THE TRAILHEAD — Boise State owns the ball longer than anyone; Saturday's opponent is No. 15 at the same trick.
The Rundowntoday in 40 seconds
- 01Thirteen Boise elementary schools named candidates; the input survey is open now.
- 02Idaho sends 25 Opportunity Zone candidates to Treasury before Monday's deadline.
- 03Nation's top ball-control team meets No. 15 at it, first ever.
- 04Saturday: 68 and cloudy, first below-normal day of fall.
- 05Boise's first Dunkin' proposed for a State Street Papa Murphy's.
Today's Edition
Thirteen Boise elementary schools are on a list of candidates to close, combine or redraw, and the survey that shapes what happens next is open right now — Civic & Policy has the names and the link before any decision gets made.
Local Hustle tracks a Monday Treasury deadline that could redraw investment maps in five Boise neighborhoods, with a Caldwell nomination still waiting on the final list. The Forecast marks Saturday as the first day of fall that runs below normal. And The Bench has Boise State in Kalamazoo, where two ball-control teams meet for the first time ever.
Thirteen schools on the list, and the survey that shapes it is open right now.
— The Editor
The morning cover — one frame for the whole edition
CIVIC & POLICY
Boise has 9,000 empty seats. Thirteen schools made the list.
The district put three scenarios in front of the public this week. Nothing is decided, and the survey is open now.
Thirteen Boise elementary schools landed on a candidate list this week — for closure, combination, or a redrawn boundary. The Boise School District laid out its preliminary scenarios Wednesday, September 23, at a noon virtual meeting and a 6-to-8 p.m. session at the District Training Center on South Milwaukee. The district's own announcement doesn't soften it: “No final decisions have been made.” Tracy Richter of HPM, the firm writing the facilities master plan, said the same from the presentation. “What we want people to understand is that we're not even close to any recommendations yet,” he told BoiseDev.
What's driving all of it is space nobody's sitting in. The district has 9,000 empty seats, 5,000 of them at elementary, per slides BoiseDev reported. Scenario 1 moves 9th grade up into the high schools. Scenario 2 closes or combines up to three of the district's nine junior highs. Scenario 3 goes after that elementary excess, and it names the thirteen: Adams, Cynthia Mann, Taft and Roosevelt in the Boise quadrant; Monroe, Hawthorne, Jefferson and Hillcrest in Borah; Koelsch and Horizon in Capital; Garfield, Riverside and White Pine in Timberline. Every slide adds that the list is not exhaustive — which, translated from the master-plan dialect, means the thirteen aren't a ceiling.
If your kid is at one of those schools, the Fall Community Survey is how you get on the record — it's open now at surveymonkey.com/r/BSDScenarios, no closing date published, and the spring version drew 900 responses. For the rest of us, this is the process the district runs as enrollment keeps sliding: “We don't have a district that we're working with anywhere in the country that is rising in enrollment,” Richter told BoiseDev. A recommendation reaches the board in February or March 2027, any funding decision comes after that, and implementation would run two to five years. No school is closing yet. Thirteen are on a candidate list, and the survey is how you get counted before the recommendation is written. Got a kid at one of the thirteen? Reply and tell us which — a real person reads every one.
Thirteen schools on the list, none closing yet, and the survey open before anyone decides.
Source · BoiseDev
boise.term — zsh — 120×40
$ boise --today --topic=local hustle
> Five Boise areas, a Caldwell nomination, and a Monday deadline
Idaho has 25 candidate areas headed to the U.S. Treasury before Monday's September 28 deadline, the second round of the Opportunity Zone program — the federal tax break for investing in designated neighborhoods. Cities, counties and tribes submitted 36 tracts; the Idaho Economic Advisory Council trimmed them to 25 and sent the list to Gov. Brad Little's office in July, according to the Idaho Capital Sun.
Boise says five of its areas are on the state's proposed list: Downtown, Shoreline, University District, South Boise Village and West Boise. If Treasury approves them, designation takes effect January 1, 2027 and lasts 10 years. “This is a win for Boise,” Mayor Lauren McLean said in a September 9 city release, saying the breaks would spur housing, businesses and jobs. Caldwell also submitted a nomination covering much of the city, including the College of Idaho and the Canyon County Fairgrounds. It is nominated, not selected. The final 25 aren't public yet, so whether Canyon County made the cut is still open.
