North Aurora hopefuls want new activity center, convention center
Village trustees have to deal with routine matters week in and week out. Hire somebody to paint the water towers. Decide whether a restaurant can serve liquor. Debate the merits of instituting paperless utility billing.
But leadership calls for vision, too.
The Daily Herald asked candidates for the North Aurora village board what is their one good idea that nobody else is talking about for improving the village.
The candidates are incumbents Laura Curtis, Mark Guethle and Mark Carroll; and Anise Hesson and Allen Cavender. Their answers came from an endorsement interview and questionnaires, except for Cavender, who did not attend the interview.
Curtis said the village should get the North Aurora fire district to move its east side station from State and Monroe streets on the riverfront, to a site on Route 31 across from the police station. Doing so would enable the current station's land to be combined with the now-vacant land next to it where the activity center stood. The combination would create a large parcel with a river view that she thinks developers would find attractive. And a nice development on that corner would approve the appearance of that portion of Route 31, she said.
"I'm more of a small-time thinker," Hesson said. She wants the village to build a replacement activity center for family-oriented activities. "We really lost a lot losing the center," she said. The center, a former elementary school, hosted recreational sports and Friday night parties for children in middle school. It also leased space to a commercial preschool.
Carroll also cited an activity center. "It does not have to be anything fancy, but I would like to see something with a gym available to North Aurora residents as well as a multipurpose room that could be rented out to civic groups and individuals for events," he said.
Guethle said that he wants the village to work on getting a convention center. "I think this is a big need for our region, as a convention center would create employment opportunities and add revenue to the village," Guethle said. Hotels in Aurora are too small for this, he believes. Curtis and Carroll also said a convention center should be sought.
Guethle and Curtis also said the village should build a community center, but not where the old one stood. "It (the corner) could be better used with retail or commercial development," Guethle said.
Carroll said the "climate" of the current board is "friendly to business." Paying for the demolition of the North Aurora Activity Center, rather than making a developer do it, indicated that, he said.
Carroll also said that it isn't fair to compare North Aurora's downtown to those of the Tri-Cities, with their historic buildings. "We don't have that. That's not us," he said. But removal of the dam might enable the village to put in activities on the riverfront that would attract visitors, he said.
Curtis was the only trustee to vote against a state study of removing the dam.
Hesson was candid when asked about improving downtown North Aurora, along Route 31. "I know 31 has been a thorn in everyone's side and I do not know how to fix it," she said. She said she sees "a lot of potential" in empty buildings and sites, such as a shuttered bowling alley, a closed office building and the corner where the activity center stood.
She also favors keeping the dam. "I like the dam. It is one of the reasons I moved out here. It has character," Hesson said.
On the questionnaire, when asked for a good idea for the town, Cavender said he liked the volunteer spirit behind the North Aurora Days festival, but thought that some people serving on its organizing committee had "an air of entitlement" and were serving only to get a preferred parking space at the event.
Cavender said that he would work to repeal the village's utility taxes. He said that he was displeased with how the village board handled notification of nearby residents when a gravel mine increased its operations, and would work to improve how the board communicates such issues to people, even if it meant he had to go door to door to do so. For a question about whether he was satisfied with police service, he indicated that he was unhappy about the police department's response to a dispute he had with a neighbor.