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Happy Sunday, Meridian!
Welcome to issue ninety-four. Today is sunny and around 72, with some patchy fog before 9 a.m., which makes it a fine day to rake something. Rain chances show up midweek.
Today: West Ada trades an acre of rocky dirt for school resource officers, the Treasure Valley's death cap mushrooms are back, and the week ahead has free help picking a health plan, a beginner Instagram class and a coffee for pastors. Know someone who should be reading this? Forward them the sign-up link →
Let's get into it.
In this issue
🧠 Trivia: The West Ada School District, now Idaho's largest, started in 1950 by merging 33 smaller school districts around Meridian, Eagle and Star. Under its original name, Class A School District No. 2, it went by a number for decades. In which year did the board officially adopt the name "West Ada": 1963, 1989, or 2014?
(Answer at the bottom.)
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Six picks, all with a Meridian address, and it is a practical week. Nothing we could verify is happening today, so the action starts Monday with the first of two walk-in help desks for health-plan open enrollment, rolls through a beginner Instagram class and a free coffee for pastors, and lands on a Wednesday that includes a board game night. Wednesday is the busy one.
Monday, October 19
OCT 19 · Your Health Idaho Enrollment Event — noon to 6 p.m. · 📍 Orchard Park Library, 1268 W. Orchard Park Dr. · A drop-in help desk for open enrollment on the state exchange (the window runs Oct. 15 to Dec. 15). Your Health Idaho says its pop-up centers take walk-ins, no appointment needed. The library is also one of Meridian's two early voting sites, which open Monday. · 🗓️ Add to Calendar
Tuesday, October 20
OCT 20 · Get Social: The Instagram Starter Series — 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. · 📍 1310 N. Main St. · A beginner session from Get Social with Cait on getting started on Instagram, per the title. Cost wasn't listed, so check the event page. · 🗓️ Add to Calendar
Wednesday, October 21
OCT 21 · Pastor Appreciation — Free Coffee — 8 to 10:30 a.m. · 📍 Northwest Christian Credit Union, 4250 E. Fairview Ave. · Part of Ministry Appreciation Month: free Double Decker Espresso coffee for people in ministry and KTSY listeners. The listing says Wednesday in its details but "Thursday" in its description, so confirm before you drive over. · 🗓️ Add to Calendar
OCT 21 · Medicare Seminar — Meridian — 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. sessions · 📍 2610 E. Freeway Dr. · Hosted by Personal Touch Insurance & Benefits, an insurance agency, so expect a sales-adjacent presentation. Medicare's annual enrollment period is open now. Cost wasn't listed. · 🗓️ Add to Calendar
OCT 21 · Open Board Game Night — 7 to 10 p.m. · 📍 Phoenix Fire Games, 94 E. Fairview Ave. · Open tables at the game shop for anyone who wants to play. Cost wasn't listed. · 🗓️ Add to Calendar
Friday, October 23
OCT 23 · Your Health Idaho Enrollment Event — 1 to 5 p.m. · 📍 722 E. 2nd St. · The second walk-in open enrollment help desk of the week; the listing names only the street address, not a building. · 🗓️ Add to Calendar
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The latest National Weather Service forecast for Meridian we could pull (issued Wednesday) lists no watches or warnings, and neither Idaho News 6's live strip nor KBOI's Friday outlook mentions any.
Sunday, October 18 — Meridian
72°
Low tonight: 46°. Sunrise is around 8:01 a.m., sunset around 6:59 p.m.
Sunny, with patchy fog between 7 and 9 a.m. NWS says 72 and Idaho News 6's live Boise strip also says 72, so plan for 72. That is a few degrees above normal for mid-October, per KBOI.
The rest of the week (NWS, with KBOI and Idaho News 6): Monday is sunny near 70 per NWS, though Idaho News 6 shows 74 for Boise, so plan for 70 to 74. Tuesday drops to near 62 and mostly sunny, with a 20% chance of showers Tuesday night. Wednesday is near 61 with the same 20% chance. KBOI says rain chances run Tuesday night through Thursday, heaviest across south-central Idaho and the mountains, with highs in the low 60s.
West Ada trades an acre to Star for school resource officer funding
West Ada School District trustees have approved a land swap with the city of Star: about one unused, rocky acre next to Independence Elementary goes to the city, and the district gets one year of funding for two school resource officers, roughly $220,000, Idaho Press reports. Star bought a house across from the new elementary to turn into a police substation and needs the adjoining land for a parking lot.
The money covers existing officers at Star Middle School and Independence and Star elementaries, so the district isn't adding staff. District Director of Education Services David Reinhart was blunt about why the deal works for West Ada: "This is land that we do not use." He added that the district would otherwise spend years weeding it and fielding complaints about how it looks. The article doesn't give a timeline for the substation or the lot, and the land's appraised value, and how it stacks up against the officer money, is in the full piece. This one touches Meridian because West Ada is based here and gets its school resource officers through the Meridian Police Department. The appraisal and the full officer breakdown are in the article →
Source: Idaho Press, published Oct. 14.
Death cap mushrooms are showing up around the Boise Greenbelt again
Central District Health is warning that highly toxic death cap mushrooms have been reported at several Boise locations, including along the Greenbelt in Boise and Garden City. No poisonings have been reported. The report doesn't mention Meridian or Ada County specifically, but death caps have been confirmed in the Treasure Valley since 2022 and turned up again in 2025, so it's worth knowing if you have a yard, kids or a dog.
The advice is simple: don't eat wild mushrooms found in yards, parks or landscaped areas, and keep a close eye on children and pets around them. To get rid of one, wear gloves or use a bag, seal it and put it in the trash. Symptoms can take 6 to 24 hours to show up, and serious liver and kidney damage can follow days later, so if someone may have eaten one, don't wait for symptoms. Call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 (pets: ASPCA Animal Poison Control, 888-426-4435). Read more →
Source: Idaho News / KBOI, published Oct. 15.
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🧠 Trivia answer: 2014.
The board adopted the West Ada School District name in June 2014, to reflect a district serving Boise, Eagle, Garden City, Kuna, Meridian and Star. Before that it spent decades under numbers: Class A School District No. 2 from 1950, Joint Class A School District No. 2 after Canyon County land was added, and Joint School District No. 2 starting July 1, 1963. The 1950 version was part of a statewide consolidation that shrank Idaho from 1,082 school districts to 301. Read more →
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