A locally-based chain home improvement store is donating five Leland Cypress to the Town of Rochester for planting at the Rochester Police Station. This donation is in part the continuation of a project started at the Rochester Senior Center in October.
Rochester Town Administrator Mike McCue plans to coordinate the planting of the trees with a 2016 Arbor Day Celebration similar to the one held in 2015.
McCue recently received word from the Arbor Day Foundation that it had finalized the Town of Rochester’s designation as a Tree City USA for the Town’s forestry efforts last year.
Despite his planned departure to assume the role of town administrator in Hanson, McCue intends to ask the Rochester Board of Selectmen if he may represent Rochester at the Tree City award ceremonies this spring. At that event, the Town will be presented with Tree City USA signs to place along the road as well as a Tree City USA flag.
McCue further indicated his intentions of making good on his promise to plant in Rochester a sapling from a ginkgo tree that survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945.
The only cause for delay has been confirmation from the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, at which McCue arraigned for the saplings’ care, that they are hearty enough to be viably planted this year.
McCue awaits similar word from the Arboretum so plantings in Avon, Saint Anselm College, and Tuft’s University may also go forward.