Kuna Performing Arts Center has a great lineup for the season

The one I'm most looking forward to is the Christmas concert from Meridian Symphony Orchestra.
The Kuna Performing Arts Center Events Council has put together a lineup of events for the coming year.

• Saturday, Aug. 27: Summer Showcase. Local singer/songwriter MacKayla Hunter and Marcus Eaton will be among the performers at this year’s Summer Showcase at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 27, at the Kuna Performing Arts Center. This year’s showcase will be a benefit show for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation as a senior project being organized by Julia Durrant. Amy Davis of the JDRF is mentoring Durrant, and the KPAC Events Council is assisting with promotion. The show will be a semi-formal event. Patrons are invited to make it a special evening and dress up for the concert.

• Thursday, Sept. 22: Ada County Commissioner Vern Bisterfeldt will be a guest lecturer at 7 p.m. This will be a free event. In addition to sharing experiences from his more than 50 years of public service, Bisterfeldt is looking forward to discussing common sense principles on how a vibrant community is built and thrives. Bisterfeldt is a great story teller and lessons learned from his life experiences will surely prove valuable to listeners. He’s known for his non-nonsense attitude and common sense approach to government and life.

• Wednesday, Oct. 19: Bar J Wranglers, 7 p.m. Doors open at 6 p.m. This will be a reserved seating event with tickets only available for purchase online at www.kunaperformingartscenter.org. Tickets range in price from $15 - $25 and will be available online beginning this Friday, July 15.

• Friday, Dec. 2: The Meridian Symphony Orchestra will perform its popular Christmas Show. Tickets will be $10 and sold through MSO and local Bank of the Cascades branches.

• Saturday, March 10: John Adams will bring his Tribute to John Denver to Kuna. John Adams has committed himself to keeping Denver’s music alive and will continue John’s musical legacy as long as he is able to sing and perform it. John Adams, living in Silverthorne, Colo., brings you the opportunity to listen to many of John Denver’s songs live, like Sunshine On My Shoulders, Calypso, Take Me Home, Country Roads, Annie’s Song, and of course his signature song, Rocky Mountain High. Join John Adams and his band for a magical musical journey through the songs and stories of Rocky Mountain Legend: John Denver.

Will Kuna lose the Birds of Prey Festival?

Organizers of the annual Snake River Birds of Prey Festival are considering moving the festival out of Kuna and to Celebration Park, south of Melba.
The festival has been held for the past three years at Reed Elementary School in Kuna.
Kuna is considered the Gateway to the Birds of Prey National Conservation Area, just south of Kuna and home to the largest concentration of nesting raptors in North America.
Celebration Park would offer a perhaps more authentic setting for the festival, along the Snake River in the Snake River Canyon just on the western edge of the National Conservation Area.
Some organizers have suggested that if the festival is intended to be celebrate the Birds of Prey National Conservation Area, it should be out in the canyon, not in Boise and not in a school in Kuna.
Organizers point out that Celebration Park has room for parking, room to put booths and a space that could be used for lectures.
The Birds of Prey Festival is sponsored by the Western Heritage Historic Byway, based in Kuna, and includes several other organizations, including the federal Bureau of Land Management (which manages the conservation area), Idaho Fish & Game, Idaho Falconers Association, The Audubon Society, the Kuna Chamber of Commerce along with several local and regional businesses.
The festival includes tours, lectures, displays, children’s activities and live raptor demonstrations.

Get your donations in for the Kuna Days fireworks show

The Kuna Days fireworks show still needs about $3,000 in donations to put on its incredible display. The Kuna Days Committee put in $7,000, and the cost of the show is typically $10,000.
All of the fireworks crews that were busy on the 4th of July come together for the Kuna Days show and lend their experience to this show, according to Lloyd Stubbs, who puts on the Kuna Days fireworks show.
Many have said that the Kuna Days fireworks show is pretty close to being the top show in the valley.
To donate, mail checks or money orders to:
Kuna Days Fireworks
P.O. Box 392
Kuna, ID 83634
Donations will also be accepted at Stubbs Realty Office, 240 Linder Ave., in Kuna. Sponsorships are also available.

Get ready to catch some air at this year's Kuna Days

For the 11th year, there will be a dirt bike jump demonstration put on at the city greenbelt as part of Kuna Days.
The Kuna Reunion Dirt Jam will take place at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 6, at the dirt bike jump track next to the Kuna skate park on Second Street, near the Kuna Senior Center.
Matt Moore, one of the track’s founders and organizer of the event, said this year’s track is “really mellowed out” with not as high jumps and is more accessible to more riders.
Moore is currently working with Kuna Days organizers over the possibility of going under Kuna Days’ insurance.
The dirt jump track was formed in 1998 after the then-owner of the Kuna Melba News, Earl Maggard, wrote a news article about a group of teenagers, including Matt Moore, who were dirt bike jumping on a makeshift track they had built on a piece of school district-owned land behind Indian Creek Elementary School off Fourth Street on the south side of Indian Creek near the train tracks.
Maggard had suggested to them, according to Moore, “Why don’t you build some jumps on the greenbelt?”
In the photo are Neal Moore, left, and son, Matt Moore, right, along with Matt’s son, Dawson, hanging out at the dirt jump park Neal and Matt helped create in 1998.

