To fund the construction of one new fire station and upgrade two more, voters in Aurora will be confronted in the November election with a series of three bond proposals worth a total of $264 million.
The bond proposals, appearing on city ballots as the result of a vote by the Aurora City Council in June, is part of a larger initiative called Build Up Aurora, which was launched more than two years ago and is designed to take a holistic look at the things that need to be improved in the state’s third largest city.
The bond proposals will be broken up into three categories with $52 million proposed for public safety projects. In that category is the fire station work, which includes funding for the upgrades of Fire Stations 2 and 3, as well as the building of a new Fire Station 19.
Fire Stations 2 and 3 are located at 12600 Hoffman Boulevard and 3172 Peoria Street, respectively. The new fire station will be built in what has been characterized as the underserved communities of Blackstone and Southshore on the south side of the city.
The $52 million will also go for general capital improvements at all the city’s fire stations, as well as improvements to facilities belonging to the Aurora Police Department.
Although earlier bond proposals have been rejected by Aurora voters, a large $1 billion bond to build three new schools proved successful at the polls two years ago, winning with more than 73% of the vote.
A task force for the Build Up Aurora initiative, during a two-year public input process, identified upwards of $2 billion in capital needs for the city.
August 6, 2026
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
