VILLAGE OF NORTH AURORA
COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MEETING MINUTES
Monday, April 1, 2024
CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Gaffino called the meeting to order.
ROLL CALL
In attendance: Mayor Mark Gaffino, Trustee Jason Christiansen, Trustee Mark Guethle, Trustee Todd Niedzwiedz, Trustee Carolyn Salazar
Staff in attendance: Village Administrator Steve Bosco, Finance Director Jason Paprocki, Community Development Director Nathan Darga, Village Attorney Kevin Drendel, Public Works Director Brian Richter, Police Chief Joe DeLeo.
AUDIENCE COMMENTS – None
TRUSTEE COMMENTS – None
DISCUSSION
- 2024-2025 Strategic Plan
Administrator Bosco explained that the Village Trustees and staff attended a workshop in January to update the Village’s Strategic Plan. The evening’s agenda item was to go through the revised draft. Bosco stated that he would do that by going through the plan, goal by goal and highlight some action steps and objectives that were new.
The first item Administrator Bosco addressed was the new objective of continuing to identify ways to promote the community’s identity. The Action Plan for this included identifying areas to display new banners throughout the community, continuing to incorporate the Village’s logo and tagline where appropriate, and creating a new police patch as well as identifying places to display the patch in marketing efforts. This also could include placement on new squad cars.
Bosco spoke about the ongoing issue of establishing a dog park in the community. He stated that the Village has the presence of three different park districts, including the Fox Valley Park District as well as the Batavia and Sugar Grove Park Districts. The action plan was to continue working with the park districts to establish a dog park. The Fox Valley Park District had indicated that they would like to move forward with a dog park soon. They had already started preliminary site visits of locations they view as viable.
The next goal Bosco spoke about was economic development. He stated that one of the Village’s new objectives was to foster growth on vacant properties, subdivision and future annexed lands. With the creation of a new Economic Development position, the Village was drafting a completely new strategy on how it looks at economic development. The Village was looking at marketing vacant properties and working with residential developers to complete unfinished and undeveloped subdivisions. The Village also plans on focusing on future annexed lands which includes areas where boundary line agreements established in recent years with Aurora, Sugar Grove and Batavia.
Another objective under the Economic Growth goal was to facilitate economic and business development activities. This included the action plan to create an Economic Development Plan that incorporates incentive policies, marketing properties and ways to enhance development. Bosco explained that this Economic Development Plan will take into account the feedback given by the Village Board in regard to what they see as appropriate for the community.
The next goal was Efficient and Effective Delivery of Core Services. One of the new objectives within this goal was to continue efforts to attract and retain employees. Bosco explained that the Village Board had already put forth effort to make the Village more competitive in regard to wages and benefits.
Another objective within this goal was to enhance resident communication options and methods to improve information distribution channels internally and externally for Village services and activities. Bosco stated that this was not exclusive to social media, this also addressed the way the Village operates with residents. The Village would be seeking to automate more things and become easier for residents to navigate necessary interactions, such as permitting and payments.
Bosco also mentioned the initiative to construct a new community informational sign in a more centralized location.
Under the goal of continue maintenance and capital resource planning for village infrastructure, and the objective of stabilizing existing water supply and storage, the action item was updated to eliminate the 750,000 gallon aspect of a third water storage tower due to the multiple changes in the proposed water tanks capacity. It will now read “build a third water storage tower”, because staff knows that the Village will need a third tower regardless of size. A million gallon tower was currently being designed, however the capacity could go up to 1.25 million.
The final goal Administrator Bosco spoke about was revitalizing the Route 31 corridor and creating a community focal point. He spoke about the efforts made to create a community place of gathering along the riverfront. In an effort to drive that, the objective of exploring redevelopment options to create a focal point of the Route 31 corridor between John and Oak Streets and between Route 31 and Route 25 was created. Bosco spoke about TIF funding and creative ways to make the action plan items such as burying power lines and creating pedestrian friendly accommodations happen.
An additional objective was to evaluate the removal of the Fox River Dam. The Village had been working with the IDNR for several years on the potential of removing the dam, with each step of the process taking several months. Bosco explained how the process had been and how he anticipates it will be moving forward involving the residents and the Fox Valley Park district who owns the shoreline along the river, to ensure a restoration plan should the dam be removed.
Under the same goal regarding the revitalizing of the Route 31 corridor, Administrator Bosco spoke about an action item of the Village to explore opportunities to acquire properties that may be available but do not necessarily have a good redevelopment reuse to create parking opportunities along the river, the Village’s focal point.
Bosco then spoke about the roads throughout the focal point, Routes 31, 56 and 25 being state roads and being under the jurisdiction of IDOT. The action items of evaluating possible road reconfiguration on Route 31 to address lane width, evaluating safety options for State Street, as well as maintenance and infrastructure issues are subject to IDOT approval.
The Village Board expressed approval of amendments and additions to the Strategic Plan.
Mayor Gaffino spoke about making improvements to the Village’s Veterans Memorial. He suggested forming a committee to make suggestions for enhancements to the site.
There was discussion regarding the addition of signage at Oak and Willow Way as well as John St and Route 31 to alert people of the memorial. There was concern expressed about the number of unrelated signs at the corner of Oak and Willow Way and the suggestion that the messaging might be lost.
Administrator Bosco spoke about adding a placeholder for enhancements into the upcoming budget review. He also suggested adding an objective or action step to the Strategic Plan under the Community Vitality goal, to make enhancing the Veterans Memorial a goal for the Village Board.
The Village Board was in agreement to add the item to the Strategic Plan.
Administrator Bosco suggested a social media marketing campaign to alert residents of the Veterans Memorial and increase interest in the park.
Mayor Gaffino suggested involving Teska in the enhancement of the park. Administrator Bosco suggested adding the action item of working with landscape design architect on a concept for updating the Veterans Memorial.
Administrator Bosco spoke about the Lions Club’s efforts to acquire a piece of decommissioned military equipment for the park.
EXECUTIVE SESSION –
- Review of the Executive Session Minutes Dated 10/16/2023 Part 1, 10/16/2023 Part 2, 10/16/2023 Part 3, 12/18/2023
- Review of the Release of Executive Session Minutes
- Land Acquisition/Sale of Property
ADJOURNMENT TO EXECUTIVE SESSION
Motion to adjourn to Executive Session made by Trustee Salazar and seconded by Trustee Christiansen. All in favor. Motion approved.
RETUREN FROM EXECUTIVE SESSION
CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Gaffino called the meeting to order.
ROLL CALL
In attendance: Mayor Mark Gaffino, Trustee Jason Christiansen, Trustee Mark Guethle, Trustee Todd Niedzwiedz, Trustee Carolyn Salazar
Staff in attendance: Village Administrator Steve Bosco, Community Development Director Nathan Darga, Finance Director Paprocki, Police Chief Joe DeLeo, Village Attorney Kevin Drendel
Motion to adjourn made by Trustee Niedzwiedz and seconded by Trustee Guethle. All in favor. Motion approved.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jessi Watkins
Village Clerk
