In a trip not previously announced until an article in the Belleville Intelligencer on Friday, a group of Belleville councillors and residents are travelling with Mayor Neil Ellis to Belleville’s German twin city of Lahr as a friendship delegation.
Councillors Chris Malette and Lisa-Anne Chatten, along with members of Belleville city staff will be travelling with Mayor Ellis to Germany and will leave Toronto on Sunday. The group will meet councillors Barb Enright-Miller and Garnet Thompson with Belleville CAO Rod Bovay and other Belleville area residents, who are already in Europe for a Mediterranean cruise, in Frankfurt before proceeding to Lahr for the week-long friendship delegation.
The group are paying their own travel expenses. No taxpayer funding was used for the trip.
Councillor Chris Malette says the week-long friendship flight delegation will involve some business including tours of local industries around Lahr. In addition, the delegation will spend time touring Lahr and its surrounding area and will attend a committee session of European parliament.
Former Belleville city councillor Jackie Denyes will be honoured by Lahr during the delegation’s stay for her role in continuing and organizing friendship flights and cultural exchange between the two cities during her time as councillor.
Friendship flights first started between the two cities after they were twinned in 1970 when there were frequent flights between CFB Trenton and the German military airbase in Lahr. The base has since closed, but the cities remained twinned and cultural exchange flights have continued.
