Home Care In Aurora, IL

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Two former employees of Laura Ayala-Clarke, the girlfriend of Mayor Richard Irvin of west suburban Aurora, claim she failed to pay them for several weeks of work and isn’t running her business on the up-and-up.

In recent weeks, WTTW News has been reporting on Laura’s Furniture, the company owned by Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin’s girlfriend. The Aurora City Council approved a $10,000 grant to Laura Ayala-Clarke’s furniture business in May, despite the potential conflict of interest. Ayala-Clarke’s company also misrepresented whether it had gotten COVID relief funding in the grant application.

Now, Natalie Offen and Nikolas Rodriguez tell WTTW News they’re still waiting for money she owes them from working at her store during parts of December of last year and this January.

Offen and Rodriguez say they first met Mayor Irvin late last year when Rodriguez invited the mayor to a restaurant Rodriguez promotes on TikTok. They say later on Ayala-Clarke joined them, and the next day Offen went to the furniture store to do Ayala-Clarke’s lashes, which was what Offen did for work at the time – but that the talk quickly turned to Ayala-Clarke looking for help at the store and beyond.

“She basically told us the dream, saying that she was looking for people to run her store and then eventually partner with her in opening another store, and … being able to bring our daughter to work the way that she brought her children to work,” Offen said.

Offen and Rodriguez say they made a verbal agreement they’d each be paid $500 a week, plus commission on anything they sold.

“I thought everything was legit because she’s with the mayor, you know?” Rodriguez said.

But they say despite filling out all the paperwork to get on payroll, they weren’t paid the first week. The second week, they say Ayala-Clarke paid Offen $500 and Rodriguez just $250 with a transfer via Zelle from a personal account – and that was all they ever received, despite working full-time at the store for about a month.

Offen shared extensive text message records repeatedly asking when they’d get paid. Those messages appear to show Ayala-Clarke repeatedly putting them off and eventually responding angrily before telling them to drop their key off and stop coming in.

“It was around Christmas time. We didn’t get everything we wanted to get for her daughter. It was around the time for rent. I reached out to her and let her know that my landlord was going to charge me a late fee,” Offen said. “She just did not seem to care.”

Reached by phone, Ayala-Clarke said she could not comment and that her attorney was handling everything, but that any claims Offen and Rodriguez make about her or her business are not true.

Offen also shared messages she sent to Irvin asking about the issue. They appear to show Irvin saying that as mayor, he has too much on his plate to get involved.

Offen and Rodriguez also charged Ayala-Clarke with failing to pay them in a complaint to the Illinois Department of Labor. A spokesperson told WTTW News the department can’t comment because it’s an open and active investigation.

A subpoena sent to Ayala-Clarke obtained through a public records request outlines the department’s demands for a variety of records relating to Offen and Rodriguez’s employment.

WTTW News also learned from state records of a $48,958 tax lien for failing to pay the state sales/use taxes and the 911 surcharge – a lien Offen and Rodriguez said was posted on the door of the store one day when they showed up for work.

The two also say they experienced numerous customer complaints from people who said the furniture was late, damaged, or that the quoted price kept changing.

“We’ve seen so many angry people, people saying that they never received the furniture they paid for, people waiting months for their things,” Offen said.

Several people also complained on a public Facebook post Offen made about her time working at Laura’s Furniture. The company has an “F” rating on the Better Business Bureau website with several complaints and negative reviews.

Offen and Rodriguez even say Ayala-Clarke tried to charge them more for furniture the two purchased than agreed upon, and said they owed her for use of a truck – and that she backdated a receipt for the furniture to a date before they even started working at the store.

“I feel like nobody wants to stand up in the community because she’s dating the mayor and they’re feared because of the power he has politically,” Rodriguez said. “There needs to be justice.”

Payments from the city grant program Ayala-Clarke is set to benefit from are being delayed.

City staff say it’s due to missing documentation from several companies involved and that the applications are now all under review.

Contact Nick Blumberg: [email protected] | (773) 509-5434 | @ndblumberg

AURORA, Ill. (CBS) – A couple of shuttered school buildings in Aurora have found new purpose.

They'll serve as affordable housing for working people and families. CBS 2 visited the city as doors to one of those schools reopened for the first time in five years.

In Aurora, the next chapter began for a storied building. Local officials called it "a win-win development."

Todd Elementary School closed in 2019, but it reopened on Wednesday as the new Fox Valley Apartments.

The last residents there were students like Jill Shaw, who was a fifth-grade student in the 1970s. She still lives in Aurora and came to see her school's transformation.

"It's kind of exciting seeing the old come to new," Shaw said.

The lockers were still there and so were the murals on the wall.

"Almost like a time capsule," Shaw said.

But the classrooms are now affordable apartments. The Illinois Housing Development Authority allocated more than $17 million in state and federal tax credits to the project.

"I think it means people care about preserving the past," Shaw said.

There were 11 units available to working people and families, who will make the halls students once roamed their home.

"To our new and future residents of this building, I say welcome home!" said Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin.

Just a few minutes away, the second phase of the affordable housing project was underway. Lincoln Elementary School closed back in 2009, but the plan is to reopen its doors this spring with 36 new, affordable apartments.

The site at the old Todd Elementary will also be home to a VNA Health Care clinic that will serve students in Aurora.

A former city of Aurora, Illinois school has been turned into Fox Valley Apartments, affordable housing, in an effort to reduce homelessness.

AURORA, Ill. (WLS) -- A former Aurora elementary school is being transformed into affordable housing.

It's part of the city's mission to end homelessness.

The building that has been vacant for five years will now have a fresh start for those looking to get back on their feet.

