Many items fill this page, which is a reflection of many the activities which rush to cross the bridge prior to and following Labor Day. It is Labor Day for many who reduce the Summer activities and resume a less hectic pace. Certainly last weekend in Aurora there was a rush with the inaugural City of Lights Ukulele Festival Sunday. The sponsors were pleased with its success and vowed to make next year’s event build to better things on this year’s start.
The open mic in the former Culture Stock Book Store on the Water Street Mall was the site for approximately 25 performers. The renovated Water Street Mall was the site for Saturday’s Alley Art Fest which was a crowded success much of the day.
The Naperville Jaycees Last Fling will run four days, Friday through Monday’s Labor Day. The Labor Day parade is filled with Summer’s last-gasp attitude.
A collection of many important and perhaps no-so important items offer these revelations and reverie with increased activities evident in election cycles, especially with November 6 elections:
• The DuPage County Board voted unanimously August 14 to put three tax-related referendum question on the November General Election ballot, to include an opposition to the General Assembly’s putting a property tax equivalent to one percent of home owners’ value to help retire State debt; should the County oppose creation of a statewide Vehicle Mileage Tax (VMT), and should the County continue to dissolve and consolidate units of community government to reduce costs, increase efficiencies, and increase accountability? Important items not to be taken lightly. We are responsible for our communities’ government.
• Montgomery Village Hall has candidates’ packets for petitions which can be processed November 19-21 and November 26 in advance of the February 26, 2019 Consolidated Primary Election for Village trustees.
• Will County will hold its Consolidated Election April 2, 2019 and candidates can view related information now. Both Aurora and Naperville dip into parts of Will County. With the closing of the Aurora Election Commission, Will County and Kane County have added responsibilities. DuPage County residents of Aurora, approximately 25% of Aurora, continue to be served by the DuPage Election Commission. The Kane County Clerk’s satellite office in Aurora, at Downer Place just west of Stolp Avenue, is continuing to find ways to serve the public.
• The Aurora Art League will hold its 60th annual Members Show Friday and Saturday, September 7-8, at the Santori Public Library of Aurora.
• Caterpillar, Inc. of Montgomery continues to have its closing date pushed back. Once it was at the end of 2018 and sources think it may to be closer to November 2019, primarily because of the demand to build Large Wheel Loaders, a heavy equipment machine. The facility, once home to 5,000 employees is down to less than 500 in the shop now. Some of the product has been sent to the Caterpillar plant in North Little Rock, Ark.
• The new arch over the entrance to the football field at East Aurora High School, which played its opening game of the season there Friday, recently added the name Ellsworth Hill Stadium. If you look just right through the opening in the arch above the entrance gates, visible is the scoreboard which reads Roy E. Davis Field. Some concerned citizens were skeptical that the name Roy E. Davis Field would not be kept. Ellsworth Hill was a student athlete at East Aurora many decades ago and the name was paid for by a son in a nice tribute to his father.
• The West Aurora High School Board likely will vote Tuesday after Labor Day to move to the Southwest Prairie Conference, or, stay in the Upstate Eight Conference.
• Fermilab held its fourth Fermilab Photowalk at its site in Batavia. Winning photos will be entered in the international Global Physics Photowalk.
• The Montgomery Village Board honored the recent Montgomery Fest volunteers for their assistance.
• Representative Keith Wheeler was a guest speaker at the Fox Valley Veterans Breakfast Club Thursday, Aug. 23. The Breakfast Club will receive funds for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PSTD) from Banana Split sales in Aurora. See below for more information.
