NDDC to Learn From Winona’s Example

Winona, Minnesota City Manager Eric Sorenson will be one of three panelists at our March NDDC Downtown Forum. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be Tuesday, March 1, from 8 to 9:30 a.m. in the lower level of the Archer House.

Speaking along with Sorenson will be Debbie White, newly elected Winona City Council person, who spent 14 years in New York City studying, performing and teaching professional dance; and Steve Nagel, who serves on an advisory committee to the City of Winona and Winona County relating to bicyclist and pedestrian access. Nagel will talk about plans for trail development in southeastern Minnesota and neighboring Wisconsin.

“Among the central purposes of the NDDC is to support the arts in its
many forms throughout the Northfield community and in the downtown
especially,” says Bardwell Smith, a founding member and current board
member of NDDC. “We are convinced that these areas of community life
have economic implications for Northfield.”

The City of Winona provides a healthy example of how public and private entities have cooperated in promoting the arts and thereby stimulating economic activity, Smith explained. The most prominent example is the newly instituted Great River Shakespeare Festival, which will be held in Winona for four weeks this summer for the second year.

As City Manager of Winona for a number of years, Sorenson has played a prominent role in economic development and in public-private
collaborations. The City of Winona also has worked extensively with
Winona State University and St. Mary’s University.