{"id":28941,"date":"2025-09-07T14:44:29","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T18:44:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=28941"},"modified":"2025-09-07T14:44:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T18:44:30","slug":"councilman-on-park-look-ahead-not-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/07\/councilman-on-park-look-ahead-not-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Councilman on park: look ahead, not back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Decatur City Councilman Scott Murray, looking backward is not productive as a community seeks to move forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Murray was one of some 60 people who attended a recent meeting called by the city administration to receive public input on proposed plans for a downtown park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At least one person attending the meeting brought up a proposal for a park made several years ago by another administration, wondering why it is not being considered. Several comments on social media have raised the same question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Murray made the point at the latest city council meeting that he was disappointed in what could be considered negativity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThings change,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople want to stop things, saying that years ago this was (the plan). I&#8217;m disappointed in that. Things change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPeople need to ask how they can help the city.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSocial media is not the way to do it,\u201d Mayor Dan Rickord added. \u201cCome talk to us \u2026 come talk to us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"511\" height=\"357\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Dan-addresses-crowd.jpg?resize=511%2C357&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-28942\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Dan-addresses-crowd.jpg?w=511&amp;ssl=1 511w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Dan-addresses-crowd.jpg?resize=300%2C210&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 511px) 100vw, 511px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Decatur mayor Dan Rickord addresses the crowd at a recent public input meeting. (Photo by Bob Shraluka)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>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<p>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<p>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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com For Decatur City Councilman Scott Murray, looking backward is not productive as a community<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28942,"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-28941","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\/09\/Dan-addresses-crowd.jpg?fit=511%2C357&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28941","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=28941"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28943,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28941\/revisions\/28943"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}