The Idaho Department of Fish and Game’s fishing trailer will be at Kuna’s Sego Prairie Pond, at the end of Sego Prairie Street, on the following days:
• Saturday, April 23, 3 to 7 p.m.
• Tuesday, June 7, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The trailer, stocked with equipment and information, is making nearly 30 appearances at local ponds across the region, promoting fishing as part of a healthy outdoor lifestyle.
To learn more about the trailer, contact the Fish and Game Nampa office at 465-8465. More information regarding the fishing trailer is also available on Fish and Game’s website at
http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/cms/fish/misc/trailer/schedule.cfm.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Good news, Kuna: New co-ed adult softball league is forming
A co-ed adult softball league in Kuna is now being formed for this summer. Organizers are having a meeting at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 28, at the Kuna city park ballfields. RSVP to denverbroncos444411@msn.com or rereth@hotmail.com if you are planning to attend. This is a preliminary meeting to gauge interest. Organizers will be accepting entire teams, or there will be an individual sign-up if you do not have a team.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Kuna Grange honors local citizens
The Kuna Grange last night held its annual ceremony to recognize local citizens who contribute to the well-being of the Kuna community.
This year, award recipients include: Educator of the Year, Angela Hemingway; Policeman of the Year, Weston Bunnell; Fireman of the Year, Joe Link; and Citizen of the Year, Richard Cardoza.
Back in 2007, Nicola and I were surprised and honored to receive the citizen of the year award. It's a great honor from a great local organization.
Nationally, and as declared by Idaho Lt. Gov. Brad Little in a recent proclamation, April has been recognized as Grange Month. In celebration, annual awards are bestowed upon citizens by the Kuna Grange, to honor those who have been identified as having made a significant contribution to the Kuna community.
Established in 1867, The National Grange is the oldest agricultural and rural community service organization.
This year, award recipients include: Educator of the Year, Angela Hemingway; Policeman of the Year, Weston Bunnell; Fireman of the Year, Joe Link; and Citizen of the Year, Richard Cardoza.
Back in 2007, Nicola and I were surprised and honored to receive the citizen of the year award. It's a great honor from a great local organization.
Nationally, and as declared by Idaho Lt. Gov. Brad Little in a recent proclamation, April has been recognized as Grange Month. In celebration, annual awards are bestowed upon citizens by the Kuna Grange, to honor those who have been identified as having made a significant contribution to the Kuna community.
Established in 1867, The National Grange is the oldest agricultural and rural community service organization.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Interested in the Kuna Farmers Market? Organizational meeting is tomorrow morning
Come to the kickoff meeting for the Kuna Farmers Market on Saturday, April 16, at 10 a.m. at the fire station in Kuna. Everyone is welcome.
Opening Day for the Kuna Farmers Market will be Saturday, May 7, at 9 a.m.
This year, the Farmers Market will be at a new location, centrally located, at the Col. Bernard Fisher Veterans Memorial Park in downtown Kuna, under the water tower. This will make the market more visible, and the park is a pleasant place to spend the morning with family and friends.
The kick-off meeting this Saturday will explain how to become a vendor, where the market will be located, when the market will be open and to help you get to know who we are. The meeting is scheduled for two hours, but it doesn’t usually take that long. To make it even better, we all share some of Ione Zufeldt’s Famous Knutty Knots (yum).
If you have a business that would like to sponsor the market, we have three levels of sponsorship that can bring your business some welcome advertising as well as help the Farmers Market. For more, visit www.kunafarmersmarket.com, or follow us on Facebook.
Opening Day for the Kuna Farmers Market will be Saturday, May 7, at 9 a.m.
This year, the Farmers Market will be at a new location, centrally located, at the Col. Bernard Fisher Veterans Memorial Park in downtown Kuna, under the water tower. This will make the market more visible, and the park is a pleasant place to spend the morning with family and friends.
The kick-off meeting this Saturday will explain how to become a vendor, where the market will be located, when the market will be open and to help you get to know who we are. The meeting is scheduled for two hours, but it doesn’t usually take that long. To make it even better, we all share some of Ione Zufeldt’s Famous Knutty Knots (yum).
