{"id":37847,"date":"2026-07-23T12:30:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T16:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=37847"},"modified":"2026-07-24T10:23:05","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T14:23:05","slug":"city-didnt-own-two-ward-parks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/23\/city-didnt-own-two-ward-parks\/","title":{"rendered":"City didn’t own two ward parks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

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

A plan to bring a major upgrade to a park in Decatur has sparked a major surprise \u2013 two of them, in fact!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has been accepted for years that the City of Decatur owns South Ward Park off Winchester St. and North Ward Park, across Fifth St. from the swimming pool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

It seemed, that is, until going through paperwork to develop the South Ward Park it was discovered that the North Adams Schools still owned both areas!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Years and years ago Decatur’s school system had elementary schools on each site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Somehow, a change to city ownership after the schools were long-gone was never done or never completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ownership surprise came up at Decatur City Council’s latest meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u201cThey were surprised as we were,\u201d City Attorney Anne Razo said, referring to North Adams leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe city has maintained those as parks for years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In quick order, the North Adams School Board at its recent meeting voted to turn the titles for the two land areas to the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the city voted to accept!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OLD PARK TO NEW: The Decatur Parks and Recreation Department announced recently that is seeking grants which will be used to convert the South Ward Park into an all-inclusive playground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A total of four grants are being sought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The park is designed to have a play structure for kids 2-5 years old and another for those 5-12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four different types of swings are planned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most items will be at wheelchair transfer height and sensory items will be included.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plans call for the park to have turf, be fenced in, have rest rooms, a pavilion and a parking lot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com A plan to bring a major upgrade to a park in Decatur has sparked<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":37848,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,15,21],"class_list":["post-37847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-decatur","tag-featured","tag-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/North-Ward.jpg?fit=991%2C475&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37847","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\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37847"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37855,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37847\/revisions\/37855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}