Naas Mayor offers sympathies to German town following fire

By Kim O'Leary

The Mayor of Naas, Rob Power, has contacted Oberburgermeister (Mayor) of Dillingen, Frank Kunz to convey his warm wishes on the devastating fire that destroyed much of the German city's old Town Hall building on Wednesday night.

Naas has been twinned with the southern German town since 1999. Strong links have been maintained over the years with Mayor Kunz and his colleagues being regular attendees of the annual Naas Easter Parade.

Dillingen an Der Donau has been a twinned town of Naas since 1999. It has a population of just under 20,000 and is situated in Bavaria in southern Germany.

Speaking of the fire Cllr Rob Power said: “The first thing to note is that thankfully there were no personal injuries in the fire. In fact due to the swift response of the Fire Service form Dillingen and surrounding towns many of the artifacts and official documents have also been saved.”

He said:"It is heartening to hear of the solidarity and positivity from the communities in and around Dillingen today and I was especially delighted to hear Oberburgermeister Kunz say that they are already making plans for the restoration of the building".

On his last visit to Ireland Frank Kunz brought up his desire to establish an exchange program between Naas and Dillingen, and Cllr Power has said that they will discuss this idea in the coming months.