Lori Conway Hopes to Build Relationships as Crosslake City Administrator

The City of Crosslake began the search for a new city administrator earlier this year, and last month, Lori Conway began her tenure in the role. We sat down with Conway to discuss her plans as the new administrator.

Conway’s first day as Crosslake City Administrator was August 5th. She has experience with the position, having previously served the city of Breckenridge as its administrator. Conway was drawn to Crosslake as it’s been a place where she and her husband had hoped to retire.

“I happened to come across an ad for the City of Crosslake, and knowing that we wanted to migrate this way for retirement, we thought, why not start a little bit earlier, get our feet planted in the community?” said Conway. “And so, yeah, I applied.”

A city administrator’s job is to make sure that the city they work in thrives. For Conway, building relationships throughout the community is a way she is going to achieve that job.

“As far as relationship building, it is my desire to get out and be active in the community, to be a part of the economic development, to get to know the businesses and the owners, to maintain a good tax base for the levy,” she explained.

Building those relationships will take time, but Conway hopes to become a person that the people of Crosslake trust and are comfortable speaking with.

“I want to be a face in the community, right? I want people to be comfortable, come up and talk to me and ask me questions,” Conway stated. “And you know, the more time I have underneath me, it’s going to be easier. And I am looking forward to just learning and absorbing as much as I can and hear the people.”

Most of Conway’s time during the day is centered around the Crosslake city budget. According to Conway, preliminary budget numbers need to be turned in to Crow Wing County by September 30th.