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March 24, 2010


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I’m wondering if the Lombard Park District is going to be spending any of its grant money on upgrading and maintaining the tennis courts in Lombard. And I’m wondering if after reading in the Lombardian that the new skate park is going to be put in over at Madison Meadow next to the inline skating area near the tennis courts, how that is going to impact tennis playing. It would be nice if the park district could respond to the tennis players of Lombard.


Paul Friedrichs, executive director of the Lombard Park District, addressed your comments by saying, “No grant money has been provided for any new tennis courts within the park district boundaries. The skate park was determined to be placed next to the current in-line skating rink at Madison Meadow allowing the in-line skaters convenient access to the skate park. Although the park district will be temporarily removing one tennis court from our inventory, our residents can continue to use the remaining tennis courts of the park district. Also, don’t forget residents can use the courts at the local schools, including the eight courts at Glenbard East High School, when they are not being used for team sport activities.”—JAC


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Lombard calling. I’ve been reading about the bridges the village is going to build on the Great Western Trail for some reason. Why would we not use the Great Western Trail right-of-way at Grace Street and jog St. Charles Road over and have it come out further east, away from Grace and eliminate that crossing? Cross where the Great Western Trail used to cross St. Charles Road. Has anybody looked at that?


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I know some people are committed to getting out for a daily walk, but the one rainy, damp day I saw a mom, about 9 a.m., pushing a stroller with one hand and holding an umbrella with the other. The child in the stroller must have been at least a toddler, because the child was holding an umbrella, too. I felt really bad for the child, having to endure a wet, chilly ride down the street—the umbrella sure didn’t offer protection from the rain coming in sideways. I’m all for walking and getting fit, but I say, let’s exercise common sense as well.


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Hello, Lombard. For those of us who have this addiction to nicotine, thus needing to smoke cigarettes, would like to apologize to the rest of the world who don’t smoke. We’re sorry for dispensing our waste by-products of our habit all over the ground, including sidewalks, streets and everywhere. We are sorry due to the fact that we do not have any respect for other people’s property or their right not to have to clean up after us. Perhaps some day we smokers will wake up and realize that all the butts we throw onto the ground and out of our car windows are litter and we should be fined for it. Shame on us.


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This is for the people who use ComEd as their electricity supplier. ComEd’s already going to forgive many people who are unemployed, which they can’t prove. They’re going to only have to pay half their bills in March but now the rate hike they’re asking for, they want to raise the rates for people like you and me who pay their bills regularly to pay the bills of the people who can’t afford to pay their bills. I don’t like having my rates raised for the people who abuse the power.


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This is Lombard calling. I noticed in SPEAK OUT that the police sitting at Grace and St. Charles are watching for violators. I’ve noticed that they do it as well at Elizabeth and St. Charles. I assume that’s a waste of taxpayer dollars to sit there watching for somebody to cross if the lights are still flashing and if the gates go up. A complete waste of money; we could probably do better watching people go 40 mph down Main Street in a 25 mph zone. That happens all the time.


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Hey, Lombard, I’ve got a bridge for sale. It’s called the Brooklyn Bridge and it won’t cost $8 million.


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This is regard to the call about a parent being concerned at Glenbard East about the costumes being too revealing in the show, “Broadway, Our Way.” This should be a wake-up call to Glenbard East because as a parent, my husband sometimes picks up my children from school, and when the weather is nice, the kids are also wearing mini-skirts, shorts and spaghetti-strap tops that leave nothing to the imagination as far as being clothed. Whatever happened to teaching our kids self-respect, dignity and pride in what they wear? I just don’t get it. I don’t understand, Wake up, Glenbard East; why aren’t we enforcing the dress code all year round? And, where are the parents when the kids walk out to go to school in the morning dressing like this?


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Absolutely incredible, and I’m not downplaying the situation. Two major earthquakes, one in Haiti and one in Chile. The U.S. all of a sudden can come up with billions of dollars in aid for comfort, food and supplies for these countries but yet our infrastructure is crumbling, schools are closing and hospitals are being shut down. Do I need to extend the list any farther? It’s absolutely amazing the U.S. can find money for these countries or countries around the world that need help, but they can’t take care of our own? Time to vote everybody out.


