It doesn’t take much to find signs of the Jamestown area’s Scandinavian heritage. There are monthly events at Jamestown Community College, the yearly Scandinavian Folk Festival that brings hundreds of people downtown to celebrate the area’s Swedish roots and, of course, the Swedish flags one sees driving through city neighborhoods.

But last week was a bit different. The city played host to Urban Ahlin, Swedish ambassador to the United States. Ahlin toured several sites in the city, including the Roger Tory Peterson Institute, TitanX Engine Cooling, First Lutheran Church and Ecklof Bakery, one of the last remaining Swedish family-owned bakeries in the region.

Ahlin’s visit was an opportunity for Jamestown to again celebrate its Swedish heritage – but one has to wonder what the visit means in the big picture. Jamestown Community College officials took the opportunity to ask for Ahlin’s help in expanding its Scandinavian Studies Program by strengthening the college and greater Jamestown community’s ties to Sweden. The JCC Foundation has a Scandinavia Studies endowment established about 20 years ago that helps pay for Scandinavian Culture Days, and JCC officials would like to strengthen the Culture Day offerings as well as possibly create a program where JCC students can visit Sweden and receive college credits.

Opening greater ties between Sweden and the county’s institutions of higher learning, as well as those who regularly celebrate the region’s Scandinavian heritage, can only be a good things.

Can Ahlin’s visit mean more to the Jamestown area? We’d like to think so. The city at one point hosted an honorary Swedish consulate that could help with passport and identification document assistance, emergency assistance, life certificates, information on Swedish citizenship and other certifications for Swedish documents. Reopening the consulate would be a strong step toward a more meaningful relationship between Sweden and an area that owes much to its Swedish roots.