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February 24, 2010


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Lombard calling. What seems to be the problem on 22nd and Fairfield? Lately, there’s been a lot of ice and water.


Dave Gorman assistant director of public works, addressed your concern: “The ice problem is north of 22nd Street near Fairfield Court.  The privately owned detention pond next to this location has a sewer blockage and, as a result, it is leaking onto the roadway pavement. The village has been applying salt as needed and has sent a bill to the pond owner for the village’s time and materials. The owner has indicated that the repair will be made when the ice melts and access is made possible.”—JAC

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I have two questions for the Lombard police: The first one is, Why does an officer sit on Grace and St. Charles by the tracks and secondly, Why are all the American flag decals on the passenger side of the police officers’ cars backwards? The blue stars are in the right corner. They’re always supposed to be in the left corner. Maybe somebody ought to tell the police department to remove those and correct it.

Lombard Police Detective Lt. Tom Wirsing responded: “To answer your first question, the Lombard Police Department received a grant this year from the Federal Railroad Administration. This grant is for education and enforcement. Officers sit near Grace and St. Charles looking for railroad violations and trespassers. Secondly, the American flag decals are placed properly. The National Flag Foundation suggests, ‘the decals or paintings on a vehicle be placed so that the union on the driver’s side of the vehicle would be to the viewer’s left, while the union on the passenger side of the vehicle would be to the viewer’s right.’ Read more about the National Flag Foundation by visiting their Web site at www.AmericanFlags.com.”—blm

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I called in before about the politicians putting their signs in public rights-of-way, and you responded that there was a press release in December that no signage can be placed on village property. The press release is wonderful, but during this last election cycle, they did not enforce it. All along St. Charles Road near the parking lot, up and down the right-of-way, on telephone poles; also, the sign sizes were unbelievable—4 by 4 signs on private property at corners blocking the view. I don’t care what the press release said. If they don’t enforce it, it doesn’t mean a thing.

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Hey, U.S. government, wake up. Charity begins at home. We’ve got a country full of hard-working people who are out of work, losing their jobs, can’t feed their families. How about a little money here?

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Well, it’s 34 degrees outside and the snow is melting as soon as it touches the ground, and the village is out spreading salt. And we wonder why we have some of the highest taxes in the nation.

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This is addressed to the person who criticized Driscoll’s closing. I want to read some statistics from the Feb. 2 Wall Street Journal. National Catholic associations said 162 Catholic schools across the country have consolidated or closed. Why, let’s look at it. The article said that Catholic education is in danger of becoming a luxury for the middle class. Young middle class families struggling with a new mortgage and high property taxes can find themselves squeezed—not wealthy enough to pay, not poor enough for aid. And let me point out, too, it’s a loss of jobs in this Obama economy.

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This is to the person who responded to my SPEAK OUT over the overhyped winter storm warnings. First off, 70 percent of the media hype proves to be wrong. Secondly, thank you for using your dictionary for that four-syllable word. Thirdly, my point is, you live in Illinois; deal with the winter and the snow that comes with it. Also, you must be a person who wants to be in total control of everything, even though you can’t control it. How sad. You must be somebody in your 20s or early 30s who can’t learn to deal with things on the fly. My whole point was, it’s all media driven, all media hype—they say 6-12 inches, we get 2-4 and they have everybody in a bind. Get over it. Deal with it. The media controls your life, not mine.

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Hi, this message is in regard to the call a few weeks ago about people who live near St. Charles Road and Route 53 hearing shooting. I believe it’s a trap shooting range, over near Glen Oaks Country Club. Hope that helps.

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This is Lombard calling. Perhaps before the village considers increasing fees and taxes on its citizens here in Lombard, we can do away with a massive amount of waste and mismanagement in the village. Oh, let’s see: We still have Christmas lights on all the way through February. I don’t understand it. We need to save money—turn them off. There are tons of places; let’s get rid of the Taste of Lombard. A waste of money, and I would never even bring my family there. There are tons of places to cut money in this village. Don’t raise our taxes or our fees. Wake up and smell the coffee; it’s a new time in this country.

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Lombard calling. Where is the outrage? Here we have another multibillion-dollar bailed out company, AIG, giving out more than $100 million in bonuses to its employees. They say they have no choice but to give them out because of old employment contracts. I wonder if these same bonuses would be given out if Washington had not bailed this company out. If the answer is yes, why would it be necessary to bail a company out if it had an extra $100 million laying around to give away? If the answer is no, then why must these bonuses now be paid for by taxpayers’ funds? You can bet these bonuses were not paid to file clerks, front-end IT technicians or other rank and file employees, but rather to management and executive level staff. Basically, the tax-funded bonuses are being used to add additional wealth to people who already have wealth. I fail to understand how any elected official in a decision-making position could unconditionally pass out bailout funds without some reasonable accountability of what these funds are used for.

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Congratulations, Lombard, you finally did it. You plowed better than Villa Park. Riding through Villa Park recently, St. Charles Road had 2 inches of slush and I had passed a village plow truck driving down St. Charles Road at 35 mph with his plow up and there was slush everywhere. Main Street, St. Charles Road, North Avenue, Roosevelt Road were all perfectly clear. Good job, Lombard.

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This is Lombard calling. Last week I visited the Sweet Street candy shop in our downtown area and boy, do they have a great candy selection. My head was spinning from the excitement. Also during the visit I discovered that they are a lot more than just what’s on the shelves. They can personalize candy, they make wedding favors, goodie bags, chocolate trays and gifts, and now they even have balloons. Oh, and I forgot to mention the candy buffets for any occasion. I was really impressed when I left and I told many of my friends about my new discovery. Thanks, Lombard.

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This is Villa Park calling. I just wanted to say thank you to the Village of Villa Park for always plowing the Great Western Trail and Prairie Path after a snowfall. You make it so enjoyable for all of us to use. Thank you again.

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I am a concerned parent from Glenbard East High School. What I wanted to speak out about is the “Broadway Our Way” show. I think as a parent the dress code of the costumes should not have been so revealing for a high school production. Also, I think that the sound system needs to be better because it was very hard to hear some of it.


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