By Camerron Martin
Corrinne Koehler, originally from and grew up on a dairy farm in Sand Creek, Wisconsin, is a local financial advisor and a significant individual in the Pueblo Community.
Koehler moved to Pueblo in 1972 when our community wasn’t very interested in welcoming new people who moved into town. As they became increasingly involved with the town, they became welcomed and valued community members. Koehler stated, “When we first came here, it was very closed. It was close-knit families, but they were not very welcoming to outsiders.”
Koehler owns and operates her own wealth management service known as Koehler Wealth Management LLC. It is located at 200 W B St. next to the Union Depot. She has spent close to the last forty years advising people on a wide range of services she is well versed in.
From 1998 to 2002, Koehler served on the city council before establishing her projects. First, establishing and taking on the City Park gate cleanup project along with a few others, she managed to transform the image of the area entirely.
“You just kind of notice things that need to be done and you start talking about it, and you find other people that have the same interests and you just go for it,” said Koehler.
Koehler has been involved in the Pueblo Conservancy District for seven years. It was established after the flood and ordered the installation of the Pueblo levi and its replacement after Hurricane Katrina. She will be voted in for her fourth year as committee president.
Koehler is also the president of the Keating School Non-Profit project, which intends to restore the Keating building at 215 E Orman Ave. It has been at work for the last five years to take the property and turn it into a place people can live in by converting it into market-rate apartments. It would also save the theater and bring it back to show productions and other shows.
She is also a part of the Pueblo Friends of the Arkansas River group, which has been hard at work for the last year. They participate in monthly cleanups of the river, running promotions for it and planning future educational events.
Koehler is very happy with what she has been doing and enjoys it because it allows her to give back to the community she has been a part of for so long. Koehler stated that it’s always nice to get feedback from people, but she is doing what she does more for the whole community than herself.
Her beliefs inspire Koehler to think that what you are taught when you’re young entirely shapes how you carry yourself as an adult. Spending her childhood participating in different small community service events in her hometown led her to bring that mindset to a larger scale.
“I think it is really important that when you start young to do these things so you can get into your DNA,” Koehler stated. Getting out and doing what needs to be done to help the town you live in makes you feel like a part of the community.
Koehler is looking at the city not just as an overview but as taking time to sit in and be involved in making Pueblo a better place. Teaching younger generations to have a mindset of keeping the hard work in the community going can be beneficial because, as Koehler states, “it takes everybody” for our town to thrive.
