Aurora looks at spending $132,000 on Christmas decorations

Aurora city officials are hoping more Christmas decorations will make downtown a holiday destination.

Members of the City Council appear to agree. They put spending $132,000 for holiday decorations on the consent agenda for next week’s regular council meeting. That means it’s likely to pass.

Jason Bauer, Public Works assistant director, said the idea is to attract more people downtown, including the about 150,000 who come to visit Christkindlmarket at RiverEdge Park. That holiday market opens Nov. 17.

“The goal is to expand decorations, and get those people downtown,” Bauer said at this week’s City Council Committee of the Whole meeting.

The council’s Finance Committee has endorsed the idea, and aldermen recently got to see examples of what staff is looking to do, including the 12-foot-tall lighted ornaments planned for the Water Street Mall.

Officials also are looking at displays at open spaces at New York and River streets, in front of the Aurora Regional Fire Museum at Broadway and New York, and a large “Joy” sign on Downer Place across from City Hall, where last year it said “Hope.”

Other decoration ideas include lights wrapped around flagpoles with four-foot-high wreaths and lighted spheres - all supplemented with signs that will show maps of downtown.

Sprinkled throughout the decorations, notably on the Water Street Mall, would be displays that would give people opportunities to shoot photos of family members.

Bauer said about $32,000 of the money would be spent on rentals, and the rest on purchasing permanent displays. The idea is to continue the decorations, and even expand them, year to year.

“We want to roll this out over the next several years,” Bauer said.

Another idea is looking at projecting Christmas images - particularly snowflakes - onto the side of the Leland Tower.

Bauer said the city is talking to B&D Services in Wheeling for rentals and purchases, in part because it is in the Chicago area. Because the company is nearby, it could service and help replace decorations as needed.

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