Hello, Lombard calling. Just a question about politics and jobs in Lombard. Why is it when there are open positions for the village, they first accommodate retired policemen and firemen who are already collecting a pension, which is a very good pension by the way, and now are given part-time and full-time jobs in code enforcement? When I applied with extensive training, I was told that these policemen and firemen are hired because they have extensive knowledge of the town. What about extensive knowledge of the codes, which these individuals do not have? Come on, Lombard, notice what’s going on in America. Instead of taking care of your employees, start taking care of the community. Remember, we pay your salaries.

William Heniff, Community Development director, responded: “As with all positions, the village follows the established policies and protocols for employee hiring.  This process looks at a number of variables through the selection and interview process in an attempt to find the candidate that best fits the position. For these positions, factors considered include past work experience, job knowledge and training, public interaction and communicative skills. Former employees must apply for positions in the same manner as all other applicants. Of the nine code related positions (five full-time and four part-time) within the combined Building and Code Administration divisions of Community Development, only two part-time (12 hours/week) property maintenance code enforcement officers previously worked as police officers and none of them were former fire fighters. Furthermore, the department has not hired any new building inspectors in over six years or code enforcement officers in two years. If individuals have questions regarding the hiring process, please feel free to contact the village's human resources staff at 630-620-5700.”—JAC

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To the person driving a truck with big flags on the back, while I appreciate your enthusiastic patriotism, I also think this is a hazard for both other drivers and yourself. It is distracting to other drivers when the wind is blowing—I couldn’t see to the left of your vehicle because the flag was waving and blocking my view. Also, I think the flags waving in the wind block your rear-view mirror visibility. Just something to consider.

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Hi, this is Lombard calling. I just want to thank Dr. Blanche, the superintendent of District 44, about the health club at Westlake Middle School. I did not know that it was also open to middle school students to provide a quality experience. That makes perfect sense. However, I wish maybe they could rethink opening the health club for community members and taxpayers at a reasonable fee that would go to either District 44 or the park district. Once again, Dr. Blanche, thank you for the concise and prompt response.

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Hi, I just want to let you know that Lombard lost a terrific servant and a great man who spent a lot of time in Lombard serving the residents, children and families of this community. I’ll be looking at your paper. I’ve lived here for 47 years; my folks have been here for 60. To Bonnie MacKay, I know you didn’t always agree with Dick Tross so I hope you are a journalism professional and give him and his family the respect he deserves.

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Villa Park, I think you made a big mistake pushing for apartments over by the railroad station. Who would want to live next to the railroad? I think you’re going to have many empty apartments. Do they think that people can sell their homes, the seniors, and move in there? There’s nothing there for the seniors. There is no downtown like Elmhurst. Anybody with any money I think would opt and prefer to move to a place like Elmhurst with shopping and shops around the railroad station, not on Ardmore and nothing there but maybe a Slurpee from 7-Eleven.

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You know, in schools across the land they teach against bullying and how bad it is to try and intimidate. Well, I happen to believe after watching the news, that our village board does have some bullies on the board. Shame on those bullies.  

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We were so saddened to read about our District 2 trustee, Mr. Richard Tross’ passing in the April 28 Lombardian. He was also our friend and he always wanted the best for his constituents in Lombard. He will be missed. Our sympathy is with his family and to those who knew him and worked with him. Rest in peace.

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Hey, this is Lombard calling. I would like to agree with the caller referring to the Taste of Lombard as a low-brow event. That might be insulting the low-brow events everywhere. In my opinion the Taste of Lombard is a drunk fest. I was so to happy to hear it was cancelled and now I am so disappointed to find out that our town is going to waste money on this fest again. There is nothing family-oriented about it, there is nothing good about it. I guess I threw my two cents in. Hey, Lombard, great job managing the village and spending our money. Just absolutely love it. If you can’t waste our money on a fest, what else can you waste it on?

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This is in response to the person who wants to know why we blame President Obama for the spike in gasoline prices. I’m a little confused about that, because when Bush was in office, everybody blamed him, so why is Obama exempt from this? So, please let me know.

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This message is for Tom Cullerton and the trustees of Villa Park. If you want to raise our taxes for road improvement only, you might get it approved; but road improvements only. No baseball fields, no football fields, no parks, nothing like that. Roads only. Roads should be the first thing on the list. That’s the only way to get tax dollars from us citizens in a depression. Tax increases for roads only.

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I just got my property tax bill and I’d like to know why Lombard raised my taxes, the pension fund from Lombard raised my taxes, the Lombard library raised my taxes, the Lombard Park District raised my taxes, the pension fund raised my taxes, District 44 raised them, the pension fund raised my taxes, the high school district raised them, the pension fund raised them, and College of DuPage raised them. Why is that? I thought property taxes weren’t supposed to go up. All the complaining about schools needing money, here it is. This is your money. You guys in the school district, you have to learn to start conserving. You guys spend every penny you get; you have to start doing something different like laying off more senior teachers.

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Hooray for Arizona. I’m glad someone is doing something about illegal immigration. The law seems legal and equitable. The claims of racial profiling and racism are there to squash any approval for the law. There is not a spine in Washington. Go, Arizona.

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I work for the Lombard Post Office and on behalf of myself and all our employees, I’d like to thank all the kind folks of Lombard and unincorporated Lombard for their food donations to our national annual food drive. On Saturday, May 8, we collected just over 6,700 pounds of food, which was then donated to the Lombard-Villa Park Food Pantry. The generosity from so many folks in the area at a time when so many people are in need was greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.

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This is Lombard. I think we ought to bring all our troops back to this country and station them along the Mexican border; that way they would stop illegal immigrants and they would spend all their paychecks in this country, which would help our recession.