Lewes City Councilmember Amy Marasco will be Lewes’ next mayor.
The city’s current mayor Andrew Williams did not seek re-election, which prompted Marasco to put her name in the running. She was unopposed, and the city’s May 10th election was cancelled.
Marasco previously served as vice mayor in Hillsboro, Virginia, where she brought in $34 million in grant money for infrastructure projects. She is also an executive consultant and facilitator that managed multi-million dollar companies.
Marasco will be the first woman to take on the position. She currently serves as the Council’s treasurer.
“I love Lewes. That's one reason,” Marasco said. “I know what it's like to be an executive, to manage hundreds and hundreds of people. I know what it's like to work with federal rules and regulations. I love public service, and do not look at public service as a politician at all. I look at it as a service.”
Marasco is also the founder of The Nature Generation, an environmental nonprofit partnered with Salisbury University and the Lewes Library.
Marasco’s short-term goals include improving sidewalks and making parks pesticide-free. Her long-term goals include establishing an investment policy and funding resiliency projects.
Marasco said canvassing and meet and greets have given her a good idea of what issues she’ll focus on during her term. She noted many feel uneasy due to the current political climate in Washington.
“In terms of the change in federal funding, we built our FY 26 budget assuming no grant money. That's the first thing we did. Now, we're still writing a lot of grants, but we decided to take a very conservative posture to say, ‘Let's build this off basically no grants and make sure that we can fund our operations.’”
Marasco is hopeful the climate will calm down and Lewes will benefit from federal funding for infrastructure projects, which she says often receive bipartisan support.
Marasco will be sworn in May.
