In partnership with
📣 Sponsored by: this slot is open. Own a Meridian business and want a few thousand neighbors to hear about it? This line — and the Thursday Local Business Spotlight — are available. Hit reply or start here →
Happy Sunday, Meridian!
Yesterday's 86 is gone. The front came through overnight and today tops out around 65 with a west wind of 10 to 15 — about fifteen degrees below normal, which is a real, put-the-hoodie-on kind of cold. Below: the Warriors beat Owyhee for the first time and are 3-0; Rocky Mountain took Eagle apart on live TV; Idaho just won $4.8 million to rethink what a high-school transcript is even for; Fish and Game says the drought is pushing bears down into valley neighborhoods; there's free Pilates at the SO|ME Amp this morning; and the answer to what that unBound building used to be. Let's get into it.
📌 In this issue
🏈 Meridian 28, Owyhee 21 — the first win in the series, and the Warriors are 3-0
🎓 Idaho lands $4.8M to build a "student experience portfolio" alongside the transcript
🐻 Three bears in Boise neighborhoods in one week, and Fish and Game says why
🗓️ Five things on this week, starting with free Pilates at 9 this morning
🌬️ 65 and windy today, back to 70 tomorrow
🧠 Trivia
Meridian's unBound library branch downtown is the one with the 3D printers, the laser cutter and the CNC machine instead of a quiet reading room. But the library didn't build that place from scratch — it bought a 3,700-square-foot, two-story building that had been in business on that block since the early 1950s. What was it before? (Answer at the bottom.)
Forecast your bank balance, not your P&L
Profit and cash are not the same thing, and Q4 is where brands find that out. DTC payouts land days late. Amazon holds reserves. Wholesale pays on terms. Inventory deposits go out long before a single unit ships.
The 13-Week Cash Flow Template is a free Excel download built on the direct method, so it forecasts the bank balance week by week instead of the accrual P&L. The timing engine handles DTC and Amazon payout delays, wholesale terms, inventory, and capex, and converts your monthly budget into a weekly view. The liquidity summary shows your lowest cash point, when it hits, how many weeks you sit below your minimum, and implied runway on average weekly burn.
It runs October 9 through January 1, so Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and year-end are already in the window.
Free. One email, no sales call. From Drivepoint.
🗓️ What's on around town
Five things this week, all of them in Meridian, none of them repeats.
Today — Sunday, Sept. 13
🧘 Free Mat Pilates, 9–10 a.m., the SO|ME Amp, 1363 E. Phenomenal St. Free, outdoors, taught by Yoga6. Bring your own mat — they're not supplying them. Fair warning given the forecast: it's 10 to 15 mph of west wind out there this morning, so this is a layers-and-a-windbreaker situation rather than a shorts one. Add to calendar →
Thursday, Sept. 17
🎖️ VETWORKING Meridian, 8–10 a.m., Royal Coffee Co., 3635 E. Longwing Ln. Two hours of coffee and introductions for veterans, military spouses and the businesses that want to hire them. Low-key, no pitch deck required. Add to calendar →
🧸 Free Playdate at The Learning Experience, 9 a.m.–12:30 p.m., 6241 N. Linder Rd. Runs every Thursday morning and it is exactly what it sounds like — open play for little kids, free, snack and lunch included. RSVP is required, so call ahead at (208) 927-3064 rather than just turning up. If you've got a pre-schooler and a long morning to fill, this is the cheapest three and a half hours in north Meridian. Add to calendar →
Friday, Sept. 18
🌽 Golden Hammer Cornhole Classic, 9 a.m.–2 p.m., Settlers Park. The inaugural one, run by Turn Right Services and the TRS Foundation, benefiting the Golden Hammer Scholarship Foundation — which sends kids into the skilled trades. Check-in at 9, pool play at 10, run by Cornhole Idaho, lunch from Kanak Attack. $100 a team gets you four guaranteed games, the lunch and a gift bag. This year's scholarship recipient, Westin Yehle, is now working at Bill's Heating & Air and starting the HVAC program at CWI; he'll be there to say so. Add to calendar →
Saturday, Sept. 19
⛪ Feminine Genius — the Idaho Catholic Women's Conference, from 8 a.m., Holy Apostles Catholic Church, 6300 N. Meridian Rd. Hundreds attending in person here in Meridian with watch parties elsewhere. Starts with Mass; speakers include Lisa Cotter, the Sisters of Life and Adrienne LeCoure. Add to calendar →
Already covered, still happening: Meridian Art Week and the Art Drop run all week downtown through Saturday; the Monday Night Market is back at Storey Park tomorrow afternoon; the Hispanic Heritage Month 5K at Kleiner and the Village Classroom wine class on Wednesday; Mingle, Make & Take at The Lark House and Coffee with the Mayor on Thursday; Touch-A-Tractor at Ten Mile Farms, U.S. Constitution Week's last day at City Hall and Foster the People at the Ford Idaho Center next Saturday. We've told you about all of them already, so we're not going to do it twice.
Your 24/7 Fall Hydration Fix
Water alone won't cut it this fall. Pique's Deep Hydration Protocol pairs a morning beauty electrolyte with a calming nighttime magnesium blend. You'll sleep better and wake up refreshed. This bundle sells out every year — get 20% off for life. Shop now before it's gone.
🌬️ Weather
The front did what it was supposed to. Today is the coldest day since spring, relatively speaking.
Today (Sunday): Sunny, breezy and much cooler, high near 65, west wind 10 to 15 mph. Normal for mid-September is 81, so that's about fifteen degrees below normal and roughly 20 down from yesterday. There's a small chance of a leftover morning shower before it clears out.
