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Happy Wednesday, Meridian! 👋
Good morning — welcome to issue seventy-six. Today is sunny and a comfortable 78 with a low near 44 tonight, so grab the jacket for the morning and leave it in the car by lunch. Inside: what crypto ATM scams have cost Meridian so far, a fun run at Kleiner Park, a new shop at the Village, a handful of events (a Witches Night Out among them), the full forecast, and a trivia question about how fast this town grew. Know someone who'd like this in their inbox? Share the Scoop →. Let's get into it.
In this issue:
🏙️ Trivia: Meridian counted 9,596 residents in the 1990 census. Roughly how many times bigger is the town in the 2020 census? (Answer at the bottom.)
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Events
A quiet-ish stretch: this week's Thursday-through-Monday lineup already ran in recent issues, so we're not running it twice. What's below is new — one thing for today, then a run of dates worth writing down now, with Witches Night Out the big one on Oct. 8.
Wednesday, September 30 (today)
🎟️ Passport to Adventure raffle — last day — Tickets are now sold out (all 500 went), but you can still fund a new library book with a bookplate in your name at the link · $20 a ticket, and each ticket bought one new book toward the Meridian Library Foundation's 50,000-book campaign · Grand Prize drawing is Oct. 1 · 📍 Meridian Library District, Meridian (the listing doesn't name a branch) · 🗓️ Add to Calendar
Thursday, October 8
☕ Networking Breakfast — 7:30–9:00 a.m., cost not listed · 📍 Meridian Library District (unBound branch) · A morning-coffee room full of local business people, from the Chamber's community calendar · 🗓️ Add to Calendar
🎃 Witches Night Out — 6:00–9:00 p.m., cost not listed · 📍 The Village at Meridian, 3597 E. Monarch Sky Ln. · The annual Halloween party (presented by Peterson Lexus) has costume contests, a vendor fair, raffles, tarot readings, live music at Fountain Square and a DJ at Big Al's. Proceeds benefit Faces of Hope. · 🗓️ Add to Calendar
Friday–Saturday, October 9–10
🥋 20th Annual City of Trees Taekwondo Tournament (GSHIM Celebration) — Fri. 4:00 p.m. through Sat. 2:00 p.m., cost not listed · 📍 Sawtooth Middle School, Meridian (the listing has no street address) · A two-day tournament, now in its 20th year. · 🗓️ Add to Calendar
Tuesday, October 13
📸 Get Social: The Instagram Starter Series — 10:30–11:30 a.m., cost not listed · 📍 1310 N. Main St. · A beginner session on getting a business or side project started on Instagram. The Facebook listing doesn't name the host, so check it before you go. · 🗓️ Add to Calendar
Thursday, October 15
🎖️ VETWORKING Meridian — 8:00–10:00 a.m., cost not listed · 📍 3635 E. Longwing Ln. · A veterans networking morning; the listing is short on details, so the Facebook page is the place to confirm. · 🗓️ Add to Calendar
Saturday, October 17
👻 The Haunting at Valkyrie Arms — 5:00–9:00 p.m., listed as free · 📍 320 SW 5th Ave. · A haunted-house night for the pre-Halloween crowd. · 🗓️ Add to Calendar
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Weather
✅ NO WEATHER ALERTS showed on the Idaho News 6 weather page this morning.
Wednesday, Meridian (National Weather Service):
78°F
Overnight low near 44°F
Sunny, with a light west wind turning northwest at 5 to 10 mph in the morning. The dry stretch keeps going: Thursday sunny with a high near 79 and a low of 49, Friday and Saturday sunny near 82, Sunday 84, and Monday the warmest of the run at 85 before a cooler 81 on Tuesday. As a cross-check, the Boise-area readings on Idaho News 6 run 77 today and 81 Thursday — within a couple of degrees of the NWS Meridian number, and not consistently on one side of it, so plan for 78 to 80 and you'll be fine. Sunrise is about 7:40 a.m., sunset about 7:30 p.m.
News
Thirty Meridian residents lost $1.3 million to crypto ATM scams
The Treasure Valley Partnership says crypto ATM fraud is climbing, and Meridian has taken a hit: 30 residents lost a combined $1.3 million between January and July of this year. The pattern is consistent — a caller poses as police and pressures the victim into feeding cash into a crypto machine. Roughly half of the identified victims are over 60, though scammers go after all ages. The tell is the phone call that never ends: they stay on the line the whole time and lean on fear and urgency so you don't stop to think. Star has already banned crypto ATMs by ordinance, and Kuna's mayor is drafting something similar.
Source: Idaho News 6, published Sept. 29.
A 5K fun run for adoptive families lands at Kleiner Park
Foster + Heart is putting on the first-ever Heart + Sole Fun Run on Saturday, Oct. 10, at Julius M. Kleiner Memorial Park. The 5K raises money for The Heart Project, an initiative that helps families who want to adopt. Run it, walk it or just show up for the extras: food trucks, Dutch Bros coffee, bouncy houses and family activities. “We want to bring people together to support families who are desiring to adopt,” says Kate Wilson, Foster + Heart's president. The coverage doesn't give a start time or registration price, so check with the organizers before you lace up.
🗳️ Your call: we love a 5K that comes with a bouncy house. So what's your actual plan for Oct. 10?
The Heart + Sole 5K is Oct. 10 at Kleiner Park. What's your plan?
Source: Idaho News 6, published Sept. 29.
A faith-and-fashion shop moves into the Village
Inspired By Love Apparel opens Oct. 1 in Suite 140 at The Village at Meridian, 3525 E. Longwing Lane, in the space Evvie Bean's Baby Boutique just vacated (it's next to Chico's). The Christian-themed shop sells hats, hoodies, denim, rompers and matching sets, and describes itself as a place “where faith meets fashion.” It's the company's third location, joining shops already in Star and Meridian. One catch: the Village signed it to a short-term lease, which is how the center fills vacant spaces until longer-term tenants arrive.
Source: BoiseDev, published Sept. 29.
Meme of the Day
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Me crossing the finish line at the Kleiner Park 5K, having walked most of it.
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Trivia answer: about 12 times bigger. Meridian counted 9,596 residents in 1990 and 117,635 in 2020 — a factor of roughly 12. Most of that happened in a hurry: the 2000 census had it at 34,919 and 2010 at 75,092. It's now the second-largest city in Idaho after Boise, and by 2019 it had passed the 100,000 mark. Handy fact for the next time someone says traffic used to be better.
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