By Rebecca Goldfine,Staff Writer

NORWAY – The town’s newly formed tree committee is seeking people who would like to make the downtown green and leafy.

“They don’t have to know anything about trees. They have to have an interest in trees, and mostly have in an interest in seeing the best Norway could be,” tish carr, a professional arborist, said Tuesday. carr, who prefers to spell her name with lower-case letters, will advise Norway’s new committee, which selectmen approved at their latest board meeting.

Already Gail Geraghty, who volunteers for Norway Downtown Revitalization, has signed up.

“We have two choices in Norway,” Geraghty said recently. “Small ornamental trees or work towards larger trees to provide a canopy.”

She added that the committee, too, would advise the town about the trees currently growing along Main Street. “The challenge is what do we do with the existing trees that don’t meet either of those standards,” she said. Some of the trees have grown so large they block storefront windows or break sewer lines. Others have weakened and died.

The town has about $14,000 earmarked from a Community Development Block Grant for trees downtown. This money could grow, too, depending on how the town decides to spend an extra $300,000 originally slated for the C.B. Cummings & Sons Co. dowel mill redevelopment. That money was rerouted to downtown improvement projects after a private organization bought the mill last fall.

Town Manager David Holt said Tuesday that to buy and install small trees is expensive – a few hundred dollars – and that to take down a big tree would cost even more.

Besides drafting a tree strategy for the town, part of the committee members’ duties might include tending the trees.

“In some communities, the tree board does help out with the maintenance of the smaller trees,” carr said. “You have higher success when people have ownership in trees.”

Anyone interested in volunteering should contact Holt at the town office.