Aurora City Hall. Paige Fisher/The Portager

Aurora City Council approves $55 million budget for 2025

Aurora City Council on Jan. 13 approved its 2025 annual budget, which includes almost $23.2 million in general fund appropriations, $20.4 million of which is reserved for salaries and benefits.

Total appropriations are tallied at almost $55 million, including over $6.76 million for the police department and almost $4.9 million for Aurora’s fire department. The service department is slated to receive $3.2 million; the finance department $1.6 million.

To compare, salaries and benefits rang in at $19.15 million in 2024, with total appropriations of almost $54 million. Figures from 2023 show salaries and benefits of $18,540,970 and total appropriations of almost $51 million.

This year, police salaries and benefits are anticipated to total almost $6.2 million and fire department salaries and benefits are set at almost $4.5 million. Salaries and benefits for the city’s planning, zoning and building department and its engineering department are anticipated at $912,261 and $401,091, respectively.

Salaries and benefits for the service department are set at just over $2 million. The mayor’s department will pull in $609,581 in salaries and benefits, and the legal department can expect $354,385.

Council salaries are set at $12,397 each, with additional stipends for the council president, chairman of its committee of the whole and council’s representative to the planning commission.

Mayor Ann Womer Benjamin’s salary is set at $112,785. Law Director Dean DePiero is set to pull in $161,481, 2% over 2024. Finance Director Tim Clymer’s salary is noted at $157,225 and Public Services Director Harry Stark will make $136,636.

Fire Chief Matthew McBirney will make $128,369, while Police Chief Brian Byard will earn $131,707. Denise Januska, Aurora’s city’s planning, zoning and building director, is slated to make $113,308, while Personnel Director/Chief of Staff Karen Pope will earn $115,411. Parks and Recreation Department Director Laura Holman’s salary is set at $107,760, and Holly Harris Bane, Aurora’s part-time economic development director, will make $61,284, 3% over 2024.

Also on Jan. 13, council members signed two agreements clarifying use of Aurora Memorial Library, located at 115. E. Pioneer Trail.

The city took over the building’s operation from the Library Trust last year. Friends of the Aurora Memorial Library, a long-standing tenant, will pay $600 a year to the city for a lease retroactive to July 1, 2024, through the end of 2025. As landlord, the city will permit the Friends to use two utility closets inside the building’s back door, as well as a closet off the gallery, for storage, at no additional cost.

Monthly book sales will continue in the gallery space, with the Friends giving the city 30 days notice so as to avoid use conflicts.

Council members also signed a lease agreement with the Portage County District Library, clarifying the city’s use of the building at 115 E. Pioneer Trail. Like its agreement with the Friends, the lease is retroactive to July 1, 2024, through the end of this year.

The city will not pay actual rent to the county library system, but will pay 80% of utilities and half the monthly cleaning costs. PCDL will cover the costs of supplies for the library’s four restrooms, but the city will pay for all high-speed internet, telephone and cable television services, if applicable.

The lease is renewable for an additional year, should both parties continue to agree to its terms.

Council also is considering a $198,129 expenditure for annual software and technology purchases from LTech Solutions, Ltd. Finance Director Clymer said the purchases will ensure that the city’s ongoing technology needs are met in a timely manner. The sum includes network infrastructure, workstation hardware, software licensing, server hardware and security and contingency costs for hardware emergencies.

Council will review the matter at its Jan. 27 meeting.

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Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.