In response to a recent SPEAK OUT comment, Yvonne Invergo, executive director of the Lombard Area Chamber of Commerce and Industry, clarified a question about the recent arts and crafts fair in downtown Lombard: “The reason the booths are placed along the sides of the street, rather than down the center, is so that emergency vehicles are able to get through. Local businesses can benefit from the foot traffic by notifying the arts and crafts comittee in advance that they will be open that day, and when planning the layout of crafter booths, we will leave some space in front of their business. Or, they can purchase the booth space in front of their business for $75 [which is given to local charitable organizations]. We suggest putting an ad or coupon in the Lombardian that people can bring to your place of business on craft fair day, for a free gift or discount of some sort.”—JAC

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Villa Park has had a tight sign law but what about the new sign on Roosevelt Road and Ardmore? The condos will have a view of steel every day, forever. No more nice skyline, or drivers driving instead of reading dumb billboards waiting for the first accident to happen. Does this mean we can expect large billboard signs to show up for the next election on neighbors’ lawns or intersections across town?

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I totally agree with Bonnie MacKay's article on the absence of fire equipment at the Lilac Parade. I think that it was totally ridiculous for the firemen to basically boycott the parade because they weren’t going to get paid to be in it. How’s it going to look to all the kids and everyone else who looks up to you guys, that the almighty dollar wins out? What would it really be like if there weren’t any volunteers at the hospitals, nursing homes, and how about our churches?

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A questionable payout of $16 million and who knows how much more by the DuPage Water Commission has minimal concern expressed by the Republican party office holders. Business as usual seems to prevail in DuPage County; no grand jury has been requested by State’s Attorney Joe Birkett or Federal Attorney Peter Fitzgerald. Our new county auditor has stated his office will be streamlined with less paperwork and transparency throughout. Nothing appears on his Web site concerning the missing $16 million. Sen. Dan Cronin wants to dissolve the water commission as proposed in his recent Senate bill in Springfield. In excess of $300,000 of taxpayer money has already been spent on a forensic audit of the DuPage County Water Commission accounts with no end in sight.

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After looking at my tax bill, this is really, really nice. It looks like everybody’s cutting back again, except government. Let’s talk about the things that went up. The county health department pension fund went up. The forest preserve district went up and the pension fund went up. Taxes are higher. DuPage Water Commission had no levy—that’s a nice thing. York Township went up. The York Township road pension fund went up. The Village of Lombard pension fund went up. The Lombard library went up. The park district went up. The Lombard Park District pension fund—more taxes. Grade School District 45 and pension fund went up. High School District 88 and pension fund went up again—more taxes, etc.

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I also agree with the speak out caller about problems with the Comcast digital boxes. I have spent numerous hours on the phone with Comcast troubleshooting at least four boxes at my house. Even worse before my cable came from a non-electric cable, now I have five digital boxes in my house that all use electricity as they must be plugged in at all times and I have to pay extra to them for each one. Shame on Comcast for this environmental wastefulness and for lawmakers who let them get away with this. Lombard, please change your ordinance; let AT&T place their U-verse boxes closer to the Com Ed boxes so we can get U-verse TV.

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I saw a great production of “The Three Musketeers” by Glenbard East High School. What a wonderful drama program they have there. Next season, everyone go see their plays.

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I recently attended a fundraiser for the Firebirds at O’Neill’s Pub on St. Charles Road. I had no idea what a really nice place it is.

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Hi, Lombard calling. Finally. I enjoyed the lack of all of the sirens and official vehicles. Now, if we could just get rid of some of the politicians in some of the old cars, we could actually see the people of Lombard. At least move the cars and politicians apart so it’s not 20 minutes’ worth of exhaust before we get to the floats.

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Bonnie, I couldn’t agree more with your editorial about the fire trucks. There has to be a serious leadership problem in the fire department if they can’t come up with a few guys who are willing to drive a truck in a parade for a couple of hours. Why on Earth have we been paying firefighters overtime to do this every year? Kudos to the village for putting an end to it. Firefighters deserve our respect and we appreciate the job they do. They need to realize, however, that they are very well compensated for the job. In this economy perhaps all of our government employees should revisit the fact that they are public servants. They cash paychecks paid with money taken from others and not voluntarily given. We used to honor such workers because they respected that fact. Now it seems like it’s all about how much they can game the system. When it’s more profitable to work for the government than the private sector, the end of our society is near.

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This is Lombard calling. I wish the police officers would be more strict on ticketing teenagers on their cell phones, texting. I almost got hit by one today. Just keep this in mind, keep this in perspective and look out for them, please.

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This is the person who blamed President Obama for the oil prices. It’s obvious you’re a Democrat because you don’t understand sarcasm. When President Bush was in office and the oil prices went up, you Democrats blamed President Bush, when he did not control oil prices, just as you stated President Obama doesn’t control oil prices. But you see, because it was George Bush who had an oil industry background, and whom the world wanted to blame for every possible thing there was, we blamed George Bush, so there was sarcasm involved here because I’m blaming President Obama for the rise in oil prices that he cannot control. Sarcasm, once again. You obviously don’t understand it, because if you did, you would realize I was being sarcastic against President Obama, just like everybody was criticizing President Bush when the oil prices went up.

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I’d like to know why the Lombardian—it’s a great paper and everything—never covers any of the Willowbrook sports; it’s always about Glenbard East. You’ve got to remember kids who go to Willowbrook also live in Lombard and it never seems like Willowbrook gets coverage in the sports section. I think that’s pretty bad because Willowbrook does have some decent teams. So please, could you put some more Willowbrook information in there?

Sports editor Chris Fox responded to your comments: “You may not be satisfied with the amount of coverage of Willowbrook sports, but it isn’t accurate to state that this paper ‘never covers any of the Willowbrook sports.’ We are limited by time and space, and it’s often difficult to provide a great deal of coverage to some teams, especially during the busy spring season. Also, the amount of coverage given to a team is often related to that team’s success. For example, you won’t see any stories in this week’s paper about regional championships won by Willowbrook’s baseball, softball, boys volleyball or girls soccer teams, because none of those teams won one. In fact, none of those teams advanced to a regional final. If one of those Willowbrook teams had won a regional championship and was still playing this week, I guarantee that there would have been more Willowbrook coverage in the sports section.”—JAC

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In the Declaration of Independence, we are guaranteed life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We formed governments to help us achieve this. It also says that when a government becomes destructive, we have a right to abolish the government. Well, with the oppressive tax burden that is placed on all of us, on the federal, state and local level, such as property tax, sales tax and numerous other taxes, maybe it’s time the government is abolished, or at least 73 percent of my property tax going toward the schools. Ridiculous. Look it up if you don’t believe me.