This is Lombard calling. I have a question to ask to the police in Lombard. If you go through an intersection that flashes your photo and you’re not the person driving the car, how do you end up paying that ticket? For example, if my daughter’s in my car and she goes through one of those and it snaps my plate, the ticket would come to me, because I’m the owner of the car. However, I wouldn’t be the one driving the car, so how does that work? I’d like the police to respond so we can find out how that is. I don’t believe it’s legal to snap pictures and not be the person behind the wheel. That person should not be responsible.

Chief of Police Ray Byrne responded by saying, “According to state law, when a vehicle has been recorded as disobeying a red light through an automated traffic law enforcement system [or red light camera], the notice of violation is to be sent to the registered owner of the vehicle. The registered owner of the vehicle is also liable for any fines or penalties. This is similar to fines and penalties that are authorized against registered owners of vehicles for failure to pay tolls or for having received parking tickets.”—JAC

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Pat Quinn wants to raise our taxes again. How’s this—you raise our taxes in a recession—nobody’s got any money to pay them. Where are you going to get the money? Cut your budget; cut everything. This goes out to every politician. If it’s a household, if you don’t have money to pay for it, guess what—you don’t get it. You have to cut your budget in order to get stuff that you need. People can’t afford food; people can’t afford housing; but here’s our government raising taxes.

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This is Villa Park calling. I’d like to say thank you very much to the Kiwanis Club in Chicago and Villa Park Parks and Recreation Department for putting on a concert in the park. I was there July 1 and it was a cold night, but it was a beautiful show. They did a great job and I want to say thank you to the Kiwanis. Most people don’t understand that the Kiwanis is paying thousands of dollars a year for this, and I think we should all say thank you, and when we see a Kiwanian, say thank you, too.

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This is Lombard calling. Recently I saw some protesters out at the DuPage County buildings complaining about cuts that were going to happen for women and children. I agree with them; these cuts are going to be terrible that our current governor is proposing. But, the signs said, “Raise my taxes.” I heard one lady say we haven’t had our taxes raised since 1978. Folks, that person is not informed. We have had thousands of tax increases since 1978. In 1978 I believe, we were taxed 3 cents a gallon on gasoline, now we’re taxed at 19 cents a gallon, 6.75 percent on your purchase of that, and 0.3 percent on it being stored in the ground. That’s just one of the taxes; we’ve had thousands of tax increases. Folks, we have a corrupt system.

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I was wondering if I could get a clarification. I know there have been a couple of calls in SPEAK OUT about neighbors playing music loud, and I was just wondering if I could get a clarification from the village on exactly what this ordinance is. We do have a rather rude neighbor who likes to play music in the back yard quite loud. We can hear it in our house and in our back yard even with our windows closed, and I was just wondering if there is, in fact, just such an ordinance on noise in Lombard.

On the village Web site, www.villageoflombard.org, there is a section on ordinances; click on Title IX, General Regulations; that will take you to Chapter 93, which covers noise ordinances.—JAC

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Why is everyone—politicians, news people, newspapers—afraid to say our president is destroying our economy? And then, Obama and his crew will be totally in charge of everything; a complete takeover.

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Recently I saw a young woman in her late teens or early 20s, stopped in her car for a light, with a cell phone in her right hand and an ice cream cone in her left hand. What’s wrong with this picture?

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This is Lombard calling. I am wondering why there is still a large plastic pumpkin in front of a house in Lombard? Do those people not realize that since last Halloween, we have celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Memorial Day and the Fourth of July?

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I know there has been a lot of talk about barking dogs lately, so I thought I would add a story. I live on the north side of Villa Park and recently one of my neighbors let a dog out and let it bark incessantly from 12:30 a.m. until after 1 a.m. What the heck are you thinking? It is absolutely disrespectful and ignorant to think that anyone wants to hear your dog incessantly barking at any time of the day, much less at 11 a.m. Please keep your dog quiet in the wee hours of the morning because it woke up all of my kids and I am sure the children of my neighbors were rousted from their sleep as well. We have dogs, too, and I understand that dogs bark and it is sometimes out of our control; however, I don’t believe that you would leave a dog out for over a half an hour at that time of night without even thinking twice about it. Have some respect for your neighbors and keep it down.

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This year when the Fourth of July parade ended at Madison Meadow park, there were not the scouts doing the flag ceremony or the trustees up on the stage or President Bill Mueller giving his usual little speech of welcoming. I was very disappointed. The walk was to the park and then there was nothing. It was flat; absolutely nothing. Why was this? Big disappointment.

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This is Lombard calling in reference to the Taste of Lombard. Two things about it, though I love it: I think being charged a dollar just to have an ID checked is ludicrous and I also think that doing Lombard Idol and the winners based only on the amount of people who are clapping is also ridiculous. If they’re going to do Lombard Idol, it should be based on talent only. What if you have good talent and you don’t have a lot of people to clap for you, then you’re an automatic loser and I think that’s really sad. Come on, Lombard, we’ve got to find somebody to be judges.

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Hi, this is Lombard calling. I was very sad that I was not able to go to the Taste of Lombard this year, because I look forward to it every year. However, I did volunteer with my two daughters who are in Daisies and Brownies, on Sunday morning cleaning up the park. I was overwhelmed with the amount of cigarette butts on the ground. My daughter, with the other little girls, was picking them up and putting them in their clean-up bags. Why are there not pails or barrels with sand placed in the park for cigarette butts? There’s one on the corner of Main and Roosevelt. Someone said it might be because the Jaycees don’t want to promote smoking at the Taste, but there are beer and alcohol tents; doesn’t that promote drinking? Please think about placing cigarette butt containers around the park for the Taste, especially when there are young girls and boys picking up the trash the next day. It was kind of disgusting.

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When is the wooded area at the northwest corner of Westmore-Meyers and Roosevelt (next to Shell) going to be cleared or used? I’ve seen that lot complete with a faded No Trespassing sign, for 30 years now. What a nice welcome to Lombard coming from the east.

According to Bill Heniff, the village’s community development director, the area in question was involuntarily annexed into Lombard back in 2003, and is “zoned for single family residences.” The property is privately owned, and as of now, “We have not heard any development plans for that site,” added Heniff.—JAC