Issaquah students can join sister-city writing contest
April 12, 2011
Students interested in sustainability and sustaining international relations can participate in a writing contest organized by Sister Cities International, the citizen diplomacy network set up to create and strengthen partnerships between U.S. and international communities.
Students ages 13 to 18 can enter a personal essay or poetry into the contest. Using the theme “Shaping Your Community for a Greener Future” as a guideline, participants should illustrate how they, their community or their sister city is working to protect the local environment.
Issaquah has sister-city relationships with Chefchaouen, Morocco, and Sunndal, Norway.
Learn more about the contest at Sister Cities International website, www.sister-cities.org/programs/yas.cfm. The deadline for submissions is April 29.
All in the family: Discover Issaquah’s sister cities
February 15, 2011
Issaquah sister-city bond fosters cross-cultural understanding in Morocco — and at home
The dominant color in Chefchaouen, Morocco — Issaquah’s sister city since April 2007 — is a dreamy shade of blue. Contributed
The grand and imposing door, set amid brick buildings and evergreens in downtown Issaquah, offers clues from a far-off place.
The door is as solid as the Rock of Gibraltar and built to endure for ages. The place is ancient.
The door is painted in the same soothing blue as a summer sky over the Mediterranean. The place is exotic.
The door is a gateway. The place is Chefchaouen, Morocco.
The door on the Issaquah City Hall grounds is a gift from Chefchaouen, a sister city almost 6,000 miles from the Cascade foothills.
The relationship is a study in contrasts.
Suburban Issaquah is perched on the outer rim of Greater Seattle. Chefchaouen is isolated in mountainous terrain, 100 miles from the nearest major city, Tangier. Chefchaouen is in Muslim-majority Morocco. Issaquah is in the secular United States.
Issaquah and Chefchaouen inked a sister-city agreement in 2007.
City seeks civic-minded citizens for volunteer posts
January 11, 2011
City leaders seek civic-minded citizens to serve on municipal boards and shape environmental and land-use decisions, guide the future of municipal parks, and foster relationships between Issaquah and the international community.
The city has openings on 11 boards and commissions. Not all applicants must be Issaquah residents. Read more
City seeks civic-minded citizens for volunteer posts
January 6, 2011
NEW — 4 p.m. Jan. 6, 2011
City leaders seek civic-minded citizens to serve on municipal boards and shape environmental and land-use decisions, guide the future of municipal parks, and foster relationships between Issaquah and the international community.
The city has openings on 11 boards and commissions. Not all applicants must be Issaquah residents.
Candidates can pick up the application at the City Clerk’s Office at City Hall, 130 E. Sunset Way, during regular business hours.
Applicants must submit signed and completed applications and city forms by noon Jan. 31.
In the weeks ahead, city staffers contact applicants and schedule interviews for February.
Renewing ties with our Nordic neighbors
January 26, 2010
Issaquah visitor Joan Probala returns from Norway with hopes to revive sister-city bond
Longtime Issaquah resident Joan Probala (right) addresses dignitaries during a November trip to Sunndal, Norway, a sister city to Issaquah. Contributed by Joan ProbAla
Longtime Issaquah resident Joan Probala traveled to Sunndal, Norway, in November to discuss the dormant sister-city relationship between Issaquah and the Norwegian town.
Dignitaries from both cities established the relationship in 1991, although the connection has waned in recent years. In the meantime, Issaquah and Chefchaouen, Morocco, started a sister-city relationship in 2007.
Issaquah City Council members hope to revive and strengthen the relationship between the city and Sunndal. Probala, a member of the city Sister Cities Commission, met with Sunndal leaders, sampled reindeer and talked about how to strengthen the bond between Issaquah and the small, quaint city on a fjord.
Apply to serve city as a board member or commissioner
January 12, 2010
Help shape the way Issaquah develops, advise officials about growth and even increase public art throughout the city. Read more
Sister city greetings
December 8, 2009
Joan Probala (third from left), of the Issaquah Sister Cities Commission, poses Nov. 17 with the Sunndal, Norway, City Council and Sunndal Mayor Ståle Refstie (holding the newspaper), after a meeting to discuss reinvigorating the sister city relationship that Issaquah and the Scandinavian city began in 1991, but had both let lapse in recent years. Contributed
Issaquah traveler hopes to thaw Sunndal sister city relationship
November 10, 2009
Joan Probala
The dormant relationship between Issaquah and Sunndal, Norway — the first sister city partnership forged by Issaquah leaders — could be rekindled next week when longtime Issaquah resident Joan Probala travels to the far-flung corner of Scandinavia.
Issaquah and Sunndal became sister cities in 1991, but the relationship faded and the pact failed to produce more than a handful of visits between the cities’ residents. In the meantime, Issaquah established a second sister city relationship with Chefchaouen, Morocco, in early 2007.
Probala, a member of the Issaquah Sister Cities Commission, hopes her trip to Norway can reinvigorate the partnership with Sunndal. She departed Nov. 9 for Norway and the distant sister city. She plans to spend three weeks in Norway, where her daughter lives. The trip to Sunndal will be a high-profile side trip. Read more
Voters decide city, schools races
November 10, 2009
Issaquah voters elected a pair of political newcomers — including the first Issaquah Highlands representative — to the City Council last week, and returned Maureen McCarry to the council with a landslide victory. Read more
Press Editorial
January 5, 2009
Plenty of goals for all of Issaquah in ’09
The year 2008 was one of few accomplishments, based on the list of goals we published last year. Yes, the proposed Southeast Bypass was put to rest, a plan for saving Park Pointe property was proposed, school boundary reviews were completed and the city moved closer to having a human services campus. But there is much left undone, and some of the goals are repeated on this year’s list.
