Nearly a year since OSF HealthCare took over Dixon’s former KSB Hospital, the Dixon City Council on Monday, Dec. 15, repealed the ordinance that created KSB in 1895.

Over those 130 years, KSB expanded from its main campus at 403 E. First St. in Dixon to operate six additional locations in Lee and southern Ogle counties. Its dwindling financial state led to a merger with the Catholic health system OSF that was finalized in May 2024. On Jan. 1, 2025, KSB became OSF HealthCare Saint Katharine Medical Center.

[ Ceremony marks completion of Dixon’s KSB Hospital, OSF HealthCare merger ]

Portions of that main Dixon campus were originally owned by former U.S. District Judge Solomon H. Bethea, who was also mayor of Dixon in the late 1880s. He gifted the estate to the city in late 1895 for it to be established as a local hospital in honor of his late wife, Katherine Shaw Bethea.

When accepting the gift Nov. 1, 1895, Dixon Mayor C.H. Hughes and the City Council approved an ordinance to establish the public hospital. It followed the conditions of Bethea’s property deed, creating the hospital’s board of directors and giving the city the power to select and appoint its members, according to the ordinance.

Just a little over 130 years later, the current council voted to repeal that ordinance at its meeting Monday, Dec. 15.

“Since that’s [KSB] no longer a municipal hospital...we do need to abandon that ordinance naming the hospital board,” Dixon Mayor Glen Hughes said.

OSF, now owning KSB, has its own process for selecting and appointing its board of directors, which is separate and distinct from the city, according to the new ordinance.

In October 2024, Lee County Judge Douglas Lee ruled to dissolve the Bethea property deed that acted as a barrier to KSB’s merger with OSF due to its conditions relating to the appointment of the board of directors. At that hearing, Lee said the merger would fulfill Bethea’s intent of the gift by allowing the hospital to continue to operate.

[ KSB, OSF merger: Lee County judge rules to dissolve 129-year-old estate gift that created Dixon hospital ]

At an August 2024 City Council meeting, former KSB President David Schreiner highlighted the hospital’s continued local representation through a community advisory council and foundation board.

A Jan. 7 news release from OSF said that advisory council was established.

OSF HealthCare, headquartered in Peoria, operates 17 hospitals throughout Illinois and Michigan. It operates OSF OnCall, a digital health operating unit; OSF Home Care Services, an extensive network of home health and hospice services; OSF HealthCare Foundation; and OSF Ventures, which provides investment capital for promising health care innovation startups.