If you have a business that would like to sponsor the market, we have three levels of sponsorship that can bring your business some welcome advertising as well as help the Farmers Market. For more, visit www.kunafarmersmarket.com, or follow us on Facebook.
Kuna school district holds first open negotiation session
On Monday, I sat in on the first open meeting of the negotiation sessions for the Kuna teachers contract. Present were school board members Ginny Greger and Kevin Gifford, Superintendent Jay Hummel, business manager Bryan Fletcher and teachers Josh Noteboom, Dan Blitman, Jen Wright, Matt Krumm and Stacee Marshall. Most of the meeting was spent trying to lay out which parts of the contract are up for negotiation, which are no longer part of negotiations and which parts need legal clarification based on new state laws. The next scheduled meeting is at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, April 26, at the district office, 711 E. Porter Road.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Check out coupons from Les Schwab in this week's Kuna Melba News
Check out the full-page ad from Les Schwab on the back page of this week's Kuna Melba News. In addition to having some great deals on some tires, they also have coupons for $50 or $25 off tire purchases, $50 or $25 off brake service and a buy 3 get 1 free tire siping deal. If you need new tires or brake service, looks like now is a good time to go get it done. You'll be all set for the summer driving season. I'm told that Les Schwab even has tires that are made in the United States.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Kuna school board could be more open
A couple of months ago, the Kuna school district unveiled its newly redesigned website. It’s a very attractive site with a lot of new bells and whistles. You can check it out at www.kunaschools.org. The folks who worked on it clearly did a very good job, and they should be commended.
However, I would like to see the district take it just one step further in the interest of open government. One of the district’s stated goals in redesigning the website was to provide better communication with the public. That’s why I’d like to see the district do a better job of posting their school board agendas and their minutes on the website.
You have to click through a couple of times to find out that the school board meetings are on the second Tuesdays of each month. But I think this could be improved to put the actual date of the next board meeting. I’d also like to see it on the home page, right up front, without having to click through two or three times into the site. After all, the school board should be the number one interaction between the public and the school district.
Currently, there are no agendas even posted on the district’s website. Agendas are not finalized generally until the Thursday before the meeting, which means I am not able to publish the agenda in the issue of the Kuna Melba News before the meeting. As the owner of the local paper, I get a copy of the agenda faxed to me, but surely, it’s not practical to fax the agenda to 9,200 households in the school district. How can school district patrons find out what’s happening at the next school board meeting and whether they should attend or not?
Next, you may recall that a couple of years ago, I wrote a couple of editorials urging the city of Kuna to post all of their City Council “packet” documents online. I was happy to report that shortly thereafter, the city began posting all of those documents on their website, giving residents an opportunity to learn more about what was going to be discussed at the upcoming meeting and to follow along with the council members during the meeting.
Before, a council member would say, “On Page 3 of 12, Section III, letter a., it states…..” Members of the audience could only guess at what they were talking about. Now, any member of the public can print out the documents at home, then come to the meeting to keep up with the discussion. This move saved the city money. That’s because every week, I would request my own copy of the City Council packet, which the city provided to me as the owner of the local paper. Now, the city doesn’t spend a drop of printer ink on me, because I print out the packet myself from my office.
Currently, I file a public records request every month with the Kuna school district requesting a copy of the school board packet. When I show up at the meeting, there it is waiting for me, so that I can follow along and refer back to the documents when I’m writing a story. If the district were to post their packet online, not only would they not have to print out a copy for me, they would be making the documents available to every single resident in the school district.
So how about it, school board? Do you want the Kuna school district to be more open and accessible to the patrons? If so, this would be a good first step.
However, I would like to see the district take it just one step further in the interest of open government. One of the district’s stated goals in redesigning the website was to provide better communication with the public. That’s why I’d like to see the district do a better job of posting their school board agendas and their minutes on the website.
You have to click through a couple of times to find out that the school board meetings are on the second Tuesdays of each month. But I think this could be improved to put the actual date of the next board meeting. I’d also like to see it on the home page, right up front, without having to click through two or three times into the site. After all, the school board should be the number one interaction between the public and the school district.
