{"id":26975,"date":"2025-06-05T15:11:23","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T19:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=26975"},"modified":"2025-06-05T15:11:24","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T19:11:24","slug":"decatur-police-chiefs-plea-slow-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/05\/decatur-police-chiefs-plea-slow-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Decatur police chief’s plea: slow down!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

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

With work on the Five Points roundabout \u2013 and all that entails \u2013 now underway, Police Chief Kevin Gerber is asking local and area residents to turn down the speed and turn up the caution, including putting down phones while behind the wheel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlease slow down when driving around town,\u201d Gerber said at the latest city council meeting. \u201cPeople just don’t need to be in such a hurry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Decatur Police chief Kevin Gerber appeared before City Council to report on traffic patterns surrounding the ongoing construction at Five Points in the city. (Photo by Bob Shraluka)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe’re a relatively small town,\u201d Mayor Dan Rickord said, \u201cso it (reducing speed) might take you a couple of extra minutes to get where you are going.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traffic patterns have changed significantly in some cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Detour signs are in place to guide motorists to alternate routes around the construction area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The detour is on Mercer to Rugg to First St. and Mercer to Grant St. to Line St., depending on if a driver needs to access the east side of the city, center or west side, according to city Operations Manager Jeremy Gilbert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Temporary speed bumps are in place on First St. in the area of the Madison Street Plaza and also the site of the former jail. They have been put in place to help slow traffic in those areas due to pedestrian foot traffic, Gilbert explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although they are open, no parking is permitted along the entire length of First St., and on Rugg St. First St. is expected to become a major artery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project could take up to 120 days to complete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com With work on the Five Points roundabout \u2013 and all that entails \u2013 now<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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-26975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-decatur","tag-featured","tag-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26975","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=26975"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26977,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26975\/revisions\/26977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}