No need to build community center in North Aurora, report says

North Aurora doesn't need its own community center, because there are plenty of places in town where recreational activities could take place, according to a village-commissioned study.

The village board hired Market and Feasibility Advisors of Chicago to determine whether there was a need for a center to replace the North Aurora Activity Center. The center, at State Street and Lincolnway, was closed in 2014 and torn down in 2015.

The consultants interviewed village trustees, representatives of other local governments and members of civic organizations. From that, they determined the groups wanted spaces for meetings, spaces for noisy events (such as Boy Scout Pinewood Derby), spaces for athletics, places to meet over coffee, and spaces for large crowds.

The village had owned the former elementary school since the 1970s. Until 2005, the Fox Valley Park District rented space in it, until it opened the Vaughn Athletic Center in Aurora. After that, the North Aurora Mothers Club and the North Aurora Lions Club rented it occasionally for activities; a day-care center moved in to part of the building; some youth sports teams rented the gymnasium; and a Friday-night middle-school social was held there monthly.

According to the report, sports activities could take place in the gymnasiums at the four elementary schools located in North Aurora, if West Aurora School District 129 is willing to rent them out.

The Messenger Public Library has picked up some of the slack for groups looking for meeting rooms, according to the report. Meetings could also be conducted in the village-board room at Village Hall, or in a room at the police station, the report noted. And the library could handle even more if it were to add about 2,000 square feet, including possibly a coffee-shop space for small, informal meetups, the report said.

The middle-school social hasn't found a new home, but there are talks with the school district about having it at Jewel Middle School in North Aurora. When it was at the NAAC, only about 13 percent of the target audience attended, the report said.

The Lions moved their pancake breakfast to a North Aurora church.

And for large events, there are banquet halls within a stone's throw of North Aurora, including the Pipers Banquets on Butterfield Road in Aurora.

"I can't say I'm surprised," Trustee Laura Curtis said of the results.

Village President Dale Berman said the board would study the report.