Senior general manager of the Fox Valley Mall, Scott Samson, offers an explanation at Tuesday afternoon’s Aurora mayor’s media briefing about the Mall being host to the State of the City Tuesday, March 3 at 6 p.m.. Free tickets for the event will be given Monday, Feb. 10 at noon on the City’s website. A limited number of tickets will be sold for the seating area and standing room only is available surrounding the Mall’s new 13,000-square-foot Center Park. In 2018 the State of the City was at the Paramount Theatre, 2019 was at Aurora University, this year will be on the far East Side at the recently-renovated Center Park at the Fox Valley Mall. Mayor of Aurora, Richard Irvin, left, presented the 3 “R”s: Renewal, redevelopment, and revival. Heading into the fourth year of his first term, mayor Irvin said he will reveal what the fourth “R” is at the State of the City. Right is Sherman Jenkins, Quad County African American Chamber of Commerce; Karina Garcia, Aurora Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; and Jessica Linder Gallo, Aurora Regional Chamber of Commerce. Jason Crane/The VoiceMayor of Aurora, Richard Irvin, applauds three city of Aurora government employees for their work as mentors at Tuesday afternoon’s Aurora mayor’s media briefing. Nick Thompson, Communications coordinator; Simon Rodriguez, Youth Services manager; and Denzel Lee, Information Technology support, agreed to donate two lunch hours per month to meet with 7th grade boys at a middle school in Aurora. In Irvin’s media briefing December 3, 2019, he issued a call to the community to make mentoring our youth a priority. Speaking in response to a series of tragic events where young Aurorans lost their lives due to senseless gun violence, the mayor renewed the city government’s commitment to mentoring. Mayor Irvin said the City has been promoting five mentoring groups and realized there are approximately 50 mentoring groups. He said the city government is producing a specific promotional rack card for mentoring leadership development programs to encourage help from community members. He said the city government will reveal the rack card and website dedicated to provide resources. Jason Crane/The Voice
