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Happy Monday, Meridian!
Sunday's cool-down turned out to be a one-day guest. We're back into the mid-80s this afternoon, possibly with a little haze on the morning drive, and then it eases off again tomorrow.
Today: why the pump keeps getting worse, which two Meridian stations are selling the cheapest gas in town, a water bill that's about to get $2.71 heavier and the night you can say something about it, a death inside the county jail, the last line-dancing night of the summer on Big Al's patio, and the amenity Settlers Park only grows in winter.
Let's get into it.
In this issue
⛽ Idaho regular is $4.57 — and two Meridian pumps are under it
💧 A 4.2% water and sewer increase heads to a public hearing Sept. 8
🚔 An inmate died at the Ada County Jail late Saturday
📅 Six things to do, from a Wednesday mystery on Silverstone to the Alzheimer's walk at Kleiner
🎈 The balloons go up over Ann Morrison starting Wednesday
🥏 Trivia: the 58-acre Meridian park that grows a golf course every November
🧠 Today's trivia
Settlers Park, out at Meridian and Ustick, is the city's big one — ball fields, splash pad, fishing pond, the works. But there is one amenity on the city's own list of what's out there that only exists for four months of the year, and it disappears again before spring. What is it?
(Answer at the bottom.)
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What's on
Wednesday, Sept. 2
"The Advantage Room," 10 a.m., 1144 S. Silverstone Way, Ste. 500. Free. And that is genuinely everything the listing says. No description, no host, no hint. It's a real Meridian address on a real date, so we're running it as a question rather than inventing an answer: if you know what The Advantage Room is, hit reply and tell us and we'll pass it on. Add to calendar →
Spirit of Boise Balloon Classic opens, Ann Morrison Park, Boise. Our one out-of-town item, and it earns it — this is the week half of Meridian's kids get up before dawn. Wednesday is Kid's Day, with free tethered rides first-come, first-served from 7:40 a.m. Thursday's first launch is 7:20 a.m., Friday brings the Nite Glow Spectacular at 8:45 p.m., Saturday launches at 7:20 a.m., and Sunday is the Great Launch with inflation at 6 a.m. Admission is free, all launches are weather-dependent, and organizers say leave the dog and the drone at home. Parking is tight, and the park closes to through traffic all day Friday. Add to calendar →
Friday, Sept. 4
Line Dancing on Big Al's Patio with Dirt Road Dancing, 6 p.m., 3597 E. Monarch Sky Ln. #225. This is the last one. The series has run every Friday since June 5 and the listing ends it on Sept. 4, so if you've been saying all summer that you'd go one of these weeks, this is the week the excuse expires. Beginners are the point. Add to calendar →
Saturday, Sept. 19
Touch-A-Tractor at Ten Mile Farms, from 10 a.m., 5040 S. Ten Mile Rd. Exactly what it sounds like: kids climbing on farm equipment and getting a close look at the machinery behind Idaho agriculture. New to this newsletter. Add to calendar →
Saturday, Sept. 26
Walk to End Alzheimer's — Treasure Valley, 10 a.m.–12:30 p.m., Julius M. Kleiner Memorial Park, 1900 N. Records Ave. We've held this one back four separate times because the only listing we could find was somebody's team page and we couldn't pin the details. It's pinned now: the Alzheimer's Association has it on Sept. 26 at Kleiner, and the Meridian Chamber has its own walk team out there. Contact for the walk is Emma Taylor, (208) 206-0041. Add to calendar →
Spritz & Sparkle — a Roberto Coin trunk show, from 11 a.m., Simmons Fine Jewelry, 1220 N. Olive Ave. Free, and one block south of Fairview on the west side of Eagle Road if you're trying to picture it. Window-shopping is a legitimate use of a Saturday. Add to calendar →
Left off on geography, again: the West Bench Farmers Market, the Boise Fall Festival, Kids Discovery Expo and Space Day all show up on the Meridian chamber's community calendar and all of them are in Boise. Also skipped: the usual chamber lead groups and networking meetings, and a $2,499 IT certification course listed under "events."
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Today's weather
Mid-80s this afternoon, low 80s tomorrow, and a little haze possible first thing. Yesterday's genuinely pleasant upper-70s day was the anomaly, not the new normal — today climbs back up to something that feels like late August, then tomorrow settles a couple of degrees cooler again.
The live Boise three-day strip read 89 today and 85 tomorrow on five separate checks this afternoon. Boise runs a few degrees hotter than we do out here, so mid-80s is the number to plan around — but if you're the type who'd rather overdress for the heat than under, aim at the higher end. CBS2's forecast desk also flagged patchy smoke as possible overnight into this morning, so if the air looks a little flat on the school run, that's the reason.
