{"id":27270,"date":"2025-06-26T13:52:27","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T17:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=27270"},"modified":"2025-06-26T13:52:29","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T17:52:29","slug":"merit-center-cleaning-costs-boost-considered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/26\/merit-center-cleaning-costs-boost-considered\/","title":{"rendered":"MERIT Center cleaning costs boost considered"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

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

Discussion among City of Decatur officials and the MERIT Center board is ongoing over the center’s cleaning budget. Included in the conversation is any possible role for the county.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some time ago, the person cleaning the MERIT Center had to step away for medical reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lynn Kressley, who has her own cleaning service, was brought in to handle the work for a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

She did such an outstanding job that it was decided to retain Kressley full-time, working 23 hours a week in the building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current budget of $12,000 a year would need boosted, however, to $35,000 annually for the expanded cleaning services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clerk-treasurer Eran Hackman pointed out that the current budgeted funds are already insufficient. \u201cWe’re going to be short this year, so we need to make this up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s a great facility that has great use \u2026 it’s a facility that needs cleaned,\u201d Councilman Matt Dyer noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’m not sure we should be fronting all the costs for it,\u201d Councilman Tyler Fullenkamp added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city owns the MERIT Center, once an elementary school, but the county’s Adams County on Aging oversees the building, a deal for which it pays no rent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council decided to delay any decisions until later after Councilwoman Abby Wilder said she would talk to the MERIT Center board, of which she is a member.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com Discussion among City of Decatur officials and the MERIT Center board is ongoing over<\/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-27270","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\/27270","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=27270"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27272,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27270\/revisions\/27272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}