A BENCH has been placed in a park in Saline to celebrate the 50th anniversary of twinning between Brecon and the city.

The bond with Saline in Michigan, USA, was established in July 1966, making it the first sister city relationship between the United States and Wales.

The bench has been placed in Brecon Park in Saline.

According to a story published in the Saline Reporter, after the Second World War President Eisenhower and First Lady Mamie were determined to do everything humanly possible to end the continuing tragedy of international conflict.

The story, written by Paul Tull, said that one of the ways they planned to implement this was by devising the People to People programme. This was an ambitious goal to establish friendships and understandings between Americans and other nations. Mr Tull reported that a colonel and his wife, Col Ivor and Jesse Jarman, lived in Brecon and had a daughter, Mary, who attended The University of Michigan. She was advised that a town with similarities to Brecon would be Saline.

After this, Mr Tull reported that the daughter of a German colonel stationed in Brecon, went to Saline as an exchange student and on her return was able to report to Brecon Town Council about the many similarities between the two towns. After contact between the towns was made in the spring of 1966, the twinning link was officially established in July of that year.

The twinning relationship is very much thriving today with members of the Brecon community being life-long friends with members of the community of Saline.