About DurangoDowntown.com

…your Durango, Colorado community website

In the mid 1990’s Sheri Amass, a pioneer in the community website movement, began work on a “first of it’s kind in Durango” website www.durangodowntown.com. The world wide web (www), as it was called in those early days of the Internet, was still just getting started in terms of the wide spread commercial and community use we take for granted today. In fact, in the start up days of Durango Downtown, Sheri had a vision that was ahead of its time. Sheri’s determined approach to build locally owned community website is now what we see in DurangoDowntown.com Over our 18-year period (which is about history of the commercial Internet as we know it today), DurangoDowntown became the “go to web site” for the Durango, CO community. Over past few years, other local sites have been started in Durango. Each one contributes to the vitality and information to the Durango marketplace. Yet Durango Downtown.com maintains it unique position in the Durango area.

In July 2011, Jasper Welch acquired DurangoDowntown.com, thus insuring local ownership and the “sense of Durango as a special place” going forward as a community focused web site. With the help of Marcy Mitchell, Jasper directed a local team in maintaining and stabilizing the Durango Downtown web site.

After 2 ½ years of sole ownership, Jasper determined that is was time to look at the next step of development for Durango Downtown. He retained well-qualified management consultant Jay Davis to identify the best fit for an operating agreement to transition Durango Downtown as the best locally owned and operated community website serving the greater Durango community. This search led to an agreement to create a new LLC (joint operating agreement) with Sam Rose and Nathan Morris, that was created in early 2014.

So who is the new team at Durango Downtown.com? Sam is well known in the Durango community for his work in the web space, digital marketing and customer support with his company Web Services Management.
Nathan Morris works with Sam as the Chief Software Architect as Web Services Management, as well as being a well-qualified software expert and web-based platform designer.

Sam Rose began his career in Internet marketing and sales as an outgrowth of his work at The Durango Herald in 1996. The Durango Herald created a department to meet the web needs of its internal departments as well as its advertising clients. Sam acted as the Online Sales Manager and then as the Director of Online Services. With a background in Sales and Business Management, Sam specializes in customer service and satisfaction. Sam is the DurangoDowntown.com Sales and Operations Manager. He can be reached at 970-259-1128 or [email protected]

Nathan Morris serves as the Chief Software Architect for both Web Services of Durango (where he is a co-owner) and Durango Downtown.com. Educated at University of Texas at Austin, Nathan has extensive experience in software development, design and frameworks, including web services and platforms (Drupal, WordPress, HTML). As the technology guru on the Durango Downtown team, Nathan is redesigning the Durango Downtown platform, to include responsive design, faster on-line access and a cleaner page design during 2014. Nathan can be reached at 970-623-2230 or [email protected]

Jasper Welch is serving as the business advisor and strategic partner for the Durango Downtown team. He’ll be working to assist Sam and Nathan as they revise, recreate and rejuvenate Durango Downtown at “the community web site” in Durango. You can drop by DurangoSpace http://durangospace.com or call Jasper 970-259-1000 or e-mail at [email protected]

Why locally owned (with employee ownership) and locally operated? In Durango, we have had a long tradition of local ownership and operations. Jasper has been involved in employee owned companies, such as Stoneage, Inc. and Mr. Welch has owned and operated local Durango companies, such as Basin Printing. Sam Rose and Nathan Morris own and operate Web Services Management, a locally owned web platform and web technology business that supports Durango businesses. It is the small businesses of La Plata County that create our local jobs and maintain our local economy (and tax base). According to www.youreconomy.org (Edward Lowe Foundation), companies with 9 or less employees account for 52.7% of the private sector jobs in La Plata County. And companies with 100 or less employees account for 98% of the business establishments and 86% of the private sector jobs in the Durango area.

Our Durango Global, LLC team (Sam & Nathan, with Jasper advising) operates the DurangoDowntown.com community website for the benefit of our customers (advertisers), residents (locals and seasonal folks) and visitors (we welcome you to Durango). If you have ideas, suggestions or improvements that our DD team can make on DurangoDowntown.com, please let us know. We can be reached at [email protected]