{"id":35503,"date":"2026-04-06T15:09:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T19:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=35503"},"modified":"2026-04-06T15:09:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T19:09:48","slug":"main-street-director-sees-downtown-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/06\/main-street-director-sees-downtown-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"Main Street director sees downtown impact"},"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>Decatur Main Street&#8217;s recently awarded accreditation by a state organization will become a positive influence on downtown Decatur, Taylor Braun told city council at its March 17 meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Braun, named Decatur Main Street&#8217;s executive director late last year, was introduced to council at the meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The accreditation \u201copens up more opportunities,\u201d Braun told council. \u201cIt will impact downtown Decatur.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Braun, who was accompanied by Main Street President Max Miller, is the first salaried member of Decatur Main Street, a position needed to enable it to gain a higher status in the state organization and have greater opportunities to obtain grants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"578\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Taylor-Braun-Gephart.jpg?resize=640%2C578&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-35504\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Taylor-Braun-Gephart.jpg?w=711&amp;ssl=1 711w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Taylor-Braun-Gephart.jpg?resize=300%2C271&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Taylor Braun (left) &amp; Jamie Gephart<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>She began her new duties on January 7 and now has an office in City Hall, although her position is not part of city government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A recent graduate of Purdue University Fort Wayne, Braun studied marketing and gained experience in community outreach, event planning, and strategic communication through coursework and local internships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Main-Street-logo.jpg?resize=640%2C640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-35505\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Main-Street-logo.jpg?w=960&amp;ssl=1 960w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Main-Street-logo.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Main-Street-logo.jpg?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Main-Street-logo.jpg?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>New Decatur Main Street logo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>She grew up in the Decatur area, the daughter of Jason and Julie Braun. The family later moved to Berne and Taylor graduated from South Adams High School.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Decatur Main Street is a non-profit, volunteer group of local residents who promote the downtown area and organize and hold numerous events, such as Downtown Decatur Day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com Decatur Main Street&#8217;s recently awarded accreditation by a state organization will become a positive<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35505,"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-35503","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\/2026\/04\/Main-Street-logo.jpg?fit=960%2C960&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35503","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=35503"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35506,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35503\/revisions\/35506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}