Dowagiac will test weekend Dial-a-Ride bus service by providing transportation to Arbor Day festivities hosted by Williams A-1 Expert Tree Service on M-51 South in Pokagon Township.

“We do have a lot on the agenda that day,” City Council heard March 28 from Dan Williams, heading up a committee planning activities for Saturday, April 30, from noon with a hot dog lunch to 5 p.m., instead of the traditional observance after school on Friday afternoon on the lawn adjacent to City Hall.

“I really appreciate the city allowing us to have it out there,” Williams said.

“I think the Arbor Day celebration is going to be very successful, and there’s only one reason it’s going to be successful — and that’s Ed Darr.

“Ed Darr put a lot of time and effort into the Arbor Day celebration. That’s something I vowed to Ed, that I would keep that going and continue to do that for him. I hope to see you all there.”

Activities for the fifth annual observance include a chili contest, equipment, tree-climbing and tree-planting demonstrations and a poster contest.

Merchants donated prizes for the contests. Scout groups are organizing community service projects around the day.

City Manager Kevin Anderson said Assistant City Manager Rozanne Scherr, who oversees DART, “has been working to try to set up a day where you could test free transportation. We’re going to try to coordinate that on the same day so we can make the Dial-a-Ride system available for people who want to ride out and see that. We don’t want to overtake the event so much as dovetail with it so we can highlight public transportation.”

Mr. Darr, who died March 7, 2010, at 82, founded Dowagiac’s Arbor Day and was instrumental in the city’s designation as a “Tree City USA.”

He was a 1945 classmate of elementary school namesake Capt. Iven Carl Kincheloe Jr.

“As a result of Mr. Darr’s vision,” Mayor Donald D. Lyons stated in a proclamation, “the city has forged a commitment to managing our urban forest. I urge all citizens to celebrate Arbor Day and to support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands and to plant trees to gladden the heart and promote the well-being of this and future generations.”