By Jason Crane
At the Aurora city government Committee of the Whole (COW) meeting Tuesday, March 1, Council members discussed a proposed amendment to the code of ordinances pertaining to the licensure of retailers engaged in the business of selling certain vapor and alternate tobacco and nicotine products.
Discussions centered around how much regulation is needed for retailers who sell these products.
Mayor of Aurora, Richard Irvin said, “It’s probably an intelligent thing for us to consider how we regulate how a potential store like this would come into the City.
“We’ve done it for so many projects. We did it for cannabis. We decided that we only want five cannabis locations. We are the second largest city in the State with close to 200,000 people.
“We’ve decided, even though we’re 45 square miles, we’re only going to have five cannabis shops here in the city of Aurora. We as a Council decided that because we want to do smart economic development and get the best bang for our buck and for revenues and make sure we spread it apart so it affected us the best way.
“Let’s make sure that we distance these shops enough to get the best bang for our buck. To protect our children. To make sure that we don’t have an over saturation of vape shops because if we allow it, it will happen! Just like if we allowed liquor stores on every corner, it would happen!”
The agenda item was placed on unfinished business for possible further discussion at the full City Council meeting Tuesday, March 8.
• There weren’t any individuals seeking to use their voices for up to three minutes each.
The City Council gave consent to the following agenda items likely to be placed on the full City Council agenda Tuesday, March 8:
• Consent was given to a Resolution authorizing the appointment of Yolanda Stovall to the African American Heritage Advisory Board.
City government of Aurora documents show in June 2021, the City Council approved changes to Chapter 2, which included a sunset provision for all board/commission members. The sunset was included to bring the board/commission terms into compliance with the new dates provided in the ordinance, as well as survey members if they wished to continue to serve or step down.
The nomination brought forth represents a new candidate, a candidate of Ward 9.
• Consent was given to a Resolution authorizing the appointment of members to the Mayor’s Sustainable Aurora Advisory Board. They are: Adam Kittler, Rahman Khan Vena Mohamed, and Kevin O’Neil.
City government of Aurora documents show the nomination brought forth represents three new candidates, from Wards 7 and 10.
• Consent was given to a resolution requesting approval to utilize funds for Hinsdale-based TinkRworks LLC, for delivery of top-tier Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics (STEAM) training to 1,600 of Aurora’s underserved youth in an amount not to exceed $300,000.00.
City government of Aurora documents show TinkRworks is a provider of K-8 STEAM projects designed to allow students to foster a love of creating, enhance problem-solving skills, reinforce, and expand on concepts and ideas taught in schools, inspire curiosity, and encourage self-expression.
The purpose of this resolution is to continue and expand upon the continued partnership between APS Training Institute (“APS”), city of Aurora and TinkRworks that has enabled the successful implementation of top-tier STEAM curriculum supporting the delivery of highly-valuable, integrated, STEAM experiences to the students of the city of Aurora.
The implementation of leading-edge TinkRworks STEAM learning will allow City of Aurora students to develop and hone core 21st Century skillsets while bringing to life foundational elements of the APS mission of being committed to the highest standards of academic excellence, providing a high-quality education while developing the knowledge, values, attitudes, and skills essential for the unique challenges of the 21st Century and beyond.
An expanded program has been outlined for the 2022 calendar year in order to ensure continued engagement with children in the city of Aurora and capitalize on their high interest in the field of STEAM. The goal is to provide further accessibility to children who have not yet had the opportunity to participate in the STEAM program,
Specifically, to achieve the goal of accessibility and continuity of education, TinkRworks in partnership with APS Training Institute, proposes to expand the city of Aurora’s STEAM Enrichment Program to 1,600 student projects from current scope of 635. It will enable students from Grades K-8 (and potentially even through grade 9) to participate in year-long STEAM programming, held in four quarterly sessions (one project per student per session). The program would start this year.
Participation in this programming will help students be able to dive deeply into various aspects of science and technology, and build strong problem solving and critical thinking skills.
Students will have the unique opportunity to register for all four sessions when registration opens or alternatively, students may also register for single courses or a set of multiple courses at the point-at-time of registration. Thus, a single student may register up-front for all four courses available to them or they may instead, perform a “drop in” type of strategy where they may register for courses of interest and availability to them, then skip a session, and then register for another course or any combination thereof. Registration in this manner allows for enhanced planning for all parties involved (TinkRworks, APS, and city of Aurora) and will also provide greater flexibility to both students and parents.
The proposal for the year-long STEAM program will cost $300,000 which covers the cost of the earlier-mentioned 1,600 student kits as well as the implementation packs for each classroom project. These implementation packs contain all classroom supplies & materials needed for facilitators to deliver curriculum and projects to City of Aurora students. This cost does not include any facilitation cost to train APS facilitators; training and support costs are outside of the scope of this document and are handled directly between TinkRworks and APS. Explicitly, city of Aurora does not bear any costs related to facilitation or support.
City of Aurora, TinkRworks, and APS will all be working in concert to provide superlative enrichment opportunities to city of Aurora youth. In doing so, each party has key responsibilities, as outlined below:
- TinkRworks: Provide leading-edge STEAM programming opportunities to city of Aurora students. To facilitate this, TinkRworks will provide both projects and training around STEAM projects to APS facilitators.
- APS: Provide superlative facilitation to City of Aurora students with TinkRworks content, both in terms of projects and curriculum. APS will also provide some of the safe venues where city of Aurora students will go to receive STEAM programming.
- City of Aurora: Provide a base of excited and eager students to receive leading-edge STEAM programming. City of Aurora will also provide marketing efforts, infrastructure (e.g., Wi-Fi), and safe venues where children may receive STEAM programming.
• Final approval for items on the consent agenda are set to be made at the March 8 Aurora City Council meeting.