The Mt. Prospect Village Board on Tuesday endorsed the creation of a Sister Cities Commission to foster exchanges between the village and its future Sister City.
An ordinance creating the commission will come back to the Village Board on March 22 for a vote.
Under the proposed ordinance, the 15-member commission would meet on the first Thursday of March, June, September and December and can call special meetings as needed. The commission would also be required to deliver an annual report to the Village Board. All meetings will be open to the public.
Mt. Prospect hopes to formalize a Sister City relationship with the city of Sevres, France, when a six-person delegation from there pays Mt. Prospect a three-day visit beginning May 16. Mayor Gerald L. Farley and other representatives from Mt. Prospect visited Sevres last fall.
The French visit will be marked by a banquet on May 17 at the Bristol Court Banquet Hall, 838 Rand Rd. Tickets for the event cost $25 and are available by calling Carole Bloomquist at 847-437-3068.
The group will also attend the May 16 Village Board meeting, have lunch with students at Lincoln Junior High School, take a trolley tour of the village and tour Chicago, among other events. On May 19 the French group and village officials will formally sign the Sister City pact on the grounds of the Mt. Prospect Historical Society.
The Sister Cities Commission is an outgrowth of an ad-hoc committee established in the late 1980s to find a suitable overseas partner to share the title of Sister City. After several false starts and disappointments, Sevres was the first town that showed real promise of becoming Mt. Prospect’s Sister City. Sevres, a city of about 22,000 people, is a suburb of Paris. It is most known for its soft-paste porcelain.
“We’re delighted to see the progress of the relationship with Sevres and the growing enthusiasm in both communities,” said Melanie Karsen, a member of the ad-hoc committee.
The Sister City relationship is intended to promote travel and cultural exchanges between the two municipalities, but those who do travel will be expected to pay their own way.
