MARBLEHEAD — The selectmen have, by a 4-0 vote, endorsed a calendar of events with the town's sister city of Grasse, France. And they've gone even further by encouraging a private group led by Myriam Zuber and Catherine Doherty to seek funding for cultural exchanges and visits from Grasse officials.
Zuber has spearheaded the effort, even arranging a personal visit to Grasse to make contact with local officials, including the mayor. The daughter of a French father and a Boston-born mother, she is a native of Paris now living in Marblehead and working for the Anti-Defamation League.
In the midst of a recession, the effort to cement relations with Grasse will get no funding from the town of Marblehead. On the other side of the Atlantic, however, the French take their sister cities (all seven of them) quite seriously and provide funding as part of their budgets. Government leaders, cultural figures and businesspeople have already committed to a visit next spring.
Private fundraising is expected to pay for any reciprocal arrangements. "The town has no money to spend," Selectman Bill Woodfin said. The board voted 3-0 to encourage the fundraising program.
Selectman Judy Jacobi, however, withheld her endorsement, voting present. Harry Christensen, who was absent at the meeting, isn't certain how he would have voted when it comes to involving the town in any private fundraising effort.
On the other hand, he has been an enthusiastic supporter of the idea of reinvigorating the sister city arrangement with Grasse, a city near the Mediterranean coast. Its ties with Marblehead were initiated more than 20 years ago with officials citing the gratitude of Americans — and especially nautically minded Marbleheaders — toward local hero Admiral de Grasse who bottled up the British at Yorktown to help win the Revolutionary War.
Christensen, who speaks French, has never been to France and is eager to visit Grasse. "At my own expense."
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