For the past couple of decades, the city of Post Falls has hosted a free tree event in conjunction with Arbor Day the end of April. Each year, thanks to the generosity of a commercial grower and a number of sponsors, 3,000 bare-root trees and shrubs valued at approximately $60,000 were given away on a Saturday morning to residents of Post Falls and surrounding communities.

Under the direction of Urban Forester Preston Hill, the event is a well-oiled machine, bringing together city staff and dedicated volunteers from the Lions Club and Scout troops among others. The long lines on a Saturday morning at Q’emiln Park flowed smoothly no matter the weather. The result is decades of leafy beauty growing throughout the community. We have several flowering shrubs and a beautiful, now 20-ft. tall, river birch in our own front yard thanks to the program.

But alas, there will be no Post Falls Tree Giveaway this month. It’s simply a matter of supply or lack of. The generous commercial grower has sold all of their trees.

“Every year, I’m humbled by the effort from so many generous folks in our community. Sadly, the event did not come together this year in the way we hoped it would. But, those generous folks are still out there. We all would like the Tree Giveaway to return in the spring of 2023 so we’re moving forward in that direction,” said Hill.

If your heart was set on adding to your home’s landscaping this spring we have nurseries throughout the county who would love your business.

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Meanwhile the city of Coeur d’Alene has a street tree program, Re-Leaf, for residents to have a tree planted in the public right-of-way in front of their homes. The deadline to apply is April 11. To apply, go to cdaid.org.

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When the wild, wacky weather system brought hail, rain, snow and high winds to our neck of the woods on Monday afternoon, both Avista and Kootenai Electric customers in some areas experienced power outages. Monday was also the NCAA men’s championship game, the culmination of the entire month of March Madness basketball. The game was set to air here at 6:20 p.m.

Just before tip-off, the power went out at Randy and Kim Haddock’s Hayden Lake home. Randy was determined to see the Kansas/North Carolina game for all the marbles, so he headed out in search of a place with power and a television tuned into the game. After driving all over, he finally found the game viewing at a pub near U.S. 95. No word on who Randy was rooting for, but Kansas prevailed in the final minutes.

Kim, a gal after my own heart, made the best of the outage by going to bed with a flashlight to read until the power came back on about 8 p.m.

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Happy Birthday today to Bruce Hough, Caitlin Hodl and Tyler Bush. 4/7 Carrie Gridley Shenfield, Katie Keane, Mary Epstein, Melaine Spalding and Eli Gonzales. On Friday Amy Bartoo, Wilma Higgins, Pat Hughes, Greg Prado, Kevin Kram, Veldon Lee and Shanna Riske will put on their party hats. Nicole Medlock, Jodi McKenzie, Kimber Gates, John Hays, Caleb Peck, Carol Graham, Joan Nowoj-Phelps, Cynthia Taggart and Tom Messina mark the anniversary of their birth on Saturday. Dianna Scott, Sandra Borg, Darin McEvers, Sharon Finnerty, Kathryn Rosia and Nancy Benjamin do the birthday dance on Sunday, and on Monday Lonna Duncan, Idella Mansfield, Karen Zande, Doreen Johnson, Karen Reagan and DiAnna Macklin are the birthday girls. April 12 birthdays for Dorothy Morey, Mallary Juarez, Connie Munk, Russell Heitstuman and Kevin Reed.

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Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press and Kerri can be contacted on Facebook or via email mainstreet@cdapress.com. Follow her on Twitter @kerrithoreson.