{"id":25090,"date":"2025-04-08T15:40:18","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T19:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=25090"},"modified":"2025-04-08T15:40:19","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T19:40:19","slug":"courtyard-plans-set-to-honor-two-boys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/08\/courtyard-plans-set-to-honor-two-boys\/","title":{"rendered":"Courtyard plans set; to honor two boys"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although funding remains a major hurdle, plans for the development of an Adams County Council on Aging courtyard at the MERIT Center in Decatur are now complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once finished, the courtyard will honor two boys who tragically died at young ages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe plans are all done and are looking wonderful, but we are kind of in limbo right now,\u201d Council on Aging Director Michelle Lengerich told WZBD.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The council is situated in the building and operates the Adams County Transt system from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The eventual cost of modifying a large space in the rear of the MERIT Center \u2013 the former Northwest School \u2013 will be around $100,000. Lengerich said a $50,000 grant is being sought from Indiana United Way and the council on aging would have to raise $50,000 for a match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Lengerich said the state United Way organization was hesitant to award the grant since the building is a government-owned (City of Decatur) structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut they gave us some suggestions on how to modify our lease and our (MERIT) board approved them,\u201d Lengerich said. A next step will be to seek city council assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The area for the courtyard was cleaned up by volunteers last October. Since that time, access from the building to the courtyard has been established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Courtyard area after cleanup. (Photo provided)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

TO HONOR BOYS: Once the courtyard has been completed it will be known as the Braun Myers Courtyard and Gardens, Lengerich said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew Braun and Jaden Myers were students at Northwest School when they died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaden was 10 years old when he passed in 2016. Matthew died in 1987, struck by a car while riding his bicycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was really cool; Jaden’s grandmother, Tonja Anweiler, helped us in the cleanup last October and also made a donation,\u201d Lengerich noted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com Although funding remains a major hurdle, plans for the development of an Adams County<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25093,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,15,21],"class_list":["post-25090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-decatur","tag-featured","tag-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Merit-courtyard-design-1.jpg?fit=1417%2C1108&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25090"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25094,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25090\/revisions\/25094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}