Aurora plan for hospital in Grafton sails through
Trustees unanimous in approving final details for
480,000-square-foot facility
Ozaukee Press, December 20, 2007
By STEVE OSTERMANN
Ozaukee Press staff
Aurora Health Care’s plan to build a 480,000-square-foot hospital
on Grafton’s east side cleared the final hurdle Monday when the
Village Board unanimously approved three requests to accommodate the
project.
The board action came during a two-hour meeting before a
standing-room-only crowd at the Grafton Multipurpose Senior Center,
where more than 200 supporters and opponents of the project gathered
for the debate.
 Although
officials of Columbia St. Mary’s, which operates a Mequon hospital
five miles south of where the Aurora facility will be built, and
others spoke against the plans, board members were not swayed.
“We’re looking at a community that is growing and needs to
provide services to its residents,” Village President Jim Brunnquell
told the crowd shortly before the board approved annexation,
rezoning and a site plan for the hospital.
“We’re positioning ourselves to become a full-service community
and a village of choice.”
Brunnquell said the 89-bed hospital — which Aurora will build
along with a cancer-treatment center and 80,000-square-foot medical
office building near the northwest corner of Highway 60 and Port
Washington Road — will also create 600 new jobs and provide
significant financial benefits to the village.
The board’s 7-0 vote came despite objections from Leo Brideau,
president and chief executive officer of Columbia St. Mary’s.
Speaking
for five minutes after an hourlong presentation by Aurora officials
and other supporters of the project, Brideau said the Grafton
hospital would drive up the cost of health care for area residents.
The new hospital, Brideau argued, will cost more than $100
million,
 duplicate
medical services already available at Columbia St. Mary’s Mequon
facility and spark a bidding war for nurses, who are already in
short supply.
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