LEBANON — They are marked trees, literally and figuratively, the three dozen maples and white ashes that sport pink spray-painted dots.

        The trees, along two miles of Main Street, are just about all that stands in the way of city and state plans to rebuild Main after three decades of haggling.

        By April 15, the trees will be gone, and by early May, road construction will begin, says Peg Enigk, project director for the Ohio Department of Transportation.

        Main Street is long overdue for an overhaul, city officials say. The road has a hump that runs down the center and the sewer beneath is believed to have collapsed. Some homeowners on Main have bitterly opposed ODOT's plans, which will add a center turn lane that they fear will encourage truck traffic.

        But Lebanon already has completed a detour road and has begun utility work along Main, and ODOT will award the project Wednesday The trees — a nesting spot for Indiana bats — must be removed by April 15, Ms. Enigk says, before the bats begin their spring journey north.

        The Indiana bat is a threatened species because it has been pushed out of caves it used to hibernate in.The loss of the Main Street trees isn't a problem for the bats, ODOT environmental engineer Keith Smith says, because there are enough other nesting sites nearby.

        The city Shade Tree Commission doesn't object to chopping down the trees. They are mostly old and needed to be removed anyway, says member Rosemary Chute. The commission's chief concern is that they be replaced.

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