Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton The Street Landscape’s memory tree that hangs just inside the back entrance to the city building.

As spring approaches, the City of Warren Street Landscape Committee is making decisions about the plantings that will accent the healing garden space at Crescent Park.

Josie Gerarde, the committee’s chair, said she met with city staff and the landscape architect on the project about a week ago.

“(We) got everything pretty much settled,” she said. “(It is) going to have a lot of color.”

All the plans will be perennials and some will be donated as part of the effort.

City Arborist Joe Reinke encouraged anyone interested in having a street right of way tree planted at their home to contact the Department of Public Works.

There’s some concern that the temperature swings could cause problems for the city’s stress.

“(We) want a smooth transition in the spring,” Reinke said, explaining he is “more worried about buds coming out too early (and we) then have a hard frost or heavy snow load.”

The committee spent considerable time discussing a joint celebration set for May 13 at 6:30 p.m. at Crescent Park.

The event will be a ribbon-cutting for park improvements but also celebrate the 100th birthday of the Street Landscape Committee.

Questions were raised about the condition of the new trail at Crescent.

“(It) took a full year for the trail at Betts to harden up,” DPW Director Mike Holtz said. “It’s getting harder. It takes about a year… four seasons of getting beat on before it’s finally hard packed.”

The committee also discussed promoting the memory tree that hangs inside the backdoor of the city building.

Gerarde said that the funds raised by including someone’s name on the tree go into the city’s tree fund.