Tuesday, March 14, 2000
Blue Ash adopts sister city in Germany
BY WALT SCHAEFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
BLUE ASH — This city has a new sister.
She has a population of 31,793, and was founded in the 13th century in a mountain valley on the Ilm River in the former East Germany.
Ilmenau, Germany, and Blue Ash have launched a sister city partnership after a contingent from Blue Ash — including city officials, businessmen and educators — journeyed to the German community last month. A group from Ilmenau is expected to visit here this spring.
“One of our business owners, Matt Cholmondeley, asked if we might be interested in considering Ilmenau as a sister city,” said Mayor Jim Sumner. “We looked at the makeup of that city — the fact there is a highly regarded university there, the industrial mix, the growth they are experiencing as a result of the fall of the Iron Curtain. We felt it was ... a close match.”
City Manager Marvin Thompson said Ilmenau is “going through what we in Blue Ash did a couple of decades ago as far as high tech industrial growth, but for a different reason.”
Mr. Cholmondeley said he suggested the partnership as a way to foster exchanges from sports teams to businesses. “One of the greatest advantages of sister cities is not dollars and cents but human interaction” in a fast-emerging global society, he said.
While the relationship has just begun, Mr. Sumner said there are three primary areas of joint interest.
“Besides brotherhood and friendship, one of our principal objectives is to foster economic development between us. If there are suppliers of materi als or equipment in Ilmenau that can serve our businesses or vice versa, we want to utilize them,” Mr. Sumner said.
Werner Kummerle, a German native and owner/president of Metalex, which manufactures high-tech machinery — including space shuttle engine components — said he recruits employees from the Technical University of Ilmenau — among the country's most prestigious schools.
Mr. Kummerle said Blue Ash can assist Ilmenau in growth and development of small businesses. “They can learn from studying Blue Ash's infrastructure. For its size, Blue Ash is one the best (run) communities in the world. East Germany is not as developed today as the West Germans ... so there is a lot of transition going on.”
Mr. Thompson said German companies with an interest in locating facilities in the United States will be courted to locate in Blue Ash and vice versa.
Mr. Sumner said another important area is to foster exchange programs between the University of Cincinnati's Raymond Walters College and the Technical University of Ilmenau, and between Sycamore Community Schools and their counterparts in Ilmenau.
Mary Stagaman, spokeswoman for Blue Ash-based Raymond Walters, said Dean Barbara Bardes was among the Ilmenau visitors and re turned “excited about the opportunities for exchanges. She met with the heads of the foreign language, engineering and media studies departments at Ilmenau.”
Already, the 50 students in Leslie Burklow's sixth grade accelerated language class at Edwin H. Greene Intermediate School have become pen pals with Ilmenau students.
“They are really excited,” Ms. Burklow said. “It helps them learn what other schools are like and education experiences in countries other than their own.”
A third component to the emerging relationship will deal with social and cultural exchanges, and tourism.
“One of the biggest honors I have ever experienced is to stand in their City Hall (built between 1768 and 1786) and present an American flag and the city flag of Blue Ash,” Mr. Sumner said.
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