W E D N E S D A Y
May 13, 2026 Vol. 46, No. 45
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JOURNAL
OAK PARK TOWNSHIP 1ST PASS ASSESSMENT INSIDE
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of Oak Park and River Forest
West Sub owners’ dispute will be evaluated by third party
19
Oscar and Nonie Balch House p. 23
Wright Plus iis b back k with ith 8 homes
Iconic house walk takes place this weekend in Oak Park
Arthur and Grace Heurtley House (Frank Lloyd Wright, 1902) FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT TRUST/JAMES CAULFIELD
By LACEY SIKORA Real Estate Reporter
(Editor’s note: Lacey Sikora is the Journal’s real estate reporter. She and her husband are the new owners of the Gustavus and Ethel Babson II House. It is one of the houses on this year’s Wright house walk.)
T
he Frank Lloyd Wright Trust’s annual house walk, Wright Plus, is returning to the western suburbs on May 16. This year, 8 private homes will be open to ticket holders, as well as Wright’s Home & Studio and Unity Temple. This year’s Wright Plus is entirely Oak Park-based, and the homes are all within a few blocks of Wright’s Home & Studio on Chicago Avenue. Two of the homes were designed by Wright. Wright designed the Arthur and Grace Heurtley House on Forest Avenue in 1902. It is considered one of the earliest examples of Wright’s Prairie Style. The home was built for Arthur Heurtley, a banker, and later Secretary of the Northern Trust Bank. The living areas are found on the second floor of the house. S
Oscar and Nonie Balch House (Frank Lloyd Wright, 1911)
WRIGHT PLUS
Home & GGarden H d Page 19
D97’s plans to shift schedules at middle schools raise concerns
Future of Oak Park safety-net hospital could be shaped by financial audit managed by retired county judge
Teachers object to likely staff reductions, reduced time per class
By BRENDAN HEFFERNAN Staff Reporters
The dueling lawsuits between the former business partners who now blame each other for West Suburban Medical Center’s recent closure came one step closer to a resolution this week. Emergency legal action filed last month by both co-owners of Resilience Healthcare came to a head Friday, May 8 with an eight-and-a-half hour hearing inside Cook County Judge Patrick Stanton’s courtroom on the 25th floor of the Daley Center. Resilience Healthcare CEO Manoj Prasad and Resilience co-owner and hospital landlord Rathnaker Reddy Patlola both spent hours on the witness stand last week, offering radically different retellings of the business strategies that governed West Suburban and Chicago’s Weiss Memorial
By BOB SKOLNIK Contributing Reporter
TODD BANNOR
See WEST SUB COURT on page 18
Wednesday Journal, May 13, 2026
HOME & GARDEN
West Suburban Hospital CEO Dr. Manoj Prasad speaks at the hospital on April 1.
Two middle school teachers came to a recent Oak Park Elementary School District 97 school board meeting to speak out against staff cutbacks and other changes at Oak Park’s middle schools next year. Although final staffing decisions have not yet been completed for next year, D97 announced earlier this year that it plans to cut certified staff throughout the district, including elementary schools, by 23.5 positions. The district has not yet decided how many teachers will be cut from the two middle schools. “We are not yet in a position to provide finalized staffing numbers for the 2026-27 See D97 TEACHERS on page 14
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