City administrator receives pay raise
The Aurora City Council offered financial support to a Grand Island-based crisis center last week after hearing that Willow Rising Inc. has seen quadruple requests for services in Hamilton County during the past year alone.
Teshawna Sawyer, executive director at the nonprofit Willow Rising organization, requested and received $4,000 from the city, the same amount provided last year. She said the funds are appreciated, and needed, as the requests for services from victims of domestic violence and sexual assault increase.
“From January 2023 to December 2023 we saw seven people from this county and so far this year we’ve seen 28,” she told the council during a brief meeting June 25.
Sawyer noted that a Willow Rising staff member was part of the Leadership Aurora class, which might have helped improve awareness of the services available.
“We’ve just done some things differently to get better known in the community,” she said, “so hopefully that’s helping people feel safe and wanting to come to our center. We’re also going to start doing more outreach here and would like to do a support group here and we would like the city’s support.”
Willow Rising’s commitment to supporting victims of domestic violence and sexual assault extends beyond immediate crisis intervention, Sawyer explained in a letter distributed to the council.
“Our mission encompasses a comprehensive approach to empowerment, education, training and support for all individuals affected by interpersonal violence,” she said in the letter. “We firmly believe that by addressing the root causes and consequences of violence, we can create lasting change and build a safer, more resilient community.”
Sawyer noted that when victims come to Willow Rising they often arrive with few if any possessions.
“Not everybody leaves, but the people who do leave usually come with nothing, so they don’t have their clothes, toothbrush or toothpaste,” she said. “We provide them with everything from pillows to blankets and just everything that you would possibly need. We try to do whatever is possible so that we can give them some sort of normalcy.”
For more information on Willow Rising, go to www.willowrising.org.
In other business, the council approved a 2.65 percent salary increase for City Administrator Rick Melcher. That annual adjustment, which was approved unanimously, boosts his salary $4,650 to $180,169.
“That is consistent with the type of percentage the school talked about, so we think it’s reflective of the salary adjustments in the community,” Mayor Marlin Seeman said after the unanimous vote.
The council also approved a $279,280 change order in the Streeter 6th construction project. (See related story above)