In August 2023, a fence on the east side of an alleyway between North Taylor Avenue and the West Suburban Medical Center campus was damaged when a windstorm blew off some of its wooden panels.
After a few weeks, West Suburban orchestrated the fence’s removal because, according to Oak Park’s Assistant Village Manager Jonathan Burch, the fence lacked standard maintenance. Neighboring Oak Park residents said people came to cut down the fence posts, damaged or otherwise, with a chainsaw. Since then, those living next to where the fence once stood have reported an increase in trash, public urination, stolen bikes, and even a case of public masturbation.
A year-and-a-half later, those who live next to the hospital say they’re frustrated with West Suburban management’s delays in replacing the fence, and the village of Oak Park for not speeding along the process or enforcing consequences for delays.
The long-stewing fence frustration came to a head during a Zoom meeting Nov. 11 between about a dozen Oak Park residents and Mary Abeleda, director of special projects at Resilience Healthcare. In December 2022, Resilience bought Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood and West Suburban, which serves both Chicago’s West Side and the Oak Park area.
While Abeleda announced that West Suburban will install a fence in the same location in the spring of 2025 — by May 1 or 30 days from when the ground is no longer frozen — Oak Park residents on the call had doubts the hospital will follow through.
“I have very little faith in this happening,” said Melissa Ingram, who lives on North Taylor Avenue, in the meeting. “I look forward to being proven wrong.”
“Any reason why, given the temperatures are above 32 degrees, that this fence can’t be put in sooner?” asked Troy Koch, also a North Taylor Avenue resident.
Abeleda said it’s due to budgeting, which has been tight considering Resilience Healthcare inherited $80 million of debt when they bought the hospital.
“We’ve had to budget for this,” Abeleda said of the $60,000 fence. “And the money, we won’t be able to have it until next year.”
Like a good neighbor
In a neighborhood where houses butt up against West Suburban, several residents on the Zoom meeting called for the hospital to establish a positive relationship with the surrounding community, which they say has been lacking in past years.
“I feel as though the hospital has not really cared about the neighborhood,” said Kimball Ingram, husband of Melissa Ingram. “They are very much caring about their profit and themselves, which I get, but you are in the neighborhood.”
Abeleda said Resilience Healthcare’s CEO Dr. Manoj Prasad sent her to communicate with residents, which she sees as a step toward rebuilding goodwill with the community.
But according to Kimball, a judge involved in the adjudication process — which started over the summer to determine fines after West Suburban failed to submit a permit application for the fence by the end of July, as the village requested — encouraged the hospital to connect with its neighbors, so the village of Oak Park helped schedule an in-person meeting.
“Just before we confirmed, the hospital asked to cancel the meeting, which we said was not appropriate,” Kimball said in an email. So locals asked for a Zoom option instead.
“‘I’d like to have a good neighbor’ is the message that I’d like you to pass along,” Kimball said to Abeleda on the Zoom. “And it’s not been a great start from Dr. Prasad’s side.”
The village’s role
Last October, when the neighborhood hadn’t seen any progress in replacing the fence, Kimball said he went to Village Hall and asked for someone to review the fence situation and address the hospital’s violation of an earlier pact, but the village said there was no violation.
However, an Oak Park ordinance established in 2007 requires the hospital maintain the fence along this section of West Suburban’s property. And because of that agreement, West Suburban must be in violation of something, residents thought.
“There is a standing agreement. The fence was not maintained, as per the agreement. If it had been properly maintained, it would still be standing and would last for eternity, with continued maintenance,” Kimball said in an email to Emily Egan, the village’s Development Services Director.
“Eventually, the village came to agree with us,” Kimball said, regarding the hospital being in violation of the agreement.
In March, West Suburban agreed to meet with village staff, but that didn’t happen until May, according to Kimball, who received email updates from village staff.
Over the summer, the village continued working with the hospital to address the fence. Though the hospital submitted a plan for the fence, it didn’t meet the village’s height and material requirements. So the village asked for a revised plan and for West Suburban to submit a permit application by the end of July. And if it didn’t, an adjudication process would determine fines. In early August, the permit application still hadn’t been submitted. West Suburban turned in its permit for a new fence Aug. 12.
“I find it very frustrating that the village cannot make the hospital come into compliance on this matter,” Melissa Ingram said in an August email to Egan, “especially when the village has no problem enforcing building/remodel permits/fees, parking fines, snow removal penalties and more.”
On the Zoom meeting, Burch said the village has options available, both legal and administrative, to enforce the fence’s maintenance on whoever owns the land.
Burch said West Suburban has been charged $100 a day for not putting up the fence since September 5, a result of the adjudication process that started over the summer. Though the hospital’s fees have not yet been paid and will continue to accrue, the more than $20,000 will be due once the fence is put up. But they also might not be.
At the administrative hearing where the village and hospital reached an agreement on a date to put up the new fence, Burch said “the village discussed the possibility of potentially forgiving those fines.”