The doors are open at Fox Valley Apartments, and that means dreams are limitless for those like Tyshema Washington.

"You come into a living room with nice beautiful windows," Washington said. "I would love to live here."

Washington said she's spent two and half years living on the streets of Aurora.

"What I went through, I learned never to go back," Washington said.

Now, she's moving forward, determined to put her application in to the new Fox Valley Apartments as soon as possible.

"She'll send me the application, I'll print it out, and wherever her office is, I'll walk it in there," Washington said.

SEE MORE: IL Supreme Court denies appeal of counting votes for controversial Bring Chicago Home referendum

The formerly vacant elementary school is part of the city of Aurora's plan to make sure any available space is being used to give back to the community, in this case, affordable housing.

"Administration is committed to providing hundreds of new housing options across the city by redeveloping underutilized and formerly vacant buildings," Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin said.

Some of those buildings have been vacant for over 70 years.

But, the one on Oak Avenue has more than just apartments, it also has a health care clinic for uninsured or underinsured families.

"We saw during COVID is how important housing and health intersect. So, this is definitely an amazing effort to be able to provide both of those in one spot," said Shelly Tucciarelli, Visionary Ventures' executive director.

Tucciarelli is executive director of the organization behind the project.

She said housing costs have increased 30% over the last three years. It's why these apartments are for families making between $18,000 and $63,000 a year.

"You have to have stability in order to get a job, and, in order to get a job, you need housing. So they all work together," Tucciarelli said.

"There's people out here that will help you," Washington said. "Get up, get out here."

AURORA, IL — As Aurora residents gear up with resolutions and goals for 2024, several businesses are preparing for New Year's Eve festivities.

From a masquerade ball to a skate party, there's no shortage of memorable events happening in and around Aurora this New Year's Eve.

Here is a look at what's planned:

In the United States, one of the most popular New Year’s Eve traditions is the dropping of the giant ball in New York City’s Times Square. Other U.S. cities have adopted iterations of the ball drop — the Chick Drop in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and the giant Potato Drop in Boise, Idaho, for example.

The end of one year and beginning of another is often celebrated with the singing of “Auld Lang Syne,” a Scottish folk song whose title roughly translates to “days gone by,” according to Encyclopedia Britannica and History.com.

The history of New Year’s resolutions dates back 8,000 years to ancient Babylonians, who would make promises to return borrowed objects and pay outstanding debts at the beginning of the new year, in mid-March when they planted their crops.

According to legend, if they kept their word, pagan gods would grant them favor in the coming year. If they broke the promise, they would fall out of God’s favor, according to a history of New Year’s resolutions compiled by North Hampton Community College New Center in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Many secular New Year’s resolutions focus on imagining new, improved versions of ourselves.

The failure rate of New Year’s resolutions is about 80 percent, according to U.S. News & World Report. There are myriad reasons, but a big one is they’re made out of remorse — for gaining weight, for example — and aren’t accompanied by a shift in attitude and a plan to meet the stress and discomfort of changing a habit or condition.

Ground was broken on two buildings that will bring more office and retail space to the Randall Square space as the development continues.

Patch Staff

NORTH AURORA, IL – Ground was broken on Thursday on two buildings that will bring office and retail space to Randall Square in the next phase of the 15-acre development in the steadily developing Randall Road corridor with numerous residential and retail developments nearby.

The 7,800-square foot retail building at 20-28 Randall Road will be anchored by Dunkin Donuts and offers four additional units of retail or restaurant space for lease ranging from 1,000 to 6,000 square feet near the corner which features a recently developed Casey’s gas and convenience store and sees over 26,000 vehicles per day, officials said in a news release.

On the adjoining lot, 78-81 Miller Drive offers 8,000 square feet of divisible general office, medical, dental office, or lab space featuring 10-foot ceilings. The developers are building a spec space in the building which will be available for immediate occupancy upon completion of the building as well as flexible unit sizes ranging from 1,100 to 8,000 square feet and is currently being marketed for lease by JBS Commercial Real Estate, the release said.

The building will offer individual exterior suite entrances, independently controlled HVAC by the tenant along with an extraordinary window line.

The projects join the two 10,000-square-foot medical office buildings at 98 Miller Dr., which the firm developed in 2018, and 66 Miller Dr., which was developed in 2010. Both buildings are fully leased.

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“We’ve been successful in developing and leasing office and medical buildings on this site in the past and we see this property as an opportunity to be creative and provide a niche in-demand product, given its versatility and proximity to recent residential growth, says Ramsey Elshafei, President of RE Development Solutions. “We see lots of potential for quality development here resulting from the overall growth of North Aurora.”

Construction on the two new projects has commenced with completion anticipated by the end of the first quarter of 2024. The new retail and office buildings were designed by the team at RACER/MRSA and are being built by The Way Maker Group.

In addition, RE Development Solutions has 1.31 acres of land off Oak St & Miller Dr available for sale or build-to-suit for a quick service restaurant. The company is working with the Village for the next stage of development within the property for which a 19,000-square-foot flex building is being considered.

“Growth is a vital part of any community, and it is something we here at the Village of North Aurora look to foster with our local business and residential communities. Randall Road is at the center of our town and as such developing that area is of great importance,” said North Aurora Mayor Mark Gaffino.

“ RE Development Solutions is at the forefront of this growth with their new additions to the Randall Square Development, which will feature mixed-use and retail spaces, and they are also working on a medical office space off of Miller Drive to continue the growth of clinics and doctor’s offices in that corridor to offer options to North Aurora residents. We look forward to seeing their vision come to life.”

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