DUPAGE COUNTY
Resignation creates 4th judicial vacancy
DuPage Circuit Judge Kenneth Moy’s resignation this week means that the county will have four new judges chosen from the ranks of local attorneys.
The county’s Circuit Court judges have already started to interview candidates to fill three associate judgeships, two of them recently created by the state legislature, and one due to the resignation of Associate Judge Nicholas Galasso.
While associate judges are appointed by the county’s circuit judges, Moy’s position as a circuit judge will be filled by the Illinois Supreme Court, with the appointee facing election in the 2008 general elections.
Several other of the county’s circuit judges have told their colleagues that they anticipate retiring by the end of the year, but Chief Judge Ann Jorgensen said Tuesday that Moy’s and Galasso’s are the only official notices she has received.
The county has 16 circuit judges and, with the two new associate judges, there will be 29 associate judges.
Moy, 74, of Hinsdale, a former County Board member, has been a judge since 1996.
The first Asian-American judge in Illinois, he announced his retirement Tuesday, citing personal reasons. His wife, Patricia, has Alzheimer’s disease.
Art Barnum
ELMHURST
City Council backs new hospital plan
The Elmhurst City Council on Tuesday spoke favorably about Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare’s proposal for a 49-acre hospital campus at York Street and Roosevelt Road.
By early next year, hospital officials hope to begin work on the $470 million, 260-bed acute-care facility connected to the Elmhurst Center for Health, an outpatient facility at 1200 York St. Two separate medical office buildings at the campus would be “developer-driven,” said Leo Fronza, chief executive officer and president of Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare.
Ald. George Szczepaniak, newly appointed chairman of the council’s Finance Committee, asked city staff to analyze any financial risk to the city. The city has budgeted about $4 million in building fees involving the project.
Fronza said the non-profit organization will pay taxes on roughly 300,000 square feet of the 1.2 million square feet of building space that will be devoted to doctors’ offices and retailers, such as Walgreens and Starbucks, on the site.
The city needs to rezone and annex portions of the property, and the state hospital board needs to issue a certificate-of-needs permit before construction can begin. Although the state has been reluctant to allow new hospitals, hospital officials are confident the state will approve the new hospital because it will replace an aging, landlocked one.
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Founded in 1926, Elmhurst Memorial Hospital at 200 Berteau Ave. will remain open in a reduced capacity when the new medical center is completed in three years, officials said.
Steve Brosinski