Niles, IL…January 15, 2013..The Niles New Party Slate, Andrew Przbylo for Mayor, George Alpogianis, Danette O’Donovan and John Jekot for Village Trustees have suggested that the Niles Sister Cities Program could become more relevant and more active, especially under a new board that was recently elected.
“In recent years some Niles Citizens have questioned the value of the program,” Przbylo said, “and rightfully so.”
The recently elected Sister Cities Board is headed by Alpogianis, owner of Kappy’s Restaurant. Alpogianis, who has been a Sister Cities member for 10 years and has chaired the Greek faction for 7 years, agrees with Przyblo that the Sister Cities Program of Niles could better serve the people of Niles with expanded programs.
“We’ve gotten into a rut in the past few years with just doing the same programs year after year,” he said. “Andrew and I have some new ideas we’d like to implement including a Skype Night and a Pen Pal Program.”
A Skype Night would allow people from a sister city to meet folks from Niles via a digital audio/video connection. The Pen-Pal program would be for children and Przbylo said they could use a portal on the Village website. Przbylo also added making the Niles Library a partner in the Sister Cities Program to foster literature or art exchange programs.
New Niles Sister Cities Program members (left to right) Armin Homann of Deutchland Radio and Cooky Kraus with Niles Village Trustee and candidate for Mayor Andrew Przbylo
Przbylo and Alpogianis are also in favor of expanding the Sister Cities Program with new cities and ethnic groups such as German-Americans and Korean-Americans. In fact both of those groups are now represented on the new board.
The current Sister Cities for Niles are Nafleon, Greece, Pisa, Italy, Lexlip, Ireland and Limanowa, Poland.