FARMINGTON — Volunteers will plant 350 seedlings next week at the riverbank erosion control site off Whittier Road.

From 8 a.m. to about 11 a.m. Monday through Friday, May 4-8, or until the planting is done, 50 or more volunteers are expected to help, Town Manager Richard Davis told the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday. 

“There are 350 seedlings of a few varieties that will be planted to either replace ones that did not survive or did not get planted in the first place,” Davis said.

The survival of these plants is a condition of the town’s Federal Emergency Management Agency grant for the stabilization work, he said.

Peter Tracy, chairman of the town’s Conservation Commission, is coordinating the effort and doing a great job lining up volunteers, including students from Foster Technology Center, Davis said.

Only 25 percent of the vegetation planted on the riverbank at the site survived the first year, Davis said in December. The survival rate of vegetation needs to be at 70 percent by the end of the second year to meet conditions and permits received on the project, he added.

Davis planned for a May planting with the town supplying the plants at an estimated cost of $1,600, he said then.

The stabilization work, done in 2013, followed two years of planning and permitting to cope with erosion of the riverbank caused by Hurricane Irene in August 2011. The erosion threatened the stability of a section of Whittier Road.

Next week’s planting comes prior to the board’s vote to proclaim May 17-23 as Arbor Week in Farmington. “Farmington is Tree City, USA, for its 37th year, as recognized by the Maine Forest Service and the National Arbor Day Foundation,” according to the proclamation.

In other business, the board approved use of Bjorn Park on High Street for free lunches provided to low-income children from June 29 through July 29.

Old South First Congregational Church is coordinating with Mallett School, where lunches will also be served, Christopher Magri, co-chairman of the church’s outreach committee said. The lunches will be prepared at Mallett and transported to Bjorn Park where volunteers will provide a meal and an activity on Monday and Wednesday for this first year, he said.

[email protected]