What this means on the ground: inside a designated zone, a developer or investor building housing or a project gets a federal tax break the block next door doesn't. Jerry Miller of the Idaho Department of Commerce told the Idaho Capital Sun that “a number of the nominations mentioned downtown and Main Street revitalization as one of their goals.” North Nampa was one of Idaho's 28 original zones back in 2018. None of it is final until Treasury signs off.
/* Five Boise areas, a Caldwell nomination, one Monday deadline — and the map's still sealed. */
Source · BoiseDev / Idaho Capital Sun
THE BENCH
THE BENCH
Two teams that hate giving the ball back meet in Kalamazoo
Boise State closes non-conference play Saturday at Western Michigan — the first meeting ever, and two 2025 champs.
Two teams built to keep the ball, one football, 1:30 in Kalamazoo.
THE TRAILHEAD: Boise State holds the ball 37 minutes a game, more than any team in the country. Saturday it visits the No. 15 team at doing the same thing.
Boise State (2-1) plays at Western Michigan (2-1) at 1:30 p.m. Mountain, an early one for a road game. It's on ESPN2 from Waldo Stadium. Both won leagues last fall: the Broncos took the Mountain West, the other Broncos took the MAC. Boise State's formula runs through possession, 37:24 a game against Western Michigan's 33:43. Two clubs want to play keep-away with one football. Somebody's plan gives.
Maddux Madsen has thrown for 610 yards, 6 touchdowns and no picks. Dylan Riley sits second nationally with 488 yards from scrimmage. But the season Spencer Danielson wants gets decided further down the roster. Freshman receiver Rasean Jones went 8 catches, 95 yards and a score against South Dakota, and defensive back Travis Anderson already has 3 interceptions, tied for second in the country. Western Michigan opened by holding Michigan to 13 and forcing three turnovers, Broc Lowry steering the grind at Rice.
Source · idahonews.com / getsomemaction.com
THE FORECAST
79° / 46°
Saturday lands cooler than we said — the first below-normal day of fall
MOOD OF THE SKY: TURNING.
Saturday comes in at 68 and mostly cloudy, about ten degrees below normal — the first below-normal day of the fall. That's cooler than Thursday's call of 71; the calm-wind part still holds, but the temperature slid. Blame the front crossing the Boise airport early this afternoon, shifting winds to the northwest and kicking up gusts near 30 at the airport, with pockets of 40 in the upper Treasure Valley and the higher terrain. Today itself reaches 79 before easing back, and tonight drops to 46.
Rain along the front stays west and north of the valley, so Boise stays dry through the weekend. Sunday rebounds to 73, and next week settles into the kind of stretch that makes people forget October is coming: sunny, 74 Monday, 73 Tuesday, mid-70s through Thursday. NWS Boise has no advisories out.
TODAY
79° / 46°
TURNING
TONIGHT
46°F
Partly Cloudy
TOMORROW
68°F
Mostly Cloudy
Source · NWS Boise
THE TABLE
Boise's first Dunkin' would replace a Papa Murphy's on State Street
Before Boise gets its first Dunkin', a franchisee has to prove how long the line gets. That is the request sitting in front of the city right now: an application filed August 21, 2026 by John Sponseller of Ethos Architecture Group, on behalf of an unnamed franchisee, to turn the Papa Murphy's take-and-bake at 6940 W. State St. into a Dunkin'. The plan, in Sponseller's own words to the city, is to “convert the space, which is currently a Papa Murphy's pizza, into a Dunkin Donuts, reusing the drive-thru lane and adding a menu board at the start of the drive-thru lane,” as reported by BoiseDev. This is the Northgate Shopping Center, near Glenwood. Nothing is opening. Something is proposed.
