Board reviews near-final Veterans Memorial design; $504,000 federal grant awarded

At its Sept. 15, 2025 meeting the Village Board reviewed near-final designs for the North Aurora Veterans Memorial and was told the project has a $504,000 federal Community Development Block Grant award and $675,000 set aside in the village capital fund, Steve, a village staff member, said. The board reviewed drawings and renderings from Jody Mariano, a landscape architect with Tesco Associates, and discussed design details, salvage and inscription plans, funding and timing.

The project team described the design as a rebuilt plaza with three memorial walls (north, central and south), expanded paving for accessibility, seating and two shade shelters, interpretive panels for military branches and a new fountain feature. “All those bronze plaques would be salvaged and delivered to staff,” Jody Mariano said, and the design incorporates existing inscriptions from brick pavers into the new wall to preserve donor inscriptions. The design includes boulders with bronze plaques, painted-aluminum flag silhouettes that will hold curved titanium plaques, and space for roughly 400 plaque positions; Mariano said the design can accommodate “just under 400 names” and that about 200 names are on the memorial now.

Staff said the current estimate for the construction and wall features is “over $900,000.” The village has both the $504,000 federal grant and $675,000 in its capital fund; staff said the grant is pending federal release and that staff will finalize quotes and then decide whether to bid the project. The project team also discussed construction sequencing and timing: staff said they hope to have a display or unveiling by Veterans Day and to schedule construction in the spring to avoid winter starts that require stopping work.

Design and maintenance details drew board questions. Mariano described the proposed fountain as a fixed granite sphere etched with a world map and said it will be a treated, flow-through system activated by a bollard rather than a continuously recirculating fountain; “It is not recirculating. It is a flow-through system,” she said, adding that the water will be treated to reduce algae and mineral buildup. The design preserves several existing elements — flagpoles, some light poles, and bronze pieces — and will replace others (for example, the current central fountain was deemed unsuitable for reuse).

Board members and the consultant also discussed interpretive possibilities for a remaining undeveloped wall segment, approaches to signage and outreach to draw visitors from nearby Oak Street and Erickson Park, and a long-standing effort to request a piece of artillery for a future phase; staff said the federal disposition process for such equipment is changing and that the village is monitoring the update. No final construction contract or ordinance was approved at the meeting; staff will return with finalized quotes and a bid package for board consideration.