The Town of Dartmouth is considering a new Portuguese community for a possible sister city relationship.

From March 14 to 19, officials from Dartmouth’s existing sister city of Lagoa, Azores were joined by a delegation from Lagoa on the Portuguese mainland for a tour of several South Coast cities and towns.

The trip was a chance for Lagoa, Algarve’s councilwoman, Dr. Anabela Simão, and cabinet member Jorge Cabrita, to discuss the possibility of forming a sister city with Dartmouth during the group’s visit to Town Hall on March 16.

During the brief one-hour meeting with Dartmouth officials, Azorean mayor Cristina Calisto and councilwoman Albertina Oliveira reaffirmed Lagoa’s relationship with sister cities in the South Coast.

In attendance at the meeting was Select Board member Shawn McDonald, who participated in the discussion about the benefits of the sister cities program. He stressed the value of musical, educational, business and government exchanges, among other opportunities.

In the past year, the Azorean community of Lagoa and the town have shared ideas on how to approach specific problems facing both communities, an idea McDonald said could also be applied to the mainland community.

“It’s a good way to see how other communities deal with problems,” McDonald said. “How they handle some things may translate here. We can show them the way we do things and they can bring it over there and vice versa.”

He mentioned how Lagoa, Algarve has a lot of agriculture and fisheries, making it a good chance to share ideas that both communities could implement.

While no agreement was signed with Lagoa, Algarve officials, McDonald said it is something the town is definitely looking into. He said overall it’s about the benefits of learning from each others cultures.

“A lot of it is still trying to make a big world a little smaller and learning more about different cultures,” McDonald said.