Sedgwick County
Commissioner Tim R. Norton
Second District
Sedgwick County Board of Commissioners
525 N. Main, #320 | Wichita, KS 67203
(316) 660-9300 | Fax: (316) 383-8275
Email: tnorton@sedgwick.gov
Click to Link
Sedgwick County Commissioner Tim Norton Website
Tim Norton Bio
Tim Norton was elected to his first term in office in January 2001 and served as the Chairman of the Board of Commissioners in 2003.
He has a degree in Journalism from Arkansas State University, and a Masters degree in Adult Education from Newman University.
Some of Mr. Norton’s priorities as a Commissioner include: promoting economic development in Sedgwick County and working on issues and projects including the Aviation Tech Center, the Homeless Task Force and south-side redevelopment. He continues to devote time to the major 2nd district drainage project; making time to get to know the needs of citizens, and understanding the “big issues” Sedgwick County faces, such as workforce development, transportation, jail initiatives, and tax structure.
Prior to his election to the Commission, Mr. Norton served as mayor of Haysville for three and a half years and as a Haysville City Council member for nine years. He was manager of Wichita’s Target Store East for 19 years, but retired in 1999 to dedicate his efforts to the cleanup and recovery of Haysville after a major tornado.
Mr. Norton is active in the community with the United Way, Salvation Army, Exploration Place, National Conference for Community and Justice, and Goodwill Board of Directors. He is a member of the Eastside Rotary Club, Optimist Club of Haysville and Wichita Wagonmasters. He is a past member of the Wichita Chamber Board, the Child Abuse Prevention Council and Communities in Schools. In addition, he continues to teach classes on leadership, team work, communications, and management skills as time permits.
Tim and his wife Susan have five children and five grandchildren.
He has a degree in Journalism from Arkansas State University, and a Masters degree in Adult Education from Newman University.
Some of Mr. Norton’s priorities as a Commissioner include: promoting economic development in Sedgwick County and working on issues and projects including the Aviation Tech Center, the Homeless Task Force and south-side redevelopment. He continues to devote time to the major 2nd district drainage project; making time to get to know the needs of citizens, and understanding the “big issues” Sedgwick County faces, such as workforce development, transportation, jail initiatives, and tax structure.
Prior to his election to the Commission, Mr. Norton served as mayor of Haysville for three and a half years and as a Haysville City Council member for nine years. He was manager of Wichita’s Target Store East for 19 years, but retired in 1999 to dedicate his efforts to the cleanup and recovery of Haysville after a major tornado.
Mr. Norton is active in the community with the United Way, Salvation Army, Exploration Place, National Conference for Community and Justice, and Goodwill Board of Directors. He is a member of the Eastside Rotary Club, Optimist Club of Haysville and Wichita Wagonmasters. He is a past member of the Wichita Chamber Board, the Child Abuse Prevention Council and Communities in Schools. In addition, he continues to teach classes on leadership, team work, communications, and management skills as time permits.
Tim and his wife Susan have five children and five grandchildren.
Tim's "A Word In Edgewise"
A Word In Edgewise is posted on our forums section located in the members section. You can respond to Commissioner Norton Post.
or
Click here to read
or
Click here to read
Tim Norton's 100th "A Word in Edgewise....."
This is Tim Norton's 100th, Check out the rest in of Tim's post in our Members Forums Section.
A Word in Edgewise . . .
This week will be Installment number three on the trip to Chattanooga for Visioneering. I will attempt to cover the most salient points on how the Chattanooga community and their partners landed a Volkswagen plant and 2000 plus jobs to the area. Hopefully in the past few weeks, I have adequately re-numerated most of the highlights of the trip in enough detail to give you a flavor of what we experienced in Chattanooga. Next week I will try to analyze what we saw and give you some thoughts on what our lessons learned were and how some of them could be applied to Wichita and our region.
As we were introduced to many of the projects in downtown and along the river in Chattanooga that had developed in the last several years, we also kept hearing of the ‘big win’ in job creation and economic development … the ‘Volkswagen Story’. The County Mayor, Claude Ramsey and the Chamber of Commerce President Tom Edd Wilson were obviously proud to tell the story of the journey that lead to landing a Volkswagen manufacturing center and attached $40 million plus training center. It was a remarkable story of disappointment, tenacity, partnerships, visionary leadership, risk taking and ultimate victory.
Several years before being selected as the site for the new VW plant, Chattanooga was a finalist in the quest for a Toyota plant. The plant ultimately went to another community, but the Chattanooga community leaders involved recognized the value of that process as a learning experience on how to compete for these kinds of large projects. Conversation after conversation about what they did right and where they were weak in their presentation and economic package were had. This ‘just missed’ scenario galvanized the community and helped strengthen necessary partnerships and initiated deeper resolve with elected officials and other community leaders. A real ‘can do’ attitude emerged that figured into the success on the Volkswagen siting process.
This ‘do what needs to be done’ attitude was manifested during the site visit by key Volkswagen officials. The ground available was shown to officials but was far from shovel ready. It was located strategically but was heavily wooded and hard to get a visual of the topography and how the infrastructure would lay out. Chattanooga leaders moved quickly and made a decision to remove that impediment from the story line. Within two weeks they cleared the property completely and invited VW officials back to see what they couldn’t before. The site impressed VW … but more than that, the collaborative push to eliminate the roadblock diminishing the decision making process on that site, really struck a chord. The State stepped up to build the 40 million dollar training center at the site. Details were worked out. And the rest is history.
I am sure the process was not near as simple as I described, but the outcome is still the same. The VW plant was under construction and will bring economic value and 2000 plus jobs to the Chattanooga community. Something to learn from all of that, I believe. I will enumerate what I believe some of the lessons learned from the trip were next week. That is all for this week. Thanks for letting me get a word in edgewise. tn
