City outlines 140-tree planting push, utility work for Cheetah Lake Park

City staff and local volunteers outlined a major tree-planting effort and several park upgrades during the committee meeting. Jason, speaking for the city, said the program will place trees at a range of sites and that much of the work at Cheetah Lake Park currently underway is underground utility work required before visible park amenities are installed.

Jason said the city has started street tree trimming and removal and is coordinating a multi-site planting program with American Forests and Weyerhaeuser employees. "We got 17 people to respond for the do not trim list," he said, and confirmed three recent removals at Grove and Ash. He described a plan of planting 36 trees at the Mark Slough area on Tennessee Road, seven at River Park, 30 at Academy Square, a cedar of Lebanon in a container, 14 at Christopher Columbus Park and 53 at Cheetah Lake Park, noting volunteers and Build Lebanon Trails (BLT) would help supervise.

The planting program will be staged to avoid conflict with ongoing construction. When Committee Member Speaker 5 pressed whether planting 50 trees now could later conflict with the multi-year build-out at Cheetah Lake Park, Speaker 2 replied the city will delay planting in areas that are planned for near-term construction: "They won't go until after the current construction is done, and then they'll be in places where they won't be in the way." The transcript records varying tree counts across exchanges; the committee described the totals as project estimates and planning numbers.

On Cheetah Lake Park, Jason said phase 1 focuses on utility extensions — an 8-inch water main, water service for a future bathroom, storm drainage and sewer extensions — while later phases will include the multiuse path, curb and gutter and other visible park improvements. He told the committee the front multiuse path is "supposed to be done before June" and that crews had chlorinated the new waterline extension.

BLT will help with watering and early maintenance for a subset of the new trees. Speakers noted BLT agreed to water 42–(a portion of the set) trees for two years and that Weyerhaeuser offered to supply fertilizer, stakes, watering tubes, gloves and possibly funds. BLT and city staff also discussed seeking a watering trailer, which a Weyerhaeuser representative said the company might help fund, with an estimate of up to $25,000 mentioned in planning remarks.

The meeting included no formal decisions on funding or final plant locations; the only formal action recorded in the transcript was approval of the minutes by voice vote. The next committee meeting was announced for March 18, 2026.