Kuna residents need to do a better job of making their voices heard

A reader was in my office the other day when City Council member Rich Cardoza happened to stop by. After a few minutes of jawboning, the reader kind of let Cardoza have it over the $22 business license fee being proposed by the city. It was clear that the reader was a bit upset over the prospect of having to pay $22 a year just because he happened to own a business and lived in the city of Kuna.
The merits of the proposal aside for just a minute, here’s what really troubles me: What would have happened if Cardoza hadn’t happened to be strolling by at that moment or hadn’t decided to stop in my office? How would Cardoza have known that this person didn’t like the business license fee idea?
In recent weeks, I have written editorials about the business license fee, the Kuna Chamber taking over Kuna Days, the city’s new taxi ordinance, pressurized irrigation for a national chain, and the city’s police budget, among many other controversial stories. How many letters to the editor have I received about these topics? None. How many people have shown up at City Council meetings to voice their opinions? Slim to none.
Cardoza, too, complained to me that he doesn’t receive nearly enough feedback on these difficult issues. He complains about our “coffeeshop culture” where everyone wants to complain at the coffeeshop — usually with ridiculously false information — rather than actually do something about it.
If you don’t like something — or if you support something — for Pete’s sake, let the City Council know about it. Write a letter to the editor, write a letter to council. Vote in our online poll, at least. Do something. But formulating an opinion, usually based on some false rumor or gossip, at the coffeeshop or at the end of the bar does absolutely nothing.

Kuna grad Luke Lords back in town, will perform in concert this week

Luke Lords, a 2000 graduate of Kuna High School, will be performing in concert on Thursday, July 28, at Welch Music, 12516 W. Fairview Ave., Meridian. Concert starts at 7 p.m., doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Tickets will be sold at the door for $6. Additional donations will be accepted.
The concert will consist of classic Broadway repertoire as well as new works written by current Broadway and Off-Broadway composers. Del Parkinson, head of the piano department at Boise State University, will be accompanying. This concert is being produced from New York City by Alina Gutierrez.
Lords, the son of Chris and Susan Lords, graduated from Kuna in 2000 and received a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University-Idaho in choral conducting in 2006. He is currently working on a master’s degree in musical theatre performance at New York University in New York City. Proceeds of the concert will help Lords continue his studies at NYU.
Lords has appeared in the Off-Broadway show “Elevator Music,” which premiered at the York Theatre Company last April. Lords will also be seen in NYU’s production of “Sweet Smell of Success,” which will open this September.

Deb Bradburn named Kuna director of coaches

Kuna school board members this month unanimously named Deb Bradburn as the new director of coaches for the Kuna school district.
This will be a half-time position. Bradburn will also work half-time as a physical education teacher at the high school. This will be Bradburn’s fifth year with the Kuna school district.
The director of coaches position is a new position created when the district decided to eliminate the position of activities director. The director of coaches will work with all coaches from kindergarten through 12th grade. Bradburn will set the mission and vision for the district’s coaching staff and will be in charge of oversight of hiring coaches.
Based on the success she's had with the varsity volleyball team, it seems she is an excellent choice for this position.

Kuna Days still looking for volunteers: Go to meeting on Monday

The final planning meeting for this year’s Kuna Days will be taking place at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, July 25, at Idaho Pizza Company, 331 Avenue E, at the west end of Main Street, Kuna. Volunteers are still needed to help make this year’s Kuna Days a great success. If you are willing and able to help out in any way, you are invited and encouraged to attend this meeting.

Two barbecues set again for this year's Kuna Days

The 13th annual Olde Tyme BBQ, put on by the Kuna Fire Department, will be held from 4:30 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 6, at the Kuna fire station, 150 W. Boise St. All you can eat dinner till it’s gone. Pulled pork dinner with baked potatoes, cole slaw and homemade beans with scones and ice cream for dessert. Hot dogs for the kids.
A live auction will take place starting at 6 p.m., and there will be a raffle going on throughout the evening (you must be present to win).
Seniors are invited to come early, starting at 4 p.m.
Cost is $10 for adults, and $5 for seniors and for children 10 and under. Advanced discount tickets will be sold at El Gallo Giro in Kuna ($8 for adults; $4 for seniors and children 10 and under).
na Days Family Luau will start at 6 p.m., Friday, Aug. 5, at the Col. Bernard Fisher Veterans Memorial Park. This year’s menu will include kalua pulled pork, rice, fruit salad, macaroni salad.
Cost will be $5 for everyone 12 years old and up, and $3 for seniors and for children under 12. Children under 2 eat for free.
You will also have a chance to enter to win a barbecue grill with all the goodies. Raffle tickets are $1 each or six tickets for $5.
Make sure to stick around after the barbecue to watch the Kuna Days fireworks show.

See two national fiddle champions perform this Saturday in Kuna

ddle Fest and Contest in Kuna will be held this Saturday, July 23, at the bandshell at the Col. Bernard Fisher Veterans Memorial Park in downtown Kuna.
Two national champions will be performing at this year’s Contest: Small Fry Champion Toren Sarsen, above, and Grand National Champion Katrina Nicolayeff. Admission is free.
Competition starts at 8:30 a.m. and organizers are expecting to be finished by 4 p.m.
If anyone has a flatbed trailer that could be used as a stage, contact festival organizer Monique Ruwe at 284-2851.
For more information, visit www.ruwemusic.com.