The Nelson County Board of Supervisors is in support of establishing a sister city program with an international community.
Two students from the Blue Ridge Virginia Governor’s School, Brayden Murphy and Odin Clark-Cearley, recently presented a proposal to the board outlining possible communities for the county to engage with in Argentina, Spain, Italy and France.
A sister city is a mutually beneficial long-term partnership that forms an ally-recognized agreement between government officials and an international bridge between communities.
Specific communities suggested are Cafayate Department in Argentina, Baza in Spain, Gavi Hills in Italy, and Uchaux and Riquewihr in France. Those communities, combined, have features similar to Nelson County, including a comparable population and economic activities such as winemaking, tourism, agriculture, hospitality and festivals.
“The Nelson County Sister City Initiative (NCSCI) will be dedicated to overseeing the creation and administration of formal and informal relationships with friendship cities and sister cities,” a presentation given to the board reads. “The primary objective of NCSCI is to grow a mutually beneficial relationship with another city that aims to expand Nelson’s horizons.”
The board gave its backing to draft a letter for exploratory context only and move forward with the idea. A specific community has not been chosen, and the board has decided to include the entire county in the potential agreement rather than narrowing it to the village of Lovingston.
“I like the idea of the larger area,” Supervisor David Parr said. “It represents our community because it’s so diverse here in Nelson County.”
Parr said he is drawn to Baza, which he described as “more encompassing” and pointed out that Spanish is a part of Nelson’s culture, largely through Hispanic workers in the county’s orchards, which could make those communities in Argentina and Spain more likely to partner with.
The board will further discuss the matter at an upcoming meeting.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com