Manhattan, Kansas - Twin or Partner Cities

Twin or Partner Cities

• Dobřichovice, Czech Republic (since 2004)

In August 2004 the Manhattan City Commission approved a resolution establishing an advisory committee to explore and foster a formal partnership with an international city. In 2005, following a lengthy planning effort guided by Dr. Joseph Barton-Dobenin, a Czech native and now-retired professor at Kansas State University then-Commissioner Ed Klimek visited Dobřichovice, Czech Republic, to initiate a partnership with that city. Following Mr. Klimek’s visit, a number of local elected officials and other members of the community of Dobřichovice visited Manhattan to continue the effort towards establishing the formal relationship. In 2006, the Committee recommended and the City Commission chose the City of Dobřichovice as its partner city, and in April of that year then-Mayor Ed Klimek signed the Partner Cities Agreement, declaring that the two cities would thereafter engage each other in sharing cultural, educational, youth and civic understanding, and friendship, and further endeavor to promote and strengthen the peace among the two cities, their homelands, and the global community.

Since its inception, Committee members and friends of the Committee have been continuously engaged in cultural and civic exchanges with their counterparts in Dobřichovice. Since the Dobřichovice delegation’s visit to Manhattan in 2005, a number of local elected officials and community members have traveled from Manhattan to Dobřichovice in the interest of continuing and strengthening this partnership.A delegation from Dobřichovice is expected to return to Manhattan in the upcoming years.The partnership has also benefited from the international student exchange program at Kansas State University, which has been successful in recruiting students from the Czech Republic.