AURORA -- If the village board ends up keeping its post office, it may as well make it look nice.

Trustees accepted a building needs assessment proposal from MRB Wednesday night. For a maximum of $8,500, the Rochester-based engineering firm will estimate exterior sprucing as well as structural and mechanical needs at 373 Main St.

"Some things can be done to that building to make it look better," Mayor Thomas Gunderson said, using a switch from the flat roof to another style as an example.

The board was ready to demolish the building that originally served as a garage and have the post office moved to the Heary Building next door as recently as April. However, a deal with Wells College and the Aurora Foundation fell through, leaving the U.S. Postal Service and the village scrambling for a new plan.

Building assessment will estimate the costs necessary to make the building handsome and habitable for the next 30 years or so, Gunderson said. Though the agency initially indicated it needed bigger digs when the search for a new home began several years ago, those requirements have changed.

That makes renewing a multi-decade lease with the village a possibility and an assessment necessary, Gunderson said.

Read the full report in Thursday's edition of The Citizen.