Longmont funds Sister City exchange with Northern Arapaho

City council Tuesday night voted unanimously to give $15,000 to Northern Arapaho of Wind River to help defray the cost of sending the tribe’s children to Longmont as part of a Sister City agreement.

The council also agreed to give $5,000 to help pay for Longmont’s children to visit the Northern Arapaho reservation in Wyoming. The $20,000 comes from the city’s council’s $225,753 contingency fund.

The vote for the funding came at the urging of outgoing City Councilmember Polly Christensen and Mayor Brian Bagley, who finished his term as mayor Tuesday night.

In September, the city and the Longmont Sister Cities Association signed a Sister Cities agreement with the Northern Arapaho Business Council after three years of negotiation.

It marked the first time a Sister Cities agreement had been signed between a U.S. city and a sovereign nation.

The funding, Christensen said, “will help mitigate the cost of traveling.”

The friendship with the Northern Arapaho is Longmont’s third Sister City, along with Chino, Japan and Ciudad Guzman, Mexico.