Kathy Lowrey has been officially named the general manager of the Northshore Harbor Center, it was announced Tuesday.

Lowrey was named interim general manager following the departure of Kerry Painter in April. She was chosen to fill the permanent position over nearly two-dozen candidates that applied for the job in a lengthy national recruiting process.

According to Derise “Deb” Morel, past chairman of the center’s board of commissioners and head of the strategic planning committee, the decision was based on factors such as the candidate’s day-to-day work ethic and experience in community relations. “We received applications from a number of clearly qualified people,” said Morel. “It made us realize that the criteria we were looking for were being very capably demonstrated by Kathy.”

Morel said the committee met three times to review the applicants, and made their recommendation during Tuesday’s meeting of the center’s board of commissioners, who then voted unanimously to accept the recommendation of Lowrey. Until that vote came, Lowrey said she was unaware of which way the committee was leaning.

“I really had no inkling at all until this second,” she said. “I’m just so excited, and I feel like I can breathe again.”

The next step is to determine if an outside contractor will be hired for overall operations, or if those duties will fall solely to the general manager.

In other business, the center was given a clean bill of health in its recent financial audit.

The Metairie firm of Hienz & Macaluso conducted the audit of the center’s business activities and financial statements for the 18 months ending Dec. 31, 2007. The audit showed no compliance issues, and an accompanying report stated that those statements presented a fair picture of the center’s cash flow and changes in financial position.

“I think the key thing here is that the auditor has given us a completely clean opinion, and for that I’m relieved and happy,” said Kurt Bozant, president of the board of commissioners.

The board also announced that a meeting of local legislators is being planned for the end of September to help make them aware of the impact the Harbor Center has on the region.

The idea came about as a result of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s recent veto of $100,000 in capital outlay funds for the center, on the basis that it is a non-governmental organization.

Gov. Jindal will be invited to the meeting as well.

“We want to make sure our legislators understand what type of facility we are, and exactly what that means in terms of economic impact, because it appears there was some confusion,” said Lowrey. “We want to make sure that information is communicated to the governor before the next session.”

The next meeting of the Harbor Center board of commissioners is set for Sept. 9 at 9 a.m.