City of Charleston

It's official. After entering the council chambers with formal processional music and regalia, and after the exchange of greetings, introductions and speeches, Mayor Ivan Saktor signed the Memorandum of Understanding delivered with Mayor Danny Jones' signature making Banska Bystrica and the City of Charleston official Sister Cities.

Our schedule has been full every day and Monday was no exception. It began with a tour of the historic city center containing structures that date back to as early as 1303, and the Bastion remains which marks the heart of a once walled city. The central street is closed to through traffic creating a long pedestrian mall and a wonderful venue for outdoor civic events. Upon our arrival, we found a band playing on an outdoor stage for a celebration of "Europe Day," but if it could have just as well been a "Live on the Levy" concert.

The tour ended at a museum after which we had to quickly make our way to a meeting will local NGO's (Non-Governmental Organizations, which is similar to our non-profit structure). As with most non-profit activity, the need and ability to raise funds is always a paramount challenge and it was interesting to learn of some of the more creative ways in which they have tackled this issue. Like our complex system of federal grant funding, we have heard much about European Union moneys and its similarities to how our federal government provides support through infrastructure development, non-profit social activities, and public-private partnerships or business development.

Like West Virginians, the Slovaks are a proud and hospitable people. They value relationships and go out of their way to make a show of it. The size and make-up of our delegation has allowed us to cover more ground in our relationship building mission. Our delegation split up Monday evening with a number of us attending a Rotary meeting (we were the program--with promising conversation regarding student exchange sponsorships) while others attended a cultural program.

A chance street encounter with a co-host from the previous night's event as I walked back to the Pension (Hotel) after Rotary led to an interesting chain of events. Neither of us spoke the other's language but we were able to negotiate more time together through an interpreter (Miriam Chevekova--who visited us as part of their delegation last Fall) by passing his cell phone back and forth.

My new friend's daughter met up to interpret (the younger generations tend to know English and many speak it quite well). I was introduced to several more Slovaks, one of which invited Peter Gallo and I to attend a rowing competition the next day. It turns out that it was the State High School championships. Peter and I were introduced as dignitaries along with their country's Minister of Health, Minister of Education, Head of the Regional Governement and others.

Our planned schedule was the further changed so that in place of lunch, our whole delegation had a meeting at the headquarters of the regional government where we gained further insight into their intergovernmental relationships of city, regional and national governments.

My overall impression so far is that there is both desire and receptivity here to developing deeper and more meaningful exchanges at an organic level that goes beyond just formal declarations and symbolic gestures.

David Molgaard, Charleston City Manager