This is question for our re-elected village president. What cost-saving measures have you recommended to the board of trustees during this ongoing economic downturn? Many of our neighboring municipalities implemented their cost-saving measures after the April election.
Village President William “Bill” Mueller responded: “The Village of Lombard reduced its overall budget by $9.8 million. Most of those expenses which were cut came in the Capital Improvement Plan. The Capital Improvement Plan is that part of the budget in which major infrastructure improvements are accounted for. However, the following cuts were also made in the General Fund Budget.”
• Changes to Taxi Subsidy Program: $15,000
• Police Officer (Salary and Benefits) - Frozen: $69,895
• Battalion Chief (Salary and Benefits) - Frozen: $81,440
• Janitorial Services for Village Hall Public Area: $24,800
• Part-Time GIS Coop- Frozen: $11,840
• Seasonal Code Enforcement Interns (3) - Frozen: $15,510
• Only partially funded technology reserve account: $200,000
• Eliminate 1.5 public works positions: $100,907
• Eliminate all out-of-state travel and postponed several vehicle purchases
“The FY10 General Fund Budget is $574,392 less than FY09 budget. The village board and I worked diligently with the village management team to hold the bottom line of balancing revenues and expenditures. I am proud of what has been accomplished. I would like to point out once again that the village’s portion of the property tax bill amounts to approximately 8 percent. For a homeowner paying a property tax bill of $6,400 only $512 is given to the village.”—JAC
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This is Villa Park calling. Now that we’re closing the overpass on Ardmore, maybe we could rent it out in the winter as a snow hill for $5 a family and in the summer we could make it into a water slide. Maybe then we can get it fixed.
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This is the single mom with two teenage children working extremely hard to make ends meet and I paid that $200 for rolling through the red light I’ve been going through for the last several years every single day from work. My fine is paid, I’ve learned my lesson, I don’t go through red lights anymore. I will never turn right again on red as long as I live; I don’t speed, I don’t do anything illegal while I’m driving now. It cost me $200, which was two weeks’ worth of groceries for my family and so my lesson is learned. I wanted everyone out there to know and I wonder where else there are red light cameras.
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I read about the person who complained about the ice cream truck. At 5 in the evening? Are you kidding? What about all the children who look forward to hearing that sound? I bet you wouldn’t like to hear Christmas carolers outside, either.
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This is in response to the caller complaining about the $1.25 daily parking fee at the Lombard train station. This person obviously does not commute, nor does that person realize that every daily commuter who boards the train pays $102 a month to ride the train, in addition to that parking fee. A quarterly permit is obtainable if we so choose, but there’s no discount for the permit versus the daily fee. I, for one, won’t buy the permit because I would then be paying for parking even on a day I wasn’t there. As a resident of Lombard who pays taxes like everyone else, please don’t suggest raising my parking fee. Yes, it is probably considered prime parking, but most of us are not going to an entertainment venue or a tourist attraction in the city. We are heading to our jobs to earn the money you are so desperately trying to take away.
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This is Lombard calling. The other day I was driving down Wilson and saw a sign that said “men working,” and that bothered me because what about the women? Why can’t it just say “work areas” or “people working”? Tell the sexist sign makers that there are women working on the streets, too.
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Listen up ladies and gentlemen and listen very carefully. You’re mad because you want a bottle of beer or a glass of wine or a cigarette or a bar of candy or whatever, the taxes are sky high to pay for this stuff. You can get even very easily. Election time is coming soon; don’t put anybody back in office. Get rid of them all. Put your own name down. When they lose their jobs then they will start listening to you. In the meantime, all they do is thumb their nose at you. Get even with them, people. Throw them out of office.
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Congratulations, Lombard, you did it again. You reversed the flow of West Washington Street because the previous flow was blocked by a telephone pole so you couldn’t see north. Now that it’s reversed, the other side of the cemetery is blocked by a telephone pole and now you can’t see south. I don’t know which is better—I guess that you can’t see south, you have a little bit of a shot of seeing across the road. Maybe you ought to take the telephone pole out or move it. It would probably be a better idea than all this other nonsense.
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I want to express my disappointment in our congressman. Peter Roskam is already in full campaign mode. He seems to be more interested in trashing the stimulus plan than he is in explaining to us how it’s supposed to work in our state and in our district. Mr. Roskam, the program has already been an utter failure. What he fails to do is completely and clearly explain to his constituents how this program is working for us locally. It’s not all about the jobs; it has funds for education, there’s health and human services, transportation and labor. The funds are spread out over time, but unfortunately any analysis we get from Mr. Roskam will not be objective and honest. He’s in campaign mode—he’s not representing us. Congressman Roskam’s staff should remind him that President Obama carried his district. We voted for change. Mr. Roskam’s staff would do well to remind him that we may need to make a change again in 2010.
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Lombard calling. I would like to know why, when making traffic stops Lombard police officers do not have the offenders pull into the closest parking lot or driveway. I see it constantly on busy thoroughfares like Roosevelt Road and Finley Road, where they block the right lane of traffic when an access drive or parking lot is just feet away. It would seem to be much safer for all those concerned if they got off the road and did not block traffic.
Your question was answered by Lombard Police Officer Joe Grage, a member of the department’s Traffic Safety Unit, who said there is a balance of safety involved when a police officer makes a traffic stop. Officers have to take the safety of the public as well as themselves into account during a traffic stop, which poses one of the largest risks of injury or death to police officers. Officers look for well lit, visible locations for traffic stops. While uncommon, there are circumstances that might lead an officer to keep a violator in the roadway. When possible, officers do move people off into parking lots or driveways. Many times motorists will initially stop in the street and the officer will have them move off the roadway. Sometimes an officer is unable to allow the motorist to move off the road because they may be impaired or not have a valid driver's license. Under those circumstances, an officer is not allowed to permit the motorist to drive any further. It is also possible that what you perceive to be a traffic stop may also be a disabled vehicle.—blm
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This is Villa Park calling about the person who actually complained about the noise from the ice cream truck. I just find it a little sad to see songs anger you. Next time you hear them, try to remember chasing that truck down when you were young; maybe it will put a smile on your face instead of provoking you to call SPEAK OUT to whine about it.
