THE BRIGHT SIDE
National Arbor Day 2026 is on Friday, April 24, 2026.
As an annual observance dedicated to planting and caring for trees, it is celebrated on the last Friday in April. Arbor Day, founded by J. Sterling Morton in Nebraska on April 10, 1872, is a dedicated day for planting and caring for trees. Created to combat the scarcity of trees on the treeless prairie plains, the holiday promotes planting trees for fuel, windbreaks, and shade. Over one million trees were planted in Nebraska on the inaugural Arbor Day. In 1885, Nebraska declared Arbor Day a legal holiday and decided to observe it on April 22, Morton’s birthday. By 1920, over 45 states and territories observed it, and it is now generally celebrated across the US on the last Friday in April.
Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, WI, will host a “Celebrating Arbor and Earth Day” Open House on Saturday, April 25, 2026, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The event offers engaging, hands-on, family-friendly activities designed to celebrate the environment and the observatory’s unique history. There will be a scavenger hunt with prizes to encourage discovery throughout the observatory grounds. Weather permitting, there will be solar observing and telescopes set up on the South Lawn. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 per child. Reservations are required.
The police and fire commission is at it again.
The police boat purchase and pier and land to go with it, where the boat will dock, and likely rot, depending upon what it’s made of, is being added to in ‘safety’ funding by the addition of a safety building to be put somewhere along Edwards Boulevard. The building is necessary for safety in that the other old building is old and a few miles away. The new safety building, to cost millions of dollars according to estimates made a few years ago, is required, it would appear. Right now?
In light of all the other city’s expansive spending going on? Park manager, full time, harbor manager, full time, assistant to Jabba the city administrator, full time, the new boat, the pier, and God knows what else would seem to be just too much for a city of 8,000 residents or so. That the nation appears to be headed for a major recession very soon because of the tariffs and war effects would seem to indicate that small communities around the nation might consider pulling in and holding liquid assets instead of expending them.
It was of interest to note that the commission put out a map of the intended property to be purchased, but then gathered it back in before the commission meeting was over. That made Mr. Hoiland angry as he tried to retrieve a copy just to see why the map was being taken back (which is against the rules, by the way). He and Spyro Condos got into an argument, but the maps went back into hiding, and Mr. Hoiland lost again, although this time while trying to do the right thing.
As the GSR has noted from time to time, Mr. Hoilland is indeed a pretty damned good city councilman.
