North Aurora officials OK smaller festival
North Aurora Days will happen this year, but with a smaller budget than previous years.
The North Aurora village board Monday informally agreed to give $40,000 from tourism funds for the two-day party. Last year, the village budgeted $46,070. The festival took in only $18,070, not including beer sales.
Trustees also gave advice on what they thought could be cut from the Aug. 7-8 event to save a few bucks.
Trustee Mike Herlihy suggested hiring lesser-priced, lesser-known bands. Trustee Vince Mancini suggested dropping the Friday night DJ and just having a band that night. It was also suggested having just one band on Saturday night, or a band and a DJ, as DJs usually are less expensive than bands.
Trustee Mark Gaffino, the board's liaison to the North Aurora Days committee, said the committee will cut its fireworks budget by one-third - to $5,000 - and hopes that it will get the same bang for its buck from contractors hungry for work in this recession.
The board also discussed charging admission of $1 per person, but noted more volunteers would be needed to collect it. Others suggested a cover charge to enter the beer tent - with the money used to pay for the music - but Village President Dale Berman said he didn't know if it was fair to put the burden of the entertainment costs on the drinkers.
Mancini suggested that, instead of turning all the beer tent proceeds over to the service organizations that run it, the village keep the first $5,000. But Trustee Chris Faber worried that could scare off the service club members who do much of the volunteer work at the festival. Besides handling the beer tent, people from the Lions Club, the North Aurora Mothers Club and others help with festival setup and cleanup.
"Without them, you wouldn't have a festival," he said.
Gaffino said the committee will have a Web site running soon, northauroradays.com, where people can donate money. It plans to offer "family sponsorships" as low as $10, with people receiving thank-you gifts such as hats. He also agreed with Berman that the committee needs to work harder at getting businesses to sponsor some of the activities; sponsorships have declined for several years.
The festival will once again be held in the Clock Tower Plaza shopping center parking lot at Randall Road and Oak Street.
In other festival-related news, Berman announced the village will again join with Aurora to present Fourth of July fireworks. North Aurora will pay Aurora $6,000 and provide police protection. Shuttle buses will take viewers from parking lots at Woodman's Supermarket on Orchard Road south to the Illinois Math and Science Academy grounds, where the show will be held.