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Happy Labor Day, Meridian!
Bad news for anyone who saved the good steaks for today: the forecast says showers likely, thunderstorms possible after noon, and a high of about 68. Which is a shame, because Kleiner Park spent the whole weekend smelling like the inside of a smoker and now it's our turn and it's going to rain on us.
Here's what's in front of you: a barbecue festival you may have smelled from Fairview, a court date out of Meridian, the one piece of housekeeping that catches everybody on a holiday Monday, six things worth putting on the calendar, and a trivia question about the park where half of this issue happens. Let's get into it.
📋 In this issue
🔥 Fifty-plus barbecue teams took over Kleiner Park this weekend
⚖️ $1 million bond for the Meridian 18-year-old charged in a Boise shooting
🗑️ Your trash day moves back one day this week — all week
🌧️ A wet, cool Labor Day, then it dries out fast
📅 Bingo at the Senior Center, the Monday market comes back, and Potato Days finally has a date
🧠 Kleiner Park cost $25 million to build. Meridian paid none of it.
🧠 Trivia: Julius M. Kleiner Memorial Park — the fishing ponds, the bandshell, the splash pad, the whole thing — was built without city construction money. Who wrote the check, and how big was it? (Answer at the bottom.)
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📅 What's on around Meridian
Straight talk about today: there is nothing new on the Meridian board for Labor Day itself. The Monday Night Market is dark — the Chamber's own fine print skips September 7 — and the Labor Day races at the Speedway, the Sunday market, Free Community Yoga, the card-game nights at Phoenix Fire, Hot Seat Networking, the TLE playdate, Ladies & Links, Bike Night, the Autumn Market, Juniper Market, Race 4 Hunger and the Backyard Bash have all run here already. So instead of re-plating them, here are six things you have genuinely not seen in this newsletter yet.
Thursday, September 10
Thursday Night Bingo — Meridian Senior Center, 1920 N. Records Way. Doors 4 p.m., first game 6 p.m. Cash prizes, 18 and over, light refreshments for sale. The pots get bigger the more people show up, which is either an incentive or a threat. Add to calendar
Monday, September 14
Meridian Monday Night Market returns — Storey Park, 205 E. Franklin Rd., 4–9 p.m. After going dark for the holiday, the market picks back up and runs Mondays through October 5. Food trucks, live music, local makers. Add to calendar
Wednesday, September 16
Wine class: Australia & New Zealand — the Village Classroom at the Boise Co-op, 2350 N. Eagle Rd., 6–8 p.m. Seven Southern Hemisphere pours with Vine Street Imports' Brian Jewell, charcuterie from the deli, 15% off the featured bottles. 21+, ticketed, and they ask you to skip the cologne. Add to calendar
Saturday, September 19
U.S. Constitution Week celebration, final day — Meridian City Hall, 33 E. Broadway Ave., 11 a.m.–2 p.m. Add to calendar
Touch-A-Tractor — Ten Mile Farms, 5040 S. Ten Mile Rd., from 10 a.m. Kids climb on the actual equipment that grows things around here. Free-range small children plus large machinery, supervised. Add to calendar
Friday–Sunday, September 25–27
Potato Days — Julius M. Kleiner Memorial Park, Friday 5 p.m. through Sunday evening. Idaho's official potato celebration: baked potatoes, the ice cream potato, all the food trucks, and a photo with the Big Idaho Potato Truck. Organizers say the wider Potato Days run stretches September 25 through October 4 across Boise and Meridian, so expect more dates to firm up. Add to calendar
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🌧️ Weather
Today (Labor Day): showers likely, thunderstorms possible after noon, patchy fog before 9 a.m., otherwise partly sunny. High near 68, 60% chance of rain. Tonight clears out — patchy fog after midnight, low around 44.
Then it turns: Tuesday sunny, 75. Wednesday mostly sunny, 78. Thursday 81. Friday backs off to 79 with a 30% shower chance. So the barbecue you're not having today is very much on for Wednesday.
Honest note on the numbers: the National Weather Service's Meridian point forecast page is serving a stale copy — it hasn't refreshed since Thursday lunchtime, though its forecast is still valid through September 11, which covers today. We cross-checked against a live Boise reading this evening, which had Monday at 69 and Tuesday at 76 — one degree warmer than the Meridian numbers each time. So plan for the top end of everything above, and take an umbrella regardless.
📰 Meridian news
Fifty-plus barbecue teams turned Kleiner Park into a smokehouse
The Meat and Tater BBQ Fest and Car Show came back to Julius Kleiner Park on Friday and Saturday, and organizers put the field at more than 50 competing barbecue teams. There was a car show alongside it, and the whole thing is billed as a celebration of Idaho barbecue — which, if you drove down Fairview at any point this weekend, you already knew.
If you missed it, the good news is that Kleiner is about to have another big food weekend: Potato Days lands there September 25–27.
Judge sets $1 million bond for Meridian 18-year-old in Boise shooting case
Ulisses Macareno, 18, of Meridian, appeared in court Friday charged with first-degree murder by aiding and abetting in the August 30 drive-by shooting in Boise that killed 22-year-old Destiney Gonzalez of Caldwell. Prosecutors allege Macareno was driving the car and that a 17-year-old co-defendant, who is not being named, fired the shots. Police have said they do not believe Gonzalez was the intended target.
Judge Lojek set bond at $1 million. If Macareno posts it, he must stay in Idaho, surrender his passport, avoid firearms, wear a GPS monitor and keep a 7 p.m.–7 a.m. curfew. His preliminary hearing is set for September 17. Both defendants are presumed innocent unless convicted.
Holiday housekeeping: your trash day slides back one day all week
Republic Services, which the city contracts for all residential and commercial collection, observes Labor Day. Their rule, in their own words: if your pickup day falls on or after the holiday, it's delayed by one day. Since Labor Day is today, that means every route this week shifts — Monday's cans go out Tuesday, Friday's go out Saturday, and so on down the line.
Worth setting a reminder, because the classic Meridian move is remembering on Thursday night that you're now on the Friday schedule. Service questions go to Republic at 208-345-1265; billing is the city's Utility Billing at 208-888-4439.
😂 Meme of the Day
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🧠 Trivia answer: Gene Kleiner — and the check was for $25 million. Gene donated both the land and the money to build Julius M. Kleiner Memorial Park, naming it for his father Julius, who bought the ground from Morrison Knudsen in the 1940s and farmed it until he died in 1972. The park opened in 2012 with 3.3 miles of paths, two stocked fishing ponds, a bandshell, a labyrinth, an arboretum, the Rock of Honor Veterans Memorial, five picnic shelters and a statue of Julius himself — plus the Meridian Senior Center, which sits inside the park and is where Thursday's bingo is. The city says thank you every year on Gene Kleiner Day, the second Saturday in June. One small thing: the city's own two pages can't agree on the size, listing it as both 58 and 60 acres. Either way, it's the biggest park in town and it didn't cost you a cent to build.
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