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STRUTHERS -- For a third consecutive year, the city has received recognition for its commitment to upholding a slice of environmental awareness and integrity.
"It's showing that we're proud to be conscious about our dedication to our city's tree coverage," Mayor Catherine Cercone Miller said after Wednesday's city council meeting.
The mayor was referring to the Arbor Day Foundation having given Struthers a 2022 Tree City USA designation, a distinction it also received in 2020 and 2021.
Tree City USA, established in 1976, is among the foundation's oldest programs. It provides communities with a four-step framework to grow and maintain tree cover, as well as a means to celebrate such work and show residents, visitors and others "that we're committed to the mission of environmental change," Cercone Miller said in her report.
The four steps are maintaining a tree board or department, having a community tree ordinance, spending at least $2 per capita on urban forestry and celebrating Arbor Day annually. In addition, the program encompasses about 3,600 communities across the nation, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, according to the Arbor Foundation's website.
The designation is important for Struthers and other communities because trees help absorb the sounds of traffic in urban areas by up to 40 percent and reduce energy costs up to 25 percent via shading buildings and homes. In addition, greenspaces play a major role in improving one's mental and physical well-being, and homes with trees generally have higher property values, the website shows.
Also at the session, the mayor announced that the Struthers School Foundation for Educational Excellence will hold its Hall of Fame dinner at 6 p.m. April 27 at Elmtree Catering, 170 Walton St. Tickets are $45 each and can be purchased at the Board of Education building, 111 Euclid Ave., or by calling 330-750-1061.
This year's inductees are Betty Washington, a longtime Struthers educator and mentor; Joe Fuline, an educator and former Struthers High School basketball coach; Bruce Murphy, who made a significant financial contribution to the high school's digital media class; and police Chief Tim Roddy.
The city also will be hosting a series of Easter egg hunts, including the annual hunt from 10 a.m. to noon April 1 at Struthers High's Laddie J. Fedor Field. Another hunt will get under way at 12:30 p.m. April 1 at Maplecrest Nursing Home, 400 Sexton St.
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