The city in May 2006 agreed to a 99-year, $1-a-year lease with nonprofit group East Texas Gardens, Arboretum and Conservation for 28.62 acres immediately east of Maude Cobb Convention and Activity Center. That lease expires Tuesday, after the group’s board of directors voted Aug. 10 to return the property to city ownership, city spokesman Shawn Hara said.

“Then it will be the city’s property, which it already was, but there won’t be a lease,” Hara said. “We’ll be responsible for the lease.”

Hara compared the relationship to what the city shares with the Greenwood Cemetery Association. Since 1905, the city has owned the cemetery immediately south of Good Shepherd Medical Center. The nonprofit association founded in 1975 raises funds for its upkeep, Hara said.

“It’s similar to how we would handle our other park properties (including cemeteries and arboretums),” he said.

Without the lease, East Texas Gardens can focus on fundraising for the planned park. The group has continued such efforts for several years, including Nov. 20 when it held a Longview News-Journal-sponsored Family Volunteer Day at the arboretum site.

On Friday, the city accepted a donation of 110,000 bulbs from Van Zyverden Co.

Longview Community Services Director Laura Hill said the city merely arranged for transporting the bulbs.

“I know Joncie Young with KSA Engineers made a sizeable donation towards those costs,” Hill said.

It is the second donation from Meridian, Miss.-based Van Zyverden. In May 2008, the bulb grower, wholesaler and exporter donated 280,000 flower bulbs to the arboretum.

East Texas Gardens has planned a meeting Jan. 12 at Maude Cobb to discuss plans for an 8,000-square-foot perennial bed and border.