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School District 45 must cut $2.5 million from next year’s budget. Changes include staff reductions, increased class sizes and after-school program cuts, all of which negatively impact students. We can keep the best interest of students at heart and also minimize the negative impact on the entire staff. Administrators have already agreed to a 0 percent salary increase for themselves. Teachers should now also agree to a 0 percent salary increase. This would save nearly $700,000 and decrease the need for staff reduction, class size changes and program cuts. Many people have lost jobs or suffered decreased wages while the cost of living and tax burdens continue to rise. Taxpayers cannot support the weight of wage increase at this time, nor should students suffer increased class sizes and program cuts. A no-raise policy for next year is simple, sensible and equitable.


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Hi, Lombard here. I just want you people to know that President Obama wants all us old people to die so he can assure all the illegal aliens for votes. Think about it, people, is this guy worth it?


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This is for the Villa Park Public Library. What would be nice is if the keyboards on the computers had letters showing instead of being worn off, for the people who type with one finger. There would be less mistakes and we could see the keys.


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Villa Park here. Now that the county has found out that they’ve got multi-million dollars of extra money in the budget this year, perhaps they can just pay back the mysterious disappearance of the money from the Water Commission by the mysterious borrowers; a pot of money just sitting there to take out of. That would keep the people from having to pay much higher water bills.


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Lombard calling. Anyone else notice that the new village vehicle sticker doesn't include the village name at all. How can you make a vehicle sticker that doesn’t reference the village it is from? It is good to know that O'Brien and Mueller names are listed but not the village they serve. Hopefully, next year we can approve a sticker that has our village name instead of saying we are all from Maple Street Chapel.


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Lombard calling. I was watching the health care summit and my view is that President Obama and the Democrats are doing everything they can to justly promote this bill. It is the Republicans who are playing politics. They don’t care about anybody but people who have lots of money and lots of riches and they couldn’t care less about anybody else. That’s because they’re not in power and they’re jealous. Well, that’s my view. I believe Obama’s doing everything he can.

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Lombard calling. Just wondering, those potholes on High Ridge Road, in front of Willowbrook High School and the Islamic Foundation School, they’re dangerous. Accidents can happen while trying to swerve around those potholes while there’s oncoming traffic. They’re dangerous and also really hard on the cars. Hopefully those can get repaired; if not permanently, then maybe temporarily. That would be good.


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The District 88 office used to be located at Willowbrook High School. It is now located at neither Willowbrook, nor Addison Trail. I believe it’s at the old library in Addison. How much did that cost, and how does it benefit our kids? How many people work there? I don’t care what kind of spin the district puts out about additional classroom space, etc. You can’t tell me that the district has saved money by relocating its office to a new location.


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Hi, I’m a resident of Lombard (Main and Washington area). I just found out about the cancellation of the 2010 Taste of Lombard, after nearly 30 years. What a shame. One of the reasons stated was the cost. I wonder how much money it cost to put up and power the street lights Lombard put up every 40 feet. It looks like a landing strip. I now see there is to be a phase 2 of the Main St. light project? Wow.


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I’d like to see all the people with “Vote for Obama” stickers on their cars put a new sticker on their car: “Hi, I’m sorry I voted for Obama. I’m sorry that Guantanamo is still open after a year. I’m sorry that no changes to the war effort have been done. I’m sorry that health care hasn’t been solved. I’m sorry that unemployment is still close to 10 percent. I’m sorry that I voted for Obama. You were right; George Bush was the better president and we don’t want eight more years of Obama doing nothing. I am sorry.” That’s what we really need to see. And, what else do we have? We’ve all got nothing. That’s the change. Terrible. Horrible.


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Hey, folks, on Feb. 23 it was freezing and snowing, and we were setting all kinds of records across this nation for cold and for snow. Do you still believe in global warming?


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