{"id":24852,"date":"2019-10-03T19:03:43","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T23:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24852"},"modified":"2019-10-10T18:01:13","modified_gmt":"2019-10-10T22:01:13","slug":"downtown-aurora-to-get-canopy-of-lights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/downtown-aurora-to-get-canopy-of-lights\/","title":{"rendered":"Downtown Aurora to get \u201ccanopy\u201d of lights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new ambience will become the hallmark of Aurora\u2019s\nhistoric downtown core when a \u201ccanopy of lights\u201d is installed over Yonge Street\nfrom Wellington Street in the north to Mosley Street in the south.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council last week approved the latest downtown\nrevitalization project last week, setting an upset limit of $100,000 to make it\na reality, money which will come from reserves set aside for the Aurora\nPromenade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Canopy of Lights initiative was proposed to Council\nby Mayor Tom Mrakas, who said it would not only be a downtown landmark, but a\nway to tell Aurora\u2019s story by \u201cpromoting Aurora\u2019s built heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to his motion, Mayor Mrakas cited the Aurora\nPromenade Plan which is designed to encourage people to explore the Yonge and\nWellington corridors on foot and see it as a gateway \u201cwhere a narrative unfolds\nwith every passing block, telling a story about Aurora\u2019s past, present and\nfuture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is part of that,\u201d said Mayor Mrakas. \u201cI think there\nare many things to come forward within the revitalization of our downtown\nthrough the redevelopment of Library Square. I think with the redevelopment of\nthe Armoury, Niagara College coming in, there are many things that are exciting\nand moving forward within our downtown core area that is going to help with\nrevitalization and I believe this is something that will help encourage and\ncreate a focal point, something that will attract people from not just within\nour community, but also from outside our community, to come into our downtown\ncore and experience it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSometimes you need something unique and this is\nsomething that will bring that uniqueness to the area.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enthusiasm was shared at the podium by Joanne Russo\nof the Downtown Aurora BIA, who delegated to Council in favour of the motion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Canopy of Lights will serve as a physical and\nnoteworthy identification of the historical downtown BIA area and the\nbusinesses that are located there,\u201d said Ms. Russo. \u201cThis will draw the\nattention of residents and consumers who come to the area to enjoy the many\nrestaurants and shops and will help promote the downtown core.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quick to voice their support for the project were\nCouncillors Rachel Gilliland and Sandra Humfryes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Gilliland said that although she had further\nquestions about the operational costs of the Canopy, she had heard from \u201ca lot\u201d\nof local residents who have envisioned something similar and that it would\n\u201cattract a lot of people to come in\u201d to the core with a \u201cwarm, exciting and inviting\u201d\natmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is exciting to me because I have been trying to get\nus to spend some money down in the core,\u201d added Councillor Humfryes. \u201cThis is\njust going to add to the streetscape that we already owe to it to our\ndowntown.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the devil was in the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Mrakas initially proposed November 23 as the date\nto get the Canopy over Yonge Street to coincide with this year\u2019s Santa Under\nthe Stars Parade. Staff offered some concerns that this date would not be\nfeasible if they went through their normal procurement process, so the Mayor\nand Councillor Humfryes moved to waive the Town\u2019s procurement bylaw and sole\nsource the project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This move did not sit well with Councillor John Gallo who\nsaid it was important to stick with the processes already in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would like to know what the rush is if we would be\ngoing down that road,\u201d said Councillor Gallo. \u201cLet\u2019s do it right. I just don\u2019t\nsee the value of speed-tracking this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Wendy Gaertner was on the same wavelength,\nstating that \u201cprocess is very important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI understand the Mayor\u2019s excitement and Council\u2019s\nexcitement to have this ready for the parade, but it seems to me the higher\ngood here is to make sure it is done right, that all the research is done\nright, that staff is satisfied,\u201d she said. \u201cI can\u2019t agree with the amendment. I\nam not really sure we should be rushing this; I really want it to be fantastic\nand it is not a lot of time to ensure that we\u2019re doing it right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHesitation\u201d was also expressed by Councillor Michael\nThompson who said while he thought the Canopy was \u201ca great idea\u201d and he\nsupported the concept, he was concerned that the date was \u201cdriving\u201d the\nprocess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would hate to see shortcuts taken on the design and\ninstallation,\u201d said Councillor Thompson. \u201cThis is something that is going to be\npermanent and hopefully stand the test of time. We want it to be spectacular,\nwe want to get it right. Sixty days to figure out the whole design, figure out\nthe installation and get it done. That\u2019s what\u2019s driving anything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the motion to proceed with the Canopy failed, the\namendment to sole source the project was ultimately voted down by Council and\nit will proceed through the normal channels \u2013 without a firm deadline of when\nit needs to be in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am not opposed to changing the date, I just wanted to\nlight a fire under staff to see if we could get it done by then,\u201d concluded\nMayor Mrakas. \u201cIf it can\u2019t be done, then that\u2019s fine. As we all know, within\ngovernment circles, things tend to take a very, very long time, so sometimes\nyou have to light that fire to get people moving a bit and sometimes I like to\npush the buttons and get people moving a little quicker because that\u2019s how you\nget things done sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new ambience will become the hallmark of Aurora\u2019s historic downtown core when a \u201ccanopy of lights\u201d is installed over Yonge Street from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6sQ","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 20:57:47","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24852\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}