known for the roast beef and pastrami sandwiches she served from The Deli in Wasilla for 13 years, Romano is familiar with what it takes -- and what businesses need -- to be successful in the Mat-Su.

Her career took her through the ups and downs of Alaska's economy -- Romano started The Deli when the economy was at a low, and her business grew along with the economy. It was during the late '80s, she said, that she learned the most about running a business.

"I learned how to be a good business person when the money disappeared," Romano said.

After 13 years running a deli, she said, it was time to switch gears.

Romano started helping other local small-business owners get on their feet through a job at the Small Business Development Center. It was there, too, that Romano first worked with the Mat-Su Borough -- the SBDC is funded by University of Alaska money funneled through the Mat-Su Borough, so Romano provided quarterly reports to John Duffy long before he became Mat-Su Borough manager.

Through the SBDC, Romano was promoted to associate state director, and was responsible for managing federal and state matching grants through SBDC offices around the state.

"You start developing organization and development skills and grant-writing skills at the university because you're always looking for money," Romano said.

Both the grant management and grant-writing skills Romano developed through that office, she said, will be useful in the borough, where millions of dollars in grants are distributed.

Along the way she became enthused about a project she said she saw a need for. Small-business owners who would like to jar and sell salsa, for example, must have a Department of Environmental Conservation-approved kitchen in which to work.

People who own DEC-approved kitchens, such as restaurant owners, are often too busy or unwilling to allow non-employees to use their kitchens, Romano said. She checked into opening a stand-alone kitchen for people to use, but there weren't enough users to make it workable, and the university, she said, wasn't likely to invest in something for that purpose. She shelved the idea for the time being, but it wasn't long before the opportunity to discuss it came around again.

After six years with SBDC and five years of private consulting work, Romano was called in by the Alaska Division of Agriculture to find out the benefits of building a vegetable-processing facility locally.

She worked with the borough on the grant and, through discussions with borough officials, spoke about the shared-use kitchen.

She said everyone seemed to agree the project made sense, and a kitchen would be necessary for

the processing facility to test new markets and products for vegetables.

After working with the Division of Agriculture to investigate the benefits of the processing facility, Romano began working with the borough on a feasibility study for the project.

She spent the past five months working on a team that came up with several new products to investigate with the facility. Vitamin-packed rhubarb juice was one such product, taste-tested by borough assembly members at a recent assembly meeting. Another product being studied is fresh fries -- fries made using locally grown potatoes that, after being cooked, would be considerably less fatty than frozen fries.

Romano said she's excited that through her new position as assistant borough manager, she'll have the opportunity to oversee the processing facility and help bring that project to fruition. As a 30-year borough resident, however, she said she's happy to be working on other economic development projects important to the borough.

"Being able to see a project through to fruition is a thrill to me," Romano said. "Government moves slowly -- I bring that little for-profit, high-speed chase to things."

Contact Rindi White at rindi.white@frontiersman.com.