GLADSTONE — Despite being separated by more than 730 miles, the cities of Gladstone, Mich., and Gladstone, Mo., share more than a name. Following a resolution approved Monday by the Michigan city, the two municipalities are now officially sister cities.

Typically, sister cities are ties between municipalities in two different countries, but a unique tie from one Missourian prompted the two American cities to begin looking at joining forces. James Lyen, a periodic visitor to Gladstone, Mich., whose father was once the clubhouse manager for the Gladstone Yacht Club, now lives in the city roughly 10 miles north of Kansas City that shares Gladstone’s name. During one of his visits up north, he mentioned that it would be interesting to get the cities working together.

That idea snowballed, eventually being taken up as a goal by the Gladstone Lions Club, which spearheaded the movement to bring the cities together.

“What would be the benefit of it? Perhaps some commerce, mainly tourism. (We) let them know about our great fishery, our winter sports, our outdoors, and perhaps we could have some interest going down there,” said Gladstone resident and Lions Club member Bruce Movalson.

Movalson also noted the partnership could create a unique connection for children in both cities if the school districts decided to work together and communicate.

City Manager Darcy Long, who is also a member of the Lions Club, noted while both cities are American, there were cultural differences and both cities could learn from each other. An exchange where people from both cities would visit their namesakes could take place as early as this summer.

At this point, the sister city relationship is largely symbolic, but one of the goals for the Lions is that, whatever the relationship grows into in the future, there is no cost to the city of Gladstone, Mich.

“One of the things that Bruce has stressed in the whole thing is it shouldn’t cost the city anything to do this, and that’s why the Lions Club has decided to be the spearheader of it and to kind of take the organizing of it,” said Long.

Long also noted the two cities have has some interaction before — typically, when Missouri residents called Michigan by accident.

“There are people from Gladstone, Mo., that have mistakenly called the city of Gladstone, Mich. for various city services. That’s kind of how we really got a connection. I don’t know if, vice versa, people have called there looking for permits, but it is kind of a comical thing,” said Long.

In other business at the Gladstone, Mich., commission meeting, the commission approved the fee schedule for the new fiscal year. The approval officially increased the cost of water by 50 cents per 1,000 gallons, wastewater by 25 cents per 1,000 gallons, and increased the ready to serve charge by $2 for both water and wastewater.

Other notable changes included:

– Adding a fee for special commission, planning commission, and downtown development authority meetings held at the request of residents, businesses, or organizations that needed to have issues addressed outside of a regularly scheduled meeting. Commission meetings will cost $500, planning committee meetings will cost $400, and DDA meetings will cost $150.

– Changing the site plan review fees to be reflective of the size of a project. Projects 5,000 square feet or smaller will be assessed $400 plus administrative costs, projects 5,001 to 10,000 square feet will be assessed $550 plus administrative costs, and projects over 10,000 square feet will be assessed $950 plus administrative costs.

– A dumpster permit fee was created for dumpsters parked on city streets. The fee is $25 for two weeks, and can be avoided if residents place dumpsters on their property.

– The fee assessed for snow removal from sidewalks and mowing yards for code-violating residences was increased significantly to a minimum $100 fee. After one hour of labor, the cost of equipment is also charged to the resident.