The fine print, because we'd rather tell you: the National Weather Service publishes a machine-readable forecast file for our exact map point, and it is still stamped Aug. 23 — the seventeenth run in a row we've found it frozen. Its final forecast day is yesterday, so it has nothing at all to say about today. We're going off live regional readings instead and saying so out loud. No alerts or advisories were in effect for Ada County as of publication.
Idaho gas is $4.57 a gallon. Two Meridian pumps are eight cents under.
AI illustration.
As of yesterday, AAA had Idaho's average for regular at $4.5710 against a national average of $4.0787 — about fifty cents a gallon of pure geography. It's not a blip, either. A week ago we were at $4.4922. A month ago, $4.3031. This time last year, $3.4722. Diesel is $5.5799.
The useful part is the local part. In Ada County the cheapest reported gallon was $4.39 at the Albertsons on Lake Hazel in Boise, with Maverik on Sailer Ave. in Kuna at $4.43 and Maverik on State St. in Star at $4.47. Closest to home, Costco on Chinden and the Walmart on Overland were both listed at $4.49 — roughly a dollar-twenty saved on a fifteen-gallon fill versus the state average, which is not nothing when you're doing it every week.
An inmate died at the Ada County Jail late Saturday
AI illustration. Not the Ada County Jail.
An adult man was found having a medical emergency in his cell at about 10 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 29. Jail health services staff asked for him to be taken to hospital; while the ambulance was on its way he became unresponsive. Lifesaving efforts were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
He had been booked into the jail earlier the same day by another agency. His identity may be released by the Ada County Coroner's Office once next of kin have been notified, and the death remains under investigation. No further information has been released.
It's the county's jail rather than the city's, but it's the building Meridian arrests end up in, which is why it's here.
Your water and sewer bill goes to a public hearing a week from tomorrow
AI illustration.
A calendar heads-up rather than breaking news — this was reported by BoiseDev on Aug. 12, and we're flagging it because the date is now close enough to matter.
City staff are proposing a combined 4.2% increase in sewer and water rates, which Public Works Director Laurelei Bakken told the council works out to about $2.71 a month for the average household. Underneath that: a 9% bump to the water base rate and 5% to water usage, plus 4% on the sewer base rate and 3% on sewer usage. If the council signs off, it starts Oct. 1. The public hearing is Tuesday, Sept. 8, at 6 p.m.
For scale — Meridian's average monthly water and sewer bill is $65.24, against a Treasure Valley average of $101.12. That's the lowest in the region and second-lowest among Idaho's ten biggest cities, behind only Twin Falls. Bakken's argument is that small regular increases are how it stays that way without borrowing. "We have a balancing act between wanting to remain one of the lowest prices in the valley and also staying solvent," Council President John Overton said. If the bill is a genuine problem, the city runs an assistance program through El-Ada Community Action Partnership that about 100 households currently use.
One caveat we'd rather be honest about: we tried to re-confirm the hearing date on the city's own public hearing notices page and it's currently serving a 2024 archive, so the Sept. 8 date comes from BoiseDev's reporting on the Aug. 11 council workshop. Worth a look at the agenda before you drive down.
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Trivia answer
A nine-hole disc golf course — and it only exists from November through February.
The city's own Settlers Park page lists it plainly as a "Seasonal 9-Hole Disc Golf Course (Nov. – Feb.)," which is a very Meridian solution to a very Meridian problem: for the other eight months of the year there is nowhere to put it. Settlers is 58 acres at 3245 N. Meridian Rd., built in phases between 2003 and 2014, and in summer every square foot is spoken for — eight youth baseball and softball fields, four reservable multi-use athletic fields, ten tennis and pickleball courts, sixteen horseshoe courts, five cornhole boards, a splash pad, a stocked fishing pond, a universally accessible playground, a sound garden and the Tree of Hope. The discs only come out once the leagues clear off.
It's about to get busier still. The city broke ground in February on a 26,000-square-foot community center just west of the ball field complex, along with a fenced dog park, new playground, more green space and 347 new parking spaces. Construction is expected to wrap in late 2027 or early 2028, and the city is also chasing a signal at Ustick and Venable to cope with the traffic.
Sources: the City of Meridian's own Settlers Park page (amenities, acreage, phasing, address) and CBS2's Feb. 10, 2026 report on the community center groundbreaking (square footage, parking, timeline).
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