The Winona mayor and Board of Aldermen hit the ground running after the 2021 election.
The new mayor, Aaron Dees, and new aldermen Sylvia Clark, Linda Purnell and Charles Harris have been working with seasoned aldermen Travis Johnson and Mickey Austin to address projects that had been initiated by the previous administration as well as start new projects throughout the city.
“There’s just a lot of good things coming. In a few years, we’re going to look back at Winona and say, ‘Is this the same place?’ said Dees. “It’s going to be good.”
Dees said some of his and the board’s accomplishments since the 2021 election are developing and completing grants.
“The grants were applied for before we came, by the previous administration – the water and the sewer. I give my predecessor that credit,” said Dees. “They started by applying for the grants, but nothing had been done on the grants – all the paperwork, site development. All those things had to be done.”
The CDBG grant and the EDA grant were completed during the current administration, according to Dees.
Another change was lifting the alcohol ban so alcohol can be sold on Sundays, Dees said.
“By lifting that ban, we were able to cause restaurants to want to come here,” said Dees. “Karts came here while we’ve been here, and Home Hardware has developed.”
To continue the attraction of new businesses,, city officials are working on improving Winona’s water system.
“We have a new water system in the making, which will take the pressure off the current water system. Our goal is to divide the town where one is on one water supply, and one is on the other water supply. Right now, we’re operating off of one, but with all the new things that’s coming, it’s going to be that much more pressure on the lines.”
He said city officials are working to have new meters installed throughout Winona that can be read from City Hall.
“This will alarm us if you’ve got a water leak; if you’ve got a water problem, so that we can get it fixed for you or work with you to get it fixed. These are all digital. Right now, we’re monologued.
We go out and look at everything. We have a few meters that are already on the digital system, and those seem to be giving us the data we need to be able to move everybody to the digital water system.”
