advertisement

North Aurora Activity Center may come down sooner than later

The North Aurora Activity Center may be naught but a memory by the end of March, as the village board is inclined to have the village knock it down rather than waiting for a developer to buy the site and do it.

The committee of the whole Monday directed the village administrators to have architects prepare demolition plans for the 83-year-old former school at Lincolnway (Route 31) and State Street.

The only thing they disagreed on was how many of its three parking lots to remove. Trustee Chris Faber argued for removing the south parking lot.

"From the sheer aspect of driving past that and looking at it every day, I would like to see a nice patch of grass rather than an island of grass in a sea of asphalt," Faber said.

Trustee Michael Lowery also favored removing the parking. "Perhaps it's idealistic, but my whole concept of Route 31 is to beautify it," he said. Lowery said a resident suggested a small park could be put there, with a gazebo.

Trustee Mark Gaffino favored keeping all the parking, unless the site went as long as five years without being redeveloped.

Faber shook his head. "It's going to sit blacktop for five years. It's not like developers are knocking on our door with $10 million to redevelop Block 1 right now," Faber said. Block 1 is an area around State, between routes 31 and 56, that village officials would like to redevelop.

But Trustee Laura Curtis said spending the $28,000 to take out the large south lot was unnecessary. Village President Dale Berman said the lots could be used when public events such as the turkey raffle at the next-door fire station happen.

An engineering firm estimated demolition cost, keeping the east and south lots, at $475,773. If a bid is awarded in December or January, asbestos and fuel-tank removal could be done in January and February, and the building could be demolished in February and March.

The village's insurer paid $68,763 for damage to the roof joists earlier this year. The village closed the building in March after determining the winter's heavy snows had caused damaged joists to nearly fail, and a ceiling to collapse.

Village administrator Steven Bosco said the board could arrange to pay the remainder of the demolition costs out of a tax-increment fund, if a TIF district is established for that area.

The village bought the former North Aurora Grade School in the 1970s, according to Berman, for a recreation department. In the 1990s, the village rented the building to the Fox Valley Park District. The park district stopped using it in 2005 when it opened the Vaughan Center in Aurora. The village then rented it to a preschool/day-care center.

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.