GROWTH MODE: Aurora’s recession ends as city plans to spend, hire

AURORA | As a local sign that the region has climbed out of the country’s long recession, Aurora city government is beginning to grow and spend more money.

For the second year in a row, Aurora’s proposed 2015 budget won’t include any cuts to services or programs. To keep up with Colorado’s third largest city, the budget aims to increase the number of city staff, as well as expand police, fire, and recreation services.

At a city council meeting Monday residents urged council to approve a $9 million plan to expand  Moorhead Recreation Center in northwest Aurora as part of the 2015 budget. The majority of that money would come from $6.8 million from Conservation Trust Fund lottery dollars rolled into the $1 million in seed money allotted by council to Moorhead as part of last year’s budget.

“Moorhead to me means a place to go  during the summer when my parents are at work. I get to do what I love, play sports,” said Davion Henderson, an Aurora fourth grader who participated in basketball tournaments at the recreation center over the summer. “Moorhead just needs to be bigger. A full-court gym means a place kids my size can play year-round when teenagers and grownups hog the other courts.”

Henderson was one of the 30 residents who showed up at council chambers in support of expanding the decades-old northwest Aurora rec center  from 5,000 square feet to a full-fledge recreation center at 30,000 square feet.

The 2015 proposed budget for the general fund is $291 million, up 7.9 percent from 2013 budget of $269.8 million. The budget is higher partly because this year, like last year, saw an increase in auto sales taxes.

For 2015,  council is focusing on 13 projects that total $14 million dollars. Those project include putting $419,000 toward a reinvigorated Sister Cities program, extending Sixth Avenue to E-470 for $5.7 million, and creating transit-oriented development around the nine light rail stops planned for Aurora at a cost of $2.4 million.

The budget also includes a 3.75 percent average pay increase for city employees at a cost of $6.4 million, and new full-time employees for police, fire, and parks departments. Last year, city staff saw a 1.5 percent pay increase at a cost $2.3 million.

The city plans to hire the most new employees in the police department, with seven new police officers at $723,300 and six civilian employees at $784,100.

It plans to hire five full-time employees for two new fire medical service units at $600,000,  and  four additional firefighters at a cost of $268,500.  Parks, Recreation, and Open Space will add five new employees for a cost $325,000.

A study session for the 2015 proposed budget will be held on Sept. 10 in the Aurora Room at the Aurora Municipal Center at 5:00 p.m. The public is welcome to attend.

The proposed budget can be viewed here.