Ads, Spanish translations for Aurora newsletter?
Advertising could be coming to the Aurora Borealis if the city council approves a three-year contract for publishing the city’s quarterly newsletter.
Under a proposed $30,936 contract with The Strathmore Company of Geneva, the company would handle all aspects of selling, designing and invoicing ads, while the city would receive a percentage of advertising revenues, city spokesman Dan Ferrelli said.
But what kind of advertisements would be allowed in the newsletter was a question on the minds of many aldermen, including Lynda Elmore.
Political ads wouldn’t be appropriate, Alderman Rick Lawrence said. And Alderman John “Whitey” Peters said he doesn’t see ads for Naperville’s Ribfest or tattoo parlors as appropriate for Aurora’s city-sponsored publication.
An advertising policy that would govern what type of promotions the Borealis would accept is being developed, Ferrelli said.
During the council’s first discussions of the contract Tuesday, aldermen also discussed the possibility of printing the newsletter in Spanish as well as English. Alderman Stephanie Kifowit said printing the newsletter only in English may be “disingenuous” to the 41 percent of Aurora residents who are Hispanic, according to the 2010 census.
But Lawrence said it’s possible many of those Hispanic residents read and speak English.
“We’re assuming they don’t speak English,” Lawrence said. “That assumption is stereotypical.”
Even if many Hispanic residents are competent or fluent in English, there remains a percentage of Aurora’s Hispanic population that only speaks Spanish, Alderman Juany Garza said.
Garza said she and Kifowit make an effort to provide translated information to Spanish-speaking residents of their wards.
“We understand not everyone reads English,” Garza said. “I also understand it would cost more money” to translate the Aurora Borealis into Spanish, she said.
Aldermen could contribute some of their ward funds to the help with translation costs, Garza suggested. Or, translations could be posted online.
Aldermen will vote on the printing contract Oct. 25.