Before signing off, the city asked for a drive-thru capacity analysis and “average monthly peak volumes” from comparable Dunkin' locations. They want the math on the queue before they bless the lane. BoiseDev reports room for six to nine cars. New drive-thrus are generally barred in this zone, though KIVI reports city staff say a decades-old entitlement may carry this one through. At Ambitions Nail and Hair Studio in the same center, two workers told KIVI they're rooting for it. “It's exciting because I won't have to drive in the traffic on State Street right now,” manager Tiana Cordell said. Barber Jayon Leonard added, “Hopefully it'll be easy access and the business will thrive.” No opening date. Dunkin' said back in January it wants up to 20 Treasure Valley locations.
For the record: the sticking point on Boise's first Dunkin' is a spreadsheet of how many cars stack up at other Dunkins. Somewhere, a franchisee is being asked to prove America runs on it.
— Nina's Table: a permit application isn't a coffee, but State Street's about to find out how long its own line runs.
— The city wants the math on the queue before it blesses the lane. —
Source · BoiseDev / KIVI
📋 The Ledgerwhat we're watching — and when it moves, you'll read it here
- ●Rhea Data / Arevia Power data center on BLM land near Blacks Creek Reservoir — BLM notice of intent and the opening of public comment; water and cooling figures; power plant size (watching since 9/24) · Δ 9/24: 2026-09-24: application for a 4-million-sq-ft data center on roughly 3,200 acres of BLM land (plus ~550 for transmission) near Blacks Creek Reservoir off I-84; BLM says application stage, NEPA and tribal consultation ahead, notice of intent expected before end of 2026, no comment period yet. Boise Mayor McLean (09-23) called for a statewide framework first.
- ●Claremont Fire recovery - 5-Mile Gulch bridge rebuild and off-trail damage — Bridge completion; any restoration closures in the burn area this fall (watching since 9/24) · Δ 9/24: 2026-09-24: Ridge to Rivers began rebuilding the fire-burned 5-Mile Gulch Trail bridge the week of 09-14; work still listed as ongoing 09-18. Crews fenced a long section between Sidewinder Saddle and Fat Tire Traverse junction after off-trail motorized travel in the burn.
- ●Envision Central Caldwell 2050 - individual projects returning to council — The first Envision 2050 project to reach council (land-use application or budget item over $50,000) (watching since 9/24) · Δ 9/24: 2026-09-24: NOT COVERED. Accepted (not adopted) 4-2 on 2026-08-04 as an advisory document that changes no zoning; each project (parking garage, convention space, whitewater park, Indian Creek promenade) must come back to council separately. Gemini re-pitched it 09-24 as current and quoted Mayor Eric Phillips as a 'resident' from a July 2025 Facebook comment. Logged so the repeat gate catches the next re-pitch.
- ●Nampa economic development leadership - Steven Jenkins — Jenkins' start date and first Nampa priorities; CCDC transition (watching since 9/24) · Δ 9/24: 2026-09-24: NOT COVERED. BoiseDev (09-21): Steven Jenkins, Caldwell's former economic development director, will lead Nampa's economic development. He left Caldwell for Idaho Power in January, citing a shift 'from collaboration to conflict' after Mayor Phillips' election. Robyn Sellers, Nampa's prior director, moves to Capital City Development Corporation as executive director. Relevant to thread 22 (Caldwell under Mayor Phillips).
- ●UNVERIFIED - Boise School District closures and grade reconfiguration — Read the BoiseDev piece and the district's own feedback materials; the board's decision timeline (watching since 9/24) · Δ 9/24: 2026-09-24: NOT COVERED. HEADLINE ONLY - BoiseDev 09-23 reports the Boise School District could close several elementary schools and move 9th grade to high school amid declining enrollment, and is seeking feedback. Not read or verified this pass. Flagged for Tuesday's civic beat.
💬 The Group Chatwhat the valley’s actually arguing about
- ●r/Boise right now: Experiences at Intermountain Hospital for Rehab? — Hey everyone! i (F24) am struggling with alcoholism and am looking for a good rehab center to check myself into next week.
- ●r/Boise right now: Substitute Teaching — Hey neighbors, I’m thinking of substitute teaching in the TV (Nampa/West Ada/Boise) and was wondering if anyone has their two cents on what it’s like?
- ●r/Boise right now: North End Happy Hours? — This is always so hard to find online…what are the best happy hours in Boise’s north end?