Louisville celebrates Tree City USA honor!

The city has been going green for 25 years.

And officials continued the commitment near a recently planted pear tree in the 500 block of E. Main St.

The 6 1/2 -foot tree was part of Tuesday’s events as Louisville hosted representatives of cities and villages in a 13-county area to celebrate the honor of being one of the National Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree City USA communities.

It’s the 25th consecutive year Louisville has earned the honor.

“We are trying to beautify Louisville,” Mayor Patricia Fallot said. “We have a sense of pride to make our community more beautiful.”

To qualify as a Tree City USA, a community has to meet four standards set by the National Arbor Day Foundation, based in Nebraska City, Neb. Among those standards is establishing a local tree board or department. Dorothy “Dee” Nestel chairs that board here.

“The people here in Louisville like the trees,” Nestel said.

That was apparent in years past when several street-side trees were removed during the Ohio Department of Transportation’s highway improvement project on E. Main Street (state Route 153).

“The people were furious,” Nestel said. “So (City) Council decided to start a tree commission. ODOT (also) cut a lot of them down this year on W. Main Street. We will be replanting trees. We try to plant them in places where they have been cut.”

Other communities represented at the ceremony were other Tree City USA honorees in what is known as Project 6 district of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry.

“Basically the Tree City USA program honors communities that have a systematic plan to plant more trees and take care of the trees they already have so that their cities become as vibrant and healthy as possible,” said Mark Derowitsch, public relations officer of the Arbor Day Foundation.