Costco's traffic signals go up in south Meridian, 250 foster-care backpacks, and a sunny 79

Welcome to issue seventy-seven. It's sunny and right around 79° today, which is the kind of weather that makes a person forget October exists.

Today: the traffic lights are going up at the new south Meridian Costco, 250 backpacks get packed for kids entering foster care, a 100-mph chase from Boise ends on Eagle Road, and West Ada students swing hammers for Habitat. It's also Thursday, so there's a fresh Local Business Spotlight. Know someone who should be reading this? Forward them the sign-up link →

Let's get into it.

Browse the highlights — read Meridian Local Scoop online →

🧠 Trivia: A man born in Meridian in 1912 co-founded a company in the basement of his Delaware home in 1958 — and its most famous product has since kept hikers dry on every continent. What's the product?

(Answer at the bottom.)

Honest disclosure: today's own calendar (karaoke, trivia, D&D, the circus tent at the Village) is a rerun — we've already told you about all of it, so we're not listing it twice. What's left is a Friday-night football doubleheader, a two-day dance festival, a Sunday Porsche show and a Tuesday coffee meetup. Five events, short of our usual six, and we'd rather say so than pad the list. The recent issues are in the archive →

A note on how this list gets made: the Idaho Renaissance Faire shows up under a "Meridian, Idaho" tag on Facebook for October 10–11, but it's held at Expo Idaho in Boise, so it's not here. We read the venue address before anything goes in this box.

✅ No watch or warning was posted for Ada County in the channels we checked as this went out. Read that as "we found nothing," not "there is nothing." NWS Boise is the place to check before you commit to outdoor plans.

Thursday, October 1 — Meridian

Overnight low around 44. Sunrise is at 7:44 a.m., sunset at 7:26 p.m.

Sunny with a calm wind turning northwest around 6 mph. It's a warm, dry start to October, with no rain in sight anywhere in the seven-day outlook.

✅ Where these numbers come from. The NWS point forecast for Meridian is our source for 79° — but the file was last updated Tuesday, so we checked it against today's live Idaho News 6 Boise forecast, which has 80° today. Close enough that we'd plan for the higher end. Friday is where the two sources split: NWS says 82°, the live Boise strip says 78°, so call it a Friday somewhere in between.

The rest of the week (NWS, treat it as directional): Friday 82, Saturday 82, Sunday 84, Monday 85, Tuesday 81, all sunny to mostly sunny. Overnight lows climb from the mid-40s to the low 50s, so the mornings stay crisp even as the afternoons run warm. If you were waiting for fall to show up, it's running late.

The new Costco at Meridian Road and Lake Hazel Road is getting its traffic lights ahead of a November opening. Two new signals are going in, one at the Meridian Road entrance and one at the Lake Hazel Road entrance, and both are expected to be fully operational this week. Costco is managing the work, with the Ada County Highway District overseeing it. The warehouse comes with a gas station, which is going to matter on a Saturday morning in about six weeks.

For south Meridian and Kuna, the draw is distance: Kuna shoppers currently drive about 10 miles each way to the Boise Costco. "It'll be nice… more convenient definitely," Kuna resident Jen Halladay told Idaho News 6. She's less thrilled about the traffic that comes with it: "Not a fan of that, but that's what happens with growth. You just have to deal with it." Signals now, crowds later. How many parking spaces the lot gets is in the article →

🗳️ Your call: the lights are going up, the doors open in November. Be honest about how soon you'll be in line.

Volunteers from Healthy Blue of Idaho teamed up with the nonprofit Comfort Cases at an event in Meridian to pack 250 backpacks for Idaho children entering foster care. Each one holds pajamas, hygiene items, a blanket, a book and a comfort item, the basics a kid might not have when they're moved on short notice. "This is usually an emergency situation. They're taken out of the home without knowing," Amber Stiles of A New Beginning Adoption Agency told KIVI.

Comfort Cases says it has packed more than 325,000 of these bags across all 50 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico in its 15 years, and a second Idaho event is planned for the eastern part of the state. Volunteer Kathryn Seebold summed up the appeal: "These are simple things that some of us take for granted, but they mean so much." Read more →

A Boise police officer spotted a driver weaving on Front Street around 2 a.m. Wednesday and tried to pull him over. The vehicle accelerated past 100 mph on the connector and got away from the officer. Boise police put out an alert, and a Meridian officer later spotted the car northbound on Eagle Road, still moving fast.

This time the driver pulled over. After a field sobriety assessment, police arrested him for driving under the influence and eluding a peace officer. An arrest isn't a conviction, and no one was reported hurt, but the next time you're out on Eagle Road at 2 a.m. (we're not sure why you would be), it's good to know somebody's watching. Read more →

Habitat for Humanity and the West Ada School District are partnering on Maple Grove, a four-home affordable housing project, and students from Rocky Mountain High and Meridian High are doing real work on the site. (The homes themselves are in Boise; the kids are ours.) The students come out of West Ada's construction career and technical education program, framing walls and learning how a job site actually runs.

"We're learning a lot of things, how to put walls up… it feels like we're doing the right thing," said Rocky Mountain's Kysen Gifford. Meridian High's Kade Dunaway called building homes for people who need them "heartwarming" and says he's interested in architecture. Teacher Trevor Nelson said the program pays off fast: "a lot of 'em get jobs right out of high school because of our program." It's a small answer to the construction industry's nationwide worker shortage. Read more →

Featured coffee shop: Nazca Coffee

Overview. Tucked into a Saguaro Hills storefront in north Meridian, Nazca Coffee is a neighborhood coffee shop that roasts its own beans and pairs them with an honest breakfast menu. Regulars rate it around 4.6 out of 5 and keep mentioning the same two things: the friendly staff and the relaxed, no-rush room.

Highlights

Ambiance & Experience. Cozy, comfortable and neighborly, the kind of place where the staff learns your order and nobody minds if you linger. It's also the venue for Tuesday's October Coffee Meetup, listed in the events above.

Location & Contact

Operating Hours. One listing shows Monday–Friday 6 a.m.–3 p.m. and weekends 7 a.m.–3 p.m.; another shows shorter morning hours. Hours drift, so call or check their page before you go.

Final roast: Meridian has plenty of drive-thru coffee. A smoky house roast and a burrito with real salsa is a better reason to pull into the lot. Visit Nazca Coffee →

Editorial only — we don't contact the businesses we feature, and nobody paid for this. The slot is also open to sponsors; see the line at the top.

Brought to you by Meridian Local Scoop. What's faster than word of mouth? The Meridian Local Business Spotlight! Keeps you up to speed on what's happening around town — and connects local businesses to our community.

Costco opens in November. Biscuit has already claimed his spot in line.

🧠 Trivia answer: Gore-Tex.

Wilbert "Bill" Gore was born January 25, 1912, in Meridian, Idaho. He and his wife Vieve started W. L. Gore & Associates in the basement of their Newark, Delaware home in 1958. The company is best known for its waterproof, breathable Gore-Tex fabric, and a crucial manufacturing process was suggested by their son Bob, then a college sophomore. Bill died in 1986 at age 74 on a backpacking trip in Wyoming's Wind River Range, which feels about right.

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