Isesaki Donates $17,000 for Ice Storm Recovery

First posted on 04-05-2007

Donation will benefit Japanese Stroll Garden, Other Parks in the Springfield Area.

Springfield’s Sister City of Isesaki, Japan, has sent a donation to the City of Springfield for almost $17,000 to aid ice-storm recovery efforts at the Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden and other gardens in the Springfield-Greene County Park System.

Isesaki Mayor Ichio Yanai and Hiroshi Matsumoto, President of Isesaki International Relations Association, sent a letter to Mayor Tom Carlson stating that the citizens of Isesaki contributed $16,998.52 for Springfield’s ice-storm recovery for the Stroll Garden in particular.

Isesaki officials have been corresponding with City staff and the Springfield Sister Cities Association since shortly after the Jan. 12 ice storm, expressing concern and sympathy for the impact this historic storm has had on our community.

“We are deeply moved and overwhelmed by the generosity of our friends in Isesaki,” Mayor Tom Carlson said. “We knew they were collecting donations, but we never expected to receive this amount.”

Springfield and Isesaki celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Sister City relationship with a “20 for 20” visit by Springfield Sister Cities representatives to Isesaki last fall. Isesaki is a city of about 209,000 located in the center of Japan about 100km from Tokyo.

Cindy Jobe, Parks Landscape Supervisor and a longtime board member for Sister Cities, said approximately 60 percent of the garden’s canopy trees were lost in the storm, along with a significant number of specimen trees.

She said the donation will allow Parks to restore the garden to an even better state than it was before the storm because in addition to the funding, the Parks’ staff has much more experience now with the special types of plantings in the Stroll Garden.

“The silver lining of this is that due in great part to our friends in Isesaki, we know more than we did 20 years ago when we started building the garden and this is the opportunity to apply that knowledge,” Jobe said.

“The partnership between the City, Parks and Isesaki, Japan is invaluable,” Parks Director Jodie Adams said. “We would not have the beautiful Japanese Garden in our City-County Park System today if the City had not engaged in our sister-cities relationship over 20 years ago. Other cultural developments in sports and arts have been just as successful.”

Attached is a copy of the letter Mayor Carlson sent to Mayor Yanai and Mr. Matsumoto thanking the citizens of Isesaki for the donation. In addition, Council will consider a ceremonial resolution at the April 26 Council meeting and the City, Parks and SSCA will thank Isesaki during the annual Japanese Fall Festival in September. Each year a performing arts group from Isesaki visits Springfield, sometimes with City or International Relations officials.

For more information on Springfield’s Sister Cities program, visit the Web site at: http://www.springfieldmogov.org/sistercities or call the Sister Cities office at 864-1191.