Tonight: Clearing, wind easing, low near 46 to 48. Cold enough that if you've got tomatoes still going, tonight's the night to think about a sheet.
Monday: Sunny, still cooler than normal, high near 70. Patchy valley fog possible first thing.
The rest of the week: Steady climb back — around 75 Tuesday, 77 Wednesday, 81 Thursday, sunny and dry throughout, with a slight chance of showers returning late in the week.
Mountains: Snow levels dropped to 7,000–8,000 feet overnight, so the high peaks got a dusting. If you're driving to McCall or Sun Valley this morning, expect wet roads and take it easy over the passes; it improves this afternoon.
Sourcing note: today's numbers come from Idaho News 6 chief meteorologist Scott Dorval's forecast filed at 4:35 p.m. Saturday, which had Sunday at 66 for Boise, cross-checked against the live three-day strip (63) and the NWS Meridian point file (65). All three land in the same place for once, which is nice. Worth noting the NWS file is still frozen on a Wednesday timestamp for the fourth run running — it happens to be right today, but we're not relying on it.
📰 The news
🏈 Meridian 28, Owyhee 21 — and the streak is over
Owyhee had beaten Meridian every single time the two schools had played since the Storm opened — three meetings, three losses for the Warriors, including a 27-24 heartbreaker almost exactly a year ago. Friday night at Meridian, that ended: Warriors 28, Storm 21. Meridian is 3-0 for the first time in years, averaging 33 points a game, and has jumped to 14th in the state.
Two blocks over, the game everybody could actually watch was Eagle at Rocky Mountain — Idaho News 6's "Showdown of the Week," a partnership between the station, West Ada and At The Peak Productions, streamed live and rebroadcast on 6.2. It was not close. Rocky Mountain 42, Eagle 14, and the Grizzlies are 2-1.
The rest of the Meridian board: Mountain View fell 15-7 to Madison, who came in undefeated and stayed that way — the Mavericks drop to 2-1 and it was a defensive grind, not a blowout. And Cole Valley Christian shut out Nampa Christian 37-0 to move to 3-0. Next Friday: Meridian hosts Capital, Owyhee gets Madison.
🎓 Idaho just won $4.8M to change what a high-school résumé looks like
The Idaho Department of Education has been awarded nearly $4.8 million over three years through the U.S. Department of Education's Career Pathways Exploration Grant Program. Out of a $44 million national pot, Idaho was one of only five projects picked.
The money funds something called the Idaho Learner Readiness Ecosystem, which in plainer English is a student experience portfolio that sits alongside the traditional transcript. The idea is that a kid can document the things a transcript has never had room for — a class project, a season of football, a summer job, hours of community service, a leadership role — and, crucially, explain what they actually learned doing them and what they can now do.
West Ada is the biggest district in the state, so if this works anywhere it works here first, and it lands the same year the district is converting a warehouse on Locust Grove into a career-technical center. Whether a portfolio beats a GPA in the eyes of an employer is the open question; the state now has three years and $4.8 million to find out.
🐻 The drought is pushing bears into valley backyards — three in Boise in one week
This is the regional item of the week, and it's a practical one. Idaho Fish and Game's Southwest Region says it is getting more reports of bears in town than usual, and earlier in the year than usual, and it's putting a good part of that down to the drought: natural food gets scarce late in the summer, and bears go looking elsewhere.
The run of incidents is what makes it real. In June, a yearling black bear climbed a tree in a Nampa neighborhood; because it hadn't been getting into human food and still had a healthy fear of people, Fish and Game and Nampa police and fire were able to tranquilise it and move it to habitat north of Ola. Then, in the space of a week: a cub in Boise's Harris Ranch neighborhood on Sept. 2, and two more bear calls on Sept. 9 near Parkcenter Boulevard and Warm Springs Avenue. One of those bears went to a rehabilitation centre. The other was euthanised.
That last sentence is the whole point of the warning. A bear that learns to find food at houses usually doesn't get a second chance — so the trash, the pet food, the bird feeders and the fallen fruit are the part that's actually in your control. No Meridian sightings have been reported, but we sit squarely between Nampa and Boise.
😂 Meme of the Day
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.
Since 2016, CBDistillery's products have been made with non-GMO, US-grown hemp, no corn syrup, and no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. Save 50% on orders of $75+ with code NEWS50! Shop Trusted CBD.
Trivia answer: an electronics repair shop. The two-story building at 722 E. 2nd St. was the AEI Systems Group shop, built by the Thomson family in 1949–51, and the Meridian Library District bought it in April 2019 precisely because that legacy of tinkering fit what it wanted to do there. The renovation came in at $1,296,031 — just under the $1.3 million budget — and unBound reopened on the site in April 2021. The branch's first life is the better story, though: it launched in October 2015 in the old Farmers and Merchants Bank building at 713 N. Main, which the Meridian Development Corp leased to the library for a dollar. It went from proposal to open doors in six months and drew 35,000 visitors in three years before closing in 2019 to make room for the Old Town Lofts. One note if you're inspired: unBound is closed Sundays, so today is not the day.
How did we do today?
How did we do today?
🎁 Support the businesses that support Meridian
Every contribution helps us cover more local restaurants, small businesses and nonprofits making a difference around town — and keeps the Scoop free, independent and light on ads. Join the neighbors who've already chipped in.
Choose the option that's most convenient for you:
You're reading Meridian Local Scoop. Forward it to a neighbor — they can subscribe at meridianlocalscoop.com.