The Aurora City Council is set to approve a $56 million bond issue to fund capital and economic development projects, and refinance existing bond issues.
The Aurora City Council, meeting this week as a Committee of the Whole, agreed to put the issue on the consent agenda for the April 26 regular council meeting.
Officials have said the bond issue would not be paid by any additional property taxes. Chris Minick, the city’s chief financial officer, has said the city would pay the bonds with other revenue, and abate the tax levy for this issue.
Generally speaking, the bonds would pay for about $16 million in 22 capital projects already budgeted in 2022; about $21.5 million in refinancing three existing bond issues; and about $12.2 million in payments the city is committed to involving economic development projects in 2022.
The remainder of the money raised would pay for the issuance of the bonds.
The economic development projects involved include money due on some of the bigger redevelopments going on throughout the city, including the Hobbs Building, the Craft Urban building, the Terminal Building, the Keystone Building and the former West Aurora School District Administration Building at 80 S. River St.
It also includes $3 million to DAC Developments, which is building the apartment complex along North Broadway on the east bank of the Fox River downtown, and $5 million toward work along Bilter Road, where the city bought and tore down five properties.
The biggest capital projects and the money budgeted toward them include: $7.5 million toward the combined maintenance facility; $1 million toward building Fire Station Number 13; $1.8 million toward relocating Fire Station Number 4; $1.8 million toward buying a ladder truck; and $500,000 for improvements to the Stolp Island parking deck.
There are also a number of smaller projects in the capital projects list, some of which were previously budgeted but delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Two of those in downtown include fixing the currently closed stairs from the bike path up to New York Street, next to Ballydoyle, and repairing the brick promenade along the Fox River, next to the Paramount Theatre.
The existing bond issues to be refinanced would be the 2012 and 2013 bonds issued to help build the new Aurora Public Library, at River and Benton streets.
Minick has said the new bond issue would be capped at $56 million, but the city will not know exactly how much it will be until the bonds are actually sold.
