{"id":28643,"date":"2025-08-31T15:58:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T19:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=28643"},"modified":"2025-08-31T15:58:36","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T19:58:36","slug":"public-input-sought-for-decatur-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/31\/public-input-sought-for-decatur-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Public input sought for Decatur park"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

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

\u201cWe want to hear from you,\u201d Decatur Mayor Dan Rickord told an estimated 60 people attending a Wednesday night meeting at Riverside Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The meeting was held to allow city residents the opportunity to check out concept renderings of three different proposals for a downtown park and to pose questions about same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The park would be mostly located in the area of a city-owned parking lot on the west side of the St. Marys River, between Monroe and Jackson streets. A smaller portion would be situated on the east side of the river, beside Riverside Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Mayor Rickord answers questions at Wednesday’s meeting. (Photo by Bob Shraluka)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The proposed park is likely a couple of years away from becoming a reality, but, as the mayor has said in the past, a plan is needed before applying for any grants: \u201cGrants are out there, but you have to have a plan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

A local committee has been studying the idea for a year or so and, aided by Engineering Resources, Inc., of Fort Wayne, came up with three separate proposals for a park. The committee was comprised of 15 people and they received input from members of the Mayor’s Youth Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
One of three concepts for a new park in Decatur is shown from Wednesday’s public input meeting. (Photo by Bob Shraluka)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Engineering Resources put together plans for Promenade Park in Fort Wayne \u201cand a bunch of other places around Fort Wayne,\u201d Rickord noted. Three members of the firm were on hand for the meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enlarged drawings of all three plans were available for viewing at the meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Numerous questions and ideas were put forth by people in attendance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mayor was pleased with the turnout. \u201cYes, I was very happy with it; I counted around 60 people,\u201d he told WZBD.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Rickord, who said that he has been studying the idea for some two years, is hoping for a big response from the public. \u201cHelp shape a park that everyone will love,\u201d it was said in an announcement of the meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The acceptance of ideas and selection of a plan is rather open-ended at this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u201cIf it works out (that a proposal can be decided upon and grants sought yet this year), great,\u201d he said after the meeting. \u201cIf not, then we will wait until next year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Survey information is available at:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.surveymonkey.com\/r\/J7L3VWY<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A QR code is available on the City of Decatur’s website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com \u201cWe want to hear from you,\u201d Decatur Mayor Dan Rickord told an estimated 60<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28646,"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-28643","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\/08\/Park-crowd.jpg?fit=654%2C188&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28643","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=28643"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28647,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28643\/revisions\/28647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}