During the June 30 City Council special meeting, the city of Covington and Tatsuno, Japan joined together as sister cities.

City Manager Regan Bolli said he had spent the day prior to the meeting touring with a delegation from Tatsuno.

During the special meeting, a letter of intent was signed by Covington’s Mayor Margaret Harto and the mayor of Tatsuno.

“We have longed to have a sister city relationship for some time and the timing was finally right for us,” Harto said. “We are so excited to be able to forge this new connection with Tatsuno, Japan. This city-to-city connection will be a true exchange of culture for the Covington and Tatsuno communities.”

The idea behind a sister city is exchange, Karla Slate, communications and marketing manager for Covington wrote in an email.

Bolli said to create a sister city one must “(identify) a city that has some common interest and then (work) with them to form the relationship.”

The Japanese consulate in Seattle helped to facilitate the connection between Covington and Tatsuno, Bolli said.

And once the two cities had agreed to move forward, a resolution was passed, he added.

“The main purpose of the relationship will be to assist  in an exchange program where Tatsuno students visit Covington and Covington students visit Tatsuno,” Bolli said.