I’m a retired Lombard taxpayer. To the person who called in about the fire chief’s severance package, why does someone retiring get a severance package at all, to start with, and secondly, if you do the math, according to what they’ve given us, it’s not $1,000 a day; it’s only $924 a day. Gee, that’s not ridiculous. And the whole package seems to have cost $96,253 for a fire chief to retire. This makes no sense whatsoever. I imagine our communications coordinator is just passing along information that’s given to her. I think whoever’s giving it to her should respond to this.

Lombard Village Manager Dave Hulseberg provided the following answer to your question: “Regarding the severance package, this is a business practice to avoid any issues related to the fire chief’s departure from the village. Over the three-month period that we are using the consultant firm as an interim fire chief, we are paying $64,680. The previous fire chief would have cost $48,900, including benefits, for this same period. The difference is $15,780. The contract with the consultant firm includes several items in addition to the interim fire chief position—preparation of a service delivery assessment and support to the village in the selection of a replacement fire chief. The consultant firm brought in a team of personnel with expertise in fire service, human resources and administration.”—blm

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Several weeks ago, the assistant superintendent of Glenbard School District 87 provided the Lombardian with test scores, achievement scores and AP scores for the four district high schools. Unfortunately, with such a blend of scores without proper quantitative and qualitative interpretation, the above identified scores are confusing. A recent Sun Times rating of the top 100 high schools in Illinois, based on reading and math scores, placed Glenbard South and Glenbard West in this select group. A computer check of the Sun Times Web site will identify the specific number rating for the above mentioned two Glenbard High Schools.

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Hello, this is Lombard calling. This is in response to the person who suggested that anyone who wants a constitutional government should send back their Social Security check. This statement highlights the ignorance of the caller. Send back the check to whom? I would like the government to send back the money they have taken out of my check every week. This is my money. I do not need the government to hold onto it for me—thanks anyway. I would like to have it so I can invest it for myself. Each year the federal government helps themselves to about $6,000 of money I have earned for Social Security. I have been contributing for over 20 years. That is roughly about $120,000. Since I will probably never receive a Social Security check, I would like the federal government to please send it back.

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Hi, this is Villa Park calling. Just calling to say that my family and I are really sad to see the loss of Tierra Grill on St. Charles Road. There are plenty of Mexican restaurants out there, but none of them was near the quality that they are, and we pass by it daily, and we mourn their loss daily. We were there a week and a-half before they closed, and we didn’t even know they were closing. So, hopefully something will come together and they’ll be able to come back, but we miss them.

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I’m calling from Lombard. I pay taxes in Lombard, most of which goes to the school districts. I’m just wondering why Glenbard East is building a new, extravagant tennis court on Wilson Avenue. I’d like to know approximately how much of that is going to cost the taxpayers, number one, and number two, how many students actually participate in tennis at Glenbard East. All I want to know is the approximate cost of that construction.

Josh Chambers, principal at Glenbard East High School, responded to your inquiry: “Each summer District 87 pursues a number of major repairs and improvements to the district's infrastructure. These summer projects are part of the long-term capital improvement plan that guides the maintenance and repair of the district's physical assets. As part of that plan, District 87 replaced the lower tennis courts at a projected cost of $160,000. That cost estimate was for the existing courts and fencing to be replaced, which included complete removal, deeper excavation, and a new gravel base to address cracking and buckling found on the existing court. Additionally, the surrounding drainage issues were also fixed. To our knowledge this is the first time that these courts have been replaced since their original installation. The new courts are the same size and materials as those at nearly every other high school in the Western suburbs and meet specifications set by the USTA. These courts are used by our boys’ and girls’ tennis programs which compete in the DVC in an IHSA recognized sport. We have over 50 athletes on these two teams. Additionally, the courts are utilized by our physical education program as a teaching space. When the courts are not being utilized by the school they are open to use by any resident of District 87.”—JAC

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Yes, this is to the person who’s not pleased with the car show downtown on Saturday nights for a few months during the summer. You chose to move downtown. You moved right next to the train. A little bit of noise from an event that’s a couple hours long once a week bothers you, but you can live next to a train that goes through there every hour on the hour, day and night, 24/7? Come on, get a life.

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Hello, this is Lombard calling to let all you local fishermen or fisherwomen know that the Madison Meadow pond is loaded with catfish. My husband and daughter are fishing right now. They’ve been calling me for the past hour. They are just pulling out lots of little ones, and my daughter caught a 12-inch one, a 14-inch one and she just caught a 16-inch fish. They catch and release. Anyway, just to let you know as an FYI, there are lots of fish there, and it’s a lot of fun for the kids.

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As an ex-Lombardian, I read in the Lombardian how Lombard is trying to revitalize the downtown area. That opportunity passed at least a dozen years ago when Lombard decided to invest in townhouses and condos in the downtown area, or convention hall around Yorktown, because they wanted to make money. There is no hope for businesses in the downtown Lombard area. Lombard gambled and lost big-time on these ventures. No businesses will ever come within sniffing distance of the downtown Lombard area. There will be no downtown business area ever, no matter how much Lombard tries to put in paving bricks, or whatever they need to do to make it look like Wheaton or Glen Ellyn or Naperville. Downtown Lombard does not exist anymore.

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I’m very curious to find out the cost of all the new lights that are being put up on North Main Street in Lombard. It seems like a rather large endeavor; I’m sure it’s very expensive as well, coming at a time when I doubt anybody should be spending money on stuff that’s certainly not totally necessary. Please reply with a total.

Carl Goldsmith, director of public works, responded: “At the April 15, 2010, board meeting, the Lombard Village Board of Trustees approved a contract with Gaffney’s PMI in the amount of $695,948.35 for the construction of the Main Street Lighting Phase II project.”—JAC

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Lombard calling. Once again, by the Prairie Path on one of the side streets of Lombard, where there are clearly stated stop signs, I sounded my horn at the Prairie Path about two seconds before I got there. A person on a bicycle and a jogger ignored it, and they went straight across at full speed. If I would not have seen them, I would have hit them. They did not slow down. They didn’t even stop, and the gentleman on the bike gave me a finger gesture for my efforts.

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Hi, Villa Park calling. Just a question here. Seeing as the local police in all the different towns around here have enough time to pull up garage sale signs, maybe they could enforce a law that’s on the books, and that law being, why don’t they stop these people on bicycles at night with no lights? Somebody’s going to get killed around here. They fly out of these unlit side streets. You don’t see them. They don’t stop at the stop signs. It’s a good source of revenue.

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Hi. Lombard here. I think we need an attorney general to join the 20 states that are going to get rid of the health care plan that our liberal socialist president wants to jam down our throats. So let’s get a new attorney general that’ll join the other 20 states and get rid of this darn thing.