Perham's Arbor Day celebration will be Saturday, May 2.
The Perham City Council approved Mayor Tim Meehl's Arbor Day Proclamation at the regular city council meeting Monday, April 13.
"Every year the City purchases trees for the boulevards that homeowners can sign up for," city Public Works Director Jeremie Schossow said in an email to the Focus. "Local organizations such as the Rotary, Scouts, Kinship and others volunteer with the planting of the trees. The planting takes place on the first weekend in May which is the day the Mayor declares Arbor Day. That morning the volunteers show up at the City Shop in the morning, split up into groups, grab shovels and their bundle of trees then head out to plant."
This year's tree planting will not take place until Saturday, May 9, after the state's stay-at-home order during the COVID-19 pandemic is slated to be lifted, Schossow said.
This year the Rotary will be planting 50 trees. "These are boulevard trees on public right-of-way," said Chuck Johnson, Perham Rotary coordinator for the Arbor project, in an email to the Focus. "There’s a public signup, and recipients agree to provide tender loving care to the trees, which means lots of water watering first year, and quite often some watering second year."
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"Most of the planting power comes from Rotary, and there are typically youth from groups such as Scouts, Kinship, Interact, Student Council," Johnson said.
Crews of three adults plus youth will leave from the city garage with six trees apiece fro 8 to 8:30 a.m. May 9, Johnson said.
