{"id":40955,"date":"2026-10-09T15:23:47","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T19:23:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=40955"},"modified":"2026-10-09T15:23:49","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T19:23:49","slug":"s-ward-drive-at-halfway-4-weeks-remain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/09\/s-ward-drive-at-halfway-4-weeks-remain\/","title":{"rendered":"S. Ward drive at halfway; 4 weeks remain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The campaign to completely revamp South Ward Park in Decatur is halfway toward its goal, city Park Superintendent Cara Gerber reported at Tuesday night&#8217;s city council meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As of that day, $23,500 had been secured from 23 patrons, Gerber said, and she had pledges for two more donations of $1,000 each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When that report was given, however, only four weeks remained in the fundraising drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"624\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Playground.jpg?resize=624%2C169&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-40956\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Playground.jpg?w=624&amp;ssl=1 624w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Playground.jpg?resize=300%2C81&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 624px) 100vw, 624px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Artist&#8217;s concept of new South Ward park<br><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nov. 3 is the deadline to raise $50,000 to be used to match a $50,000 grant offered by CreatINg Places, a program of the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If the match is secured, $100,000 would be available to replace aging equipment and transform South Ward Park into Adams County\u2019s first-ever, all-inclusive turf park, designed to be fully ADA accessible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mayor Dan Rickord said at the meeting that he was part of a city group which recently traveled to Mishawaka to view an all-inclusive park there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt was for all kids, it was a cool thing, a great thing,\u201d he exclaimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cCara came up with the idea (for such a park) all on her own.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Plans for the park include a universally designed playground with accessible and sensory-focused play opportunities, a toddler play structure, improved sidewalks and accessibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To donate or learn more about the South Ward Park project, visit: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.patronicity.com\/southwardpark\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.patronicity.com\/<wbr>southwardpark<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com The campaign to completely revamp South Ward Park in Decatur is halfway toward its<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":40956,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_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-40955","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\/10\/Playground.jpg?fit=624%2C169&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40955","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=40955"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40957,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40955\/revisions\/40957"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}