Melissa Allen, assistant director of public affairs at Elmhurst College, responded to a recent SPEAK OUT in which a caller was disappointed about a limited number of tickets to an Elmhurst College commencement: “I’d like to respond to a SPEAK OUT call about Elmhurst College’s practice of issuing admission tickets. Elmhurst College’s commencement ceremony is traditionally held outdoors on the college’s mall and students are able to invite an unlimited number of family and friends to attend. However, in the event of poor weather, we must limit the number of family members per graduate to three people. With 700 graduates walking across the stage this year, our gymnasium simply cannot accommodate a larger number due to space limitations. However, if the weather is good, students are able to invite as many family and friends as they’d like.” Any questions can be directed to Allen at 630-617-6148.—JAC

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OK, all you people who read SPEAK OUT and if you feel like I do, all those people who are in favor of illegal immigrants—illegal, I said, and all the politicians who support the illegal immigrants, should not be voted back in office. Either they’re going to protect and support our country or they’re going to protect and support illegal immigrants. So, those people and those politicians who are voting in favor of illegal immigrants are giving our country and our money away. Vote them out of office and do not forget their names when election time comes.

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This is in response to the person complaining about the winter/summer formulas of gasoline. The problem we have in the Midwest is that it gets very, very cold in the wintertime and the gasoline won’t vaporize properly in your car. So there’s what’s known as a winter formula. In the summertime, however, because our weather can get above 100 degrees, when you’re filling your tank, your gasoline is going to evaporate at a much higher rate if you use the winter formula so they have a summer formula that changes the vaporization. All this costs money to make these changes each year. They’re mandated by the EPA because they don’t want all this gasoline vaporizing and going into the air in the summertime. That’s the reason for it.

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This is regarding a business that repaved the parking lot and put in what I guess they call speed bumps. I’d call them rip-your-undercarriage-out bumps. I was driving a Trans Am anniversary edition and I went over it very slowly and it just about ripped the undercarriage off that car. Isn’t there some legal limit as to how high these speed bumps can be? I mean, this thing is the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen. I live in a condo here in Lombard and we have speed bumps all over our parking lot and they’re normal. They’re not like mountains. This speed bump seems illegal. I’d like someone to check it out.

William Heniff, Lombard director of community development, responded, saying, “The national Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices and the village's Design Specification Manual do not have a design standard and specification for speed bumps. Care should be taken when going over such devices. You can contact the property owner to inform him of your situation.”—JAC

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This is Villa Park calling. I’m just wondering if the ordinance regarding parking cars on the front lawn has been disbanded. I have noticed a particular home on a busy street that has had various cars parked from time to time and the police never go there. So, apparently the ordinance has stopped, like other things.

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This is for the person who had the problem with Comcast not getting channels 5 and 9, and probably also 12 and 1. It’s a connection problem and it’s the wire that runs from the box to the outlet. We had it, it was working, and then I moved the box and then it wasn’t and they came and lifted the wire up and had a connection. They told me it just had a bad connection, so try that. That’s all I can tell you.

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This is the Meadowlarks Quilt Club. If anybody has donations of quilting materials or yarn, bring it to Sunset Knoll. We make the lap robes for the veterans, the needy, and babies at Loyola and Hines, so it would be greatly appreciated. We would really appreciate any yarn or quilting materials. Thank you and God bless you.

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With the road construction on St. Charles, are the Lombard police enforcing the new state law that no one can be on cell phones there? I’ve seen people on cell phones.

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Villa Park here. Here we go again: College of DuPage wants more money. Either they let the tax go down because they’re paying off the last big loan or they want $168 million for more work on the school. Enough is enough. The teachers want more; the state doesn’t have money in the pension for the teachers the way it is. It’s ridiculous. Enough is enough. No more money for the schools. Willowbrook got their money; now they‘ve got to cut teachers over there. Let’s wait until this country gets healed a little bit or maybe a lot, because it’s going to take some time.

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I’d like to have a question answered. I was planning to have a wedding in Lombard but someone told me not to do it because not only do they charge a food tax but you’re charged an entertainment tax and that the tax is almost 20 percent on your total purchase. That means if I was going to spend $30,000 in Lombard, I would spend $6,000 in taxes, which I find outrageous. Is that true? Can you find out? If it is true, they’re really raking the public. I would then never have a function in Lombard.

Tim Sexton, director of finance for the Village of Lombard, stated, “Lombard does have a 1 percent food and beverage tax that would apply to the food and beverage portion of the wedding, in addition to any other applicable sales tax that would apply, regardless of where the event is held. However, the village’s amusement tax would not apply to a wedding.”—JAC

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I was just wondering why the Lombard police don’t hang out when it’s raining or in the winter, giving out seat belt tickets. Don’t they worry about people when it’s cold out or wet out? A car could go 25 mph and hydroplane right into lawns. I’m just worried about everyone’s safety. Come on, guys, serve and protect, please?

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Why is Lombard tearing up 22nd and Main in different directions and other streets in Lombard need it worse than that?

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Red-light cameras. Do I have your attention, people? I noticed the one at Finley and Roosevelt has been removed. Good move, Lombard. In the weeks to follow, you’re all going to be knowing who your elected officials are and who approved this kind of legislation in our towns, so we can vote them out, because it’s just a money-maker. They’re all taking them out. It’s time to turn against the tide here and get rid of these red-light cameras. They’re not for safety. Police officers need to do their job and ticket people. When I grew up in this town people feared the police because they were rough and tough and didn’t take any nonsense from people in their cars. But you have these judges who let everybody off nowadays and that’s got to end right there. You get a ticket, it goes on your record, and that’s it.

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The other day I saw a bunch of illegal immigrants standing on the wall, taunting the United States, saying that they’re going to come into our country. And our president agreed with President Calderon. I would like to know what would happen if they were on the other end of the country and there were illegal immigrants trying to get into Mexico standing up there and waving their hands and stuff like that. Why is our president siding with the Mexican president? Why is he doing that? He’s supposed to serve the legal immigrants in this country and not other countries. He has to be reminded of what his job consists of.