Resident tells Joliet council medical-provider interactions prompted police calls and distress; council did not take action

Joliet — During the public-comment portion of Monday’s pre-council meeting, a resident recounted ongoing difficulties obtaining orthopedic care and said staff at Genesis Orthopedics of Joliet called Shorewood police to their motel room twice, causing emotional distress and threatening their housing status.

"Before Christmas they end up calling the cops twice," the unidentified speaker said, describing visits by Shorewood officers to their motel and saying the interventions were unnecessary and harmful. The speaker said they had trouble getting x‑rays shared between doctors, had appointments canceled or denied, and urged the council to "get a hold of Joey at the orthopedics and tell him why did you do this and tell him to stop."

The speaker said repeated calls to police had consequences at their motel and had made it difficult to deal with other legal obligations. The council did not take formal action on the comment during the pre-council meeting; staff said the city did not have a report of calls for service for a Crest Hill location when an owner of Sharks Fish and Chicken asked about calls to that business.

Another public commenter criticized Joliet’s annexation practices and their impact on Elwood and surrounding areas, saying farmland had been replaced by warehouses near homes and calling for the city to stop expanding into neighboring territory.

Ending: The council heard the comments during the meeting’s public-comment period; no official investigation or directive related to the Genesis Orthopedics complaint was recorded in the transcript.