{"id":3604,"date":"2023-06-20T10:08:37","date_gmt":"2023-06-20T14:08:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=3604"},"modified":"2023-06-20T10:08:39","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T14:08:39","slug":"decatur-youth-council-up-and-rolling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/20\/decatur-youth-council-up-and-rolling\/","title":{"rendered":"Decatur youth council up and rolling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

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

Stymied by a pandemic and some pressing matters like completing a sports complex, Decatur Mayor Dan Rickord was for a couple of years unable to launch one of his hoped-for pet projects when he came into office: a youth council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It all came together in the latter part of last year, however, and now the Mayor’s Youth Council is up and running full-steam ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the June 6 city council meeting, an ordinance setting up a non-reverting fund for the council was unanimously approved. All donations to the council, revenues, etc., will go into the fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have some business owners stepping up already who want to donate (to the youth council). They love the idea,\u201d said Rickord, seen talking to the young people in photo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The youth council is comprised of 12 Bellmont High School students. Due to the recent graduation, some new members will be added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original group was comprised of the following: Seniors: Sydney Keane, Mackenzie Moran, Mackenzie Roudebush and Taylor Braun. Juniors: Victoria Hamrick, Michael Garcia and Andrea Curtis. Sophomores: Emma Key and Mason Martinez. Freshmen: Brianna Converset, Lillian Garner and Mason Mankey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The students meet twice a month and are required to attend two city council meetings and one meeting each of the Adams County Economic Development board and the city-county park board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are also involved in projects. Hamrick, for example, has set up life-skills classes. Some council members assisted at Downtown Decatur Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mayor is currently working on setting up an \u201coffice\u201d in City Hall for the council. \u201cYou know, with a desk, couch, computer, things like that. So even during the summer they can have a place to meet, hang out, discuss things, and so on,\u201d Rickord said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rickord is deeply committed to a youth council. He sees it as a way to hear other voices on matters involving the city; and as a way to keep our young people at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe’re trying to listen to our young people. We want to keep them here. If they don’t find it here, they will go someplace else,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOB SHRALUKA WBZD.com Stymied by a pandemic and some pressing matters like completing a sports complex, Decatur Mayor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3605,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[17,14,15],"class_list":["post-3604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-community","tag-decatur","tag-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/D788E10087F349638023B91D45CC0276.jpg?fit=365%2C393&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3604","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=3604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}