The St. Francis Hospital and Heart Center is proposing a campus modernization plan to update various facilities, relocate staff and provide private rooms to all of its patients being treated.
The Village of Flower Hill trustees discussed the hospital plans at their meeting Monday night but cautioned that they had yet to receive project details and might not see them soon.
“Let’s face it, we’re looking at years,” Deputy Mayor Frank Genese said.
Mayor Randall Rosenbaum said the plan’s main goal was to relocate hospital personnel off-site. Rosenbaum said this would benefit the village by reducing congestion in Flower Hill.
Rosenbaum said another goal is to implement wholly private rooms. He said about 10% of the hospital’s rooms are now single rooms.
The hospital will be working with the village on the project including addressing its trailers on the south annex of the property which the village has expressed a desire to have moved, Rosenbaum said.
The campus modernization will need to be approved by various village boards, but it will also participate in community engagement forums projected for this fall.
Trustee Mary Jo Collins said the project has begun well by staying transparent with the community, which she said will be necessary to prevent community pushback based on misinformation.
More information on the modernization is available on St. Francis’ website. Individuals can also submit questions directly to the hospital through their website.
A slideshow of the presentation given to the village is also available on Flower Hill’s website.
Village trustees approved a policy Monday night to require homeowners’ consent to release building plans. The policy is intended to preserve the safety of homeowners and the integrity of architectural work.
Rosenbaum said building plans show “every possible way to enter a home,” which could diminish the homeowner’s safety if those plans are in someone’s hands.
Under the Freedom of Information Law, anyone can request these building plans. The village is proposing that requests for building plans require a consent to release form from the homeowner signed by the mayor and have it notarized.
“It’s really a security issue,” Rosenbaum said. “It’s not cool that potentially bad actors can look at good people’s homes and use this information for potentially bad purposes.”
Another issue the village faces is individuals requesting dozens of building plans for inspiration for their homes. Genese called this “fishy” and said other methods exist to get floor plan inspiration.
Village Attorney Jeff Blinkoff said two sections of the law suggest this would be permitted, including protections from the invasion of privacy that could endanger someone’s life and another that could cause injury.
Blinkoff said these two exemptions could apply to building plans to protect the homeowner’s safety and the integrity of the architect’s work.
He said he is comfortable with the building file privacy policy.
In other news, the village is beginning talks to re-evaluate its security patrol unit.
Rosenbaum said he is uncomfortable with the continued spending of the village’s patrol agency due to questions about its ability to deter crime.
“With the data I have there’s nothing that really says that this patrol we have has prevented or reduced crime,” Rosenbaum said.
Despite his concerns about speeding, Rosenbaum said crime is overall down in the village.
The security patrol was implemented earlier this year after a sharp rise in crime at the tail end of 2023. Now that crime has been falling in the village, Genese said the necessity of the patrol unit will be re-evaluated.
In the meantime, Rosenbaum asked for residents to submit letters of their opinions on the security patrol, with tentative plans to hold discussions on the matter in the fall.
A resident suggested the village implement license plate readers to deter crime.
Genese said implementing them is difficult because of the difficulty of catching individuals committing crimes in stolen vehicles and the dozens of entrances into the village.
The village will hold a public hearing on Aug. 5 to consider a local law changing the village code’s definitions of tennis and other courts and another amendment for its noise ordinance.