As a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, all programming at the Aurora Township Youth Center will cease indefinitely. In addition, the Supervisor’s office has reverted back to being open to the public by appointment only.
The move to close the Youth Center temporarily comes one day after the Illinois Department of Health added Kane County to its watch list today. This designation occurs when two of the six metrics identified by the State reach the warning level. For Kane County, the two measures that were above the set threshold include the new case rate and number of deaths.
Upon the recommendation of township Supervisor Bill Catching, the Aurora Township Board of Trustees voted Thursday to furlough 12 Youth Center employees – four full-time employees and eight part-time employees.
“It was a difficult and painful decision, but our top priority has to be the safety of our employees and the public,” Catching said. “We ran a smaller and shorter summer camp this year and still had to end a week earlier because of COVID-19 concerns.”
“I anticipate that the Youth Center will re-open around the same time that our local public school districts resume partial in-person instruction.”
Located at 313 Gale Street in Aurora, the Aurora Township Youth Center normally offers soccer, martial arts, basketball and aerobics as well as chess. It also offered delinquency prevention programs such as anger management.
The Board of Trustees will continue to meet at the Youth Center but that will be the only time that the building will be open to the public.
