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May 27, 2009

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I just received my tax bill for $6,657 on a 1,300-square-foot house. They say my house is worth $357,000, which I just refinanced, and they told me my house is worth $225,000. Who do I call or complain to, to get that situation straightened out?


If you live in York Township, you can contact the assessor’s office at 630-627-3354 to get information on appealing an assessment, or visit the assessor’s Web site at www.yorkassessor.com.—JAC


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Villa Park residents, it’s time to wake up. I looked at the assessments a couple of weeks ago and only saw a few houses going down in value. I called our local tax entity and they informed me that our property taxes are going up 8 1/2 percent. They’re saying the property values in DuPage County are underassessed by 8 1/2 percent? That’s totally ridiculous. Property values have gone down over the last two years 15-25 percent, so if DuPage County thinks that our property taxes should go up 8 1/2 percent, that means our property values must have been undervalued.


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This is Villa Park calling. Our new president wants to improve the village’s image. I think instead of spending money on images and new things in the village, they should finish the old projects, like fixing up our streets on the north side. They’re terrible. I don’t know what they’re thinking. It’s a shame that they spent all kinds of money all winter getting a tree service to cut down our trees, and they’re looking for budget money? Why did they have our trees cut down in the winter, paying someone? That’s a waste of money.


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Hi, this is for the Lombard family who keeps their rottweiler caged in their yard 24/7, 365 days a year. How cruel are you? I feel so sorry for your dog. He has no life. Why don’t you find a family who will love him, care for him, play with him and make him a member of their family? Do the right thing.


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I’m glad we have a new president in Villa Park and I also wanted to say I am hoping this new president may do something or know the right person to contact in regard to an abandoned house in Villa Park. No one seems to care about it or do anything about it, and I’m beginning to think that they don’t care that there’s such a terrible, terrible eyesore. It could be some kind of health risk, too, because of the things that are growing from that house. I just hope that our new president will take the time to investigate and contact the correct persons who can perhaps do something about it.

Contact the village at 630-834-8500 or you can visit www.invillapark.com. Village President Thomas Cullerton’s e-mail address is also listed; PresidentCullerton@comcast.net.—JAC


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Hi, this is Villa Park calling. I just wanted to say I read the comments the lady had on the Villa Park Library, and I feel that $30,000 is a lot of money to waste on a historic facility with a few people in it. They could use the park district’s facility for the few things that they do there and save a lot of money for us.


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This is Lombard calling. Yes, the elections did prove something. It did make a change in Lombard. It did make changes with the trustees. Perhaps all those people calling in and complaining don’t realize it’s the trustees who have the final say about everything that goes on in Lombard. Insofar as us being in the 1970s, we are far ahead of other towns around us in many of the things that Lombard has achieved, and all of this is thanks to Bill Mueller, who has put in the time and love that it all requires to make the Lilac Village one out of a hundred such places voted where everybody wants to live. That’s quite a privilege. We’re one out of a hundred in the nation. None of those towns were picked.


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Lombard calling. Summer brings people out-of-doors and sometimes they bring their loud music with them. This is a great time to remind Lombard residents that our village has a noise ordinance on the books to prohibit loud music in our neighborhoods, #93.01 Prohibited Noise: No person shall emit beyond the boundaries of his or her property located within the limits of the Village of Lombard any noise that unreasonably interferes with the enjoyment of life or with any lawful business or activity within the limits of the Village of Lombard..." If you have a thoughtless neighbor who plays his or her music loud enough you can hear it in your back yard or home, you can call 9-1-1 and file a complaint. You will not only bring peace to your household, but to your other neighbors as well. They will thank you for it.


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Villa Park calling.  We have the best mailman in the world, Bill McDonald.  He checks in on senior citizens who live alone. Greets us with a smile and calls us by our first name. He comes to our wakes and fundraisers. Goes that extra mile to make sure our packages are safe and dry. The list goes on and on. Today, he put a “hold” on our neighbor’s mail that was collecting in her mailbox, and informed us of his actions and concern. We, the neighbors, tracked her down to a rehabilitation facility. It turns out she had fallen at work on her hip replacement and broke a bone.  Because of Bill, our mailman, we can watch her house in her absence and assist her in any way possible when she comes home.


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Two points, one about the village president and downtown music. The president has been here 19 years and he’s never pursued having the type of environment where residential and apartments are separated from businesses so you could have music. That’s a lack of his planning and we’ve re-elected him, and here we’re stuck again with no good program for downtown. The other is the red-light cameras. All they’re doing is showing me that wherever there is no red-light camera, I can drive right through the stoplight. There will be no punitive action whatsoever. How’s that any good? You think people aren’t smart enough to know that? The whole thing is silly.


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Hi, for years I have taken my kids to the Lombard pool, dating 30-some years back, when we had the first pool. Now that I want to take my grandchildren once a week—I’m in retail so I have flexible hours—because a pool pass is no longer something I can use all the time, and if they’re not from Lombard and they’re young and it would be nap time, I cannot take the kids to the pool for a whole hour, although I supported the referendum, the pool pass no longer fits into our everyday use. I think it stinks. I don’t think it’s right that you take an hour away from a Lombard resident because they don’t have use for the pool pass. In the future I will be very careful how I vote.


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Lombard here. Thanks to the village inspectors for coming out on a Sunday to inspect the property damage caused from the new construction next to our house. There’s a setback of 6 feet. Why should the builders be able to dig up to my property line? The builder has apologized repeatedly, but until he fixes my property, I cannot accept his apology.


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I was reading an article in the Tribune about some festivals coming. I was just wondering if the Taste of Lombard is going to have any changes to the 2009 schedule or if it is just going to go on as normal. Also, you had an article a while back about the 140th anniversary logo. I sent an e-mail and never got anything in response. I was hoping you could put that back in the paper so I can resend it and get a copy of the anniversary logo.

Below is the logo you requested.—blm

 

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