Washougal formalizes its Polish sister-city relationship

The city of Washougal’s first-ever sister-city relationship is officially official.

Washougal Mayor David Stuebe, councilmember David Fritz, and City Manager David Scott and his wife Julie visited Zielonki, Poland, from Tuesday, June 13, to Wednesday, June 21, to finalize and celebrate the two cities’ recent pact.

“It was a great trip,” Scott said during a Council meeting on Monday, July 24. “They were great hosts. It’s a great community. I was very impressed with the community and what they’ve accomplished there. I think there are some things that we can learn from them, and hopefully, there’s some things they can learn from us.”

The Washougal delegates, accompanied by Zelonki Mayor Bogus?aw Król and other city leaders, visited a variety of locations, including schools, housing estates, recreation centers, and municipality facilities and infrastructure, during their trip.

“It’s just a beautiful place,” Scott said. “Zielonki means ‘green,’ and it’s green like Washougal. There’s beautiful countryside.”

The delegation also attended a wedding, during which the two mayors signed a partnership agreement that states that both agencies will undertake to exchange information in the fields of economic, social, cultural, environmental, professional and technical matters, among others, and to promote effective cooperation among the residents of the city of Washougal and the municipality of Zielonki.

Zielonki representatives gifted the Washougal delegates with a Crakovian corset, embroidered in the “traditional Zielonki style, made of velvet, embroidered with shaded flat stitching and decorated with haberdashery ribbons, beads and sequins indicating the wealth of the inhabitants of the countryside near Krakow,” Scott said.

“The embroidery on Zielonki corsets uses rich floral patterns where a blooming rose surrounded by field and garden flowers and stalks of grain is central. You can see that in the design,” Scott said, showing the corset to Council members.

“The Zielonki ornaments and embroideries used are associated with the ‘young Poland’ era and evoke the work of the famous playwright and artist, Stanis?aw Wyspia?ski, a Jielonki resident in 1906 and 1907, who used the motif of the rose and mantle in his famous drama, ‘The Wedding,’ that takes place in a nearby (town). This is beautiful. It really represents their culture and their heritage.”

The Washougal delegates returned the favor, gifting Zielonki leaders with a blanket from the Pendleton Woolen Mill.

“(City community engagement manager) Rose (Jewell) had our logo and the Zielonki logo embroidered onto the blanket,” Scott said, “so hopefully they’ll be able to hang it up in their municipal facilities.”

Stuebe said that the trip was an “epic experience.”

“It’s been great to learn their ideas and experience hospitality,” he said during a Council workshop in June. “I’m so impressed how far they’ve come in 30 years since they got away from communism, and really impressed with what they had over there — their schools, their fire department, how they solved a lot of their issues. I really think this is going to be a great opportunity for us with that program.”

Zielonki leaders agreed with Stuebe.

“We would like to thank everyone who was involved in the organization of this visit and devoted their time to build good relations with the community of Washougal,” they stated in a news release on the municipality’s website.

The city of Washougal will formally invite Zielonki delegates to visit Washougal this fall, most likely in October to coincide with the City’s Harvest Day festival, according to Scott.

“It’s pretty exciting that we’ll be able to host some representatives from our sister city,” he said.

A sister-city relationship is a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties. The city of Camas has enjoyed sister-city arrangements with three cities in Poland — Krapkowice, Morawica and Zabierzow — for many years.

With the assistance of former Camas City Administrator Lloyd Halverson, who lived in Poland for several years in the 1990s, Washougal officials reached out to their counterparts in Zielonki in late 2022.

Zielonki has a population of approximately 23,700 and borders the regional capital of Kraków.

“(Zielonki) is not a city, actually. We have a different system,” Zielonki council member Roma Toft told the Post-Record while visiting Washougal earlier this year. “In America, every place is a city, a town or a township, but Poland has a different administration system. We are divided into regions and counties and municipalities, and every municipality is divided into smaller villages. My municipality, Zielonki, is divided into 19 villages, with Zielonki as its capital and largest village, so it’s a little bit different.

“I know (Washougal) is not (exactly) like home, and some solutions cannot be transferred into Poland, because we have different systems,” she continued. “But everything we learn here (is valuable) — we can just think about new ideas, so it’s very important.”

Zielonki council members adopted a resolution establishing a partnership with the city of Washougal in January, and Washougal city council members adopted a resolution of their own in February.