Ë®¹ûÅÉAV

Local elected officials have been working diligently — as they should — to come up with a comprehensive plan for the overall reuse of the campus. The Aurora Board of Trustees has formally requested that the campus remain whole rather be parceled off. At the same time, a wide variety of individuals and recently established groups are making the case for their own priorities.

Many remain hopeful that Peachtown Elementary School will be able to continue operating on the campus. Others are primarily concerned about the fate of the Community Medical Center on campus. Meanwhile, a petition has been launched in support of the college properties being turned over to the Cayuga Nation, which traces its roots to the area long before the college came along in 1868.

At this point, even people in the know aren't 100% confident of how things are going to play out.

Kevin Fitzgerald and Brian Dugan, operators of the college golf course, plan to buy the club under a lease agreement that includes that option. But they acknowledge the plan is now somewhat tenuous.

"It's gotten a bit more complex with the closure of Wells," Fitzgerald said. "But we remain hopeful that everything will fall in line."

The state attorney general's office and Education Department, however, will likely be the most influential decision-makers in the end. So it's vital that stakeholders in Aurora and beyond work closely with those agencies. It would be especially helpful for the public to hear directly from some of those people in Albany about what can be expected to take place.

That's why we encourage the state to send representatives to Aurora for a public presentation regarding the potential future uses of the campus. With such a significant physical and spiritual piece of the village leaving after more than 150 years, there needs to be as much communication as possible about what comes next.