Currently, there are no agendas even posted on the district’s website. Agendas are not finalized generally until the Thursday before the meeting, which means I am not able to publish the agenda in the issue of the Kuna Melba News before the meeting. As the owner of the local paper, I get a copy of the agenda faxed to me, but surely, it’s not practical to fax the agenda to 9,200 households in the school district. How can school district patrons find out what’s happening at the next school board meeting and whether they should attend or not?
Next, you may recall that a couple of years ago, I wrote a couple of editorials urging the city of Kuna to post all of their City Council “packet” documents online. I was happy to report that shortly thereafter, the city began posting all of those documents on their website, giving residents an opportunity to learn more about what was going to be discussed at the upcoming meeting and to follow along with the council members during the meeting.
Before, a council member would say, “On Page 3 of 12, Section III, letter a., it states…..” Members of the audience could only guess at what they were talking about. Now, any member of the public can print out the documents at home, then come to the meeting to keep up with the discussion. This move saved the city money. That’s because every week, I would request my own copy of the City Council packet, which the city provided to me as the owner of the local paper. Now, the city doesn’t spend a drop of printer ink on me, because I print out the packet myself from my office.
Currently, I file a public records request every month with the Kuna school district requesting a copy of the school board packet. When I show up at the meeting, there it is waiting for me, so that I can follow along and refer back to the documents when I’m writing a story. If the district were to post their packet online, not only would they not have to print out a copy for me, they would be making the documents available to every single resident in the school district.
So how about it, school board? Do you want the Kuna school district to be more open and accessible to the patrons? If so, this would be a good first step.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Head out to Kuna's Indian Creek Winery this weekend
Head out to Indian Creek Winery for its Spring Release Weekend, April 15, 16 and 17 from 12 to 5 p.m.
A weekend-long celebration of spring with the release of new wines and Farmstead Artisan Goat Cheeses from Idaho’s Snake River Valley. Free wine tastings and gourmet cheese plates available for purchase. Indian Creek Winery is located at 1000 N. McDermott Road, just north of West Kuna Road.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Kuna teacher negotiation meeting happening today at 4 p.m.
I have often said that I consider myself a little strange because I like going to City Council meetings and school board meetings. I like reading budgets and calculating taxes.
So it may come as no surprise that I'm excited about a new meeting that I'm able to attend.
And this is somewhat of a historic occasion. Today at 4 p.m., the Kuna school district will be having a negotiations meeting with the Kuna teachers union at the district office at 711 E. Porter Road.
The reason this is somewhat historic is because open negotiation meetings is part of the recent education reform legislation passed by the state Legislature this year. Among many pieces and parts of this legislation, the open meetings clause jumped right out at me.
I think it will be interesting to see what goes on in these meetings and how a new contract is arrived at each year. Of course, the public is welcome to attend. See you there.
So it may come as no surprise that I'm excited about a new meeting that I'm able to attend.
And this is somewhat of a historic occasion. Today at 4 p.m., the Kuna school district will be having a negotiations meeting with the Kuna teachers union at the district office at 711 E. Porter Road.
The reason this is somewhat historic is because open negotiation meetings is part of the recent education reform legislation passed by the state Legislature this year. Among many pieces and parts of this legislation, the open meetings clause jumped right out at me.
I think it will be interesting to see what goes on in these meetings and how a new contract is arrived at each year. Of course, the public is welcome to attend. See you there.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Kuna VFW memorial looks fantastic
Great job by Kuna VFW Post 7019, who placed this memorial at the Kuna city park ballfields last week. The 2,000-pound, 4-by-4-foot, 2-foot-thick stone memorial now stands between the two ballfields about 25 feet from Second Street. Plans for a veterans memorial at the ballfields were part of a grassroots redevelopment effort that fizzled last year. One of the elements of the plan was a large flagpole and veterans memorial as part of a brick-paved esplanade on the south end of the ballfields. With those plans dead, the local VFW post requested to place its memorial closer to Second Street.
I saw the drawings for the memorial a few weeks ago and thought it looked pretty impressive. But when I went out there last week to snap this photo of it, I was really impressed with how good it looked, especially in full color. Check it out if you get the chance. And thank you to our local VFW for making this happen.
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