In response to a caller in the March 23 edition of SPEAK OUT, in which the person wanted to know how long a homeowner has to complete a remodeling job, Bill Heniff, director of community development for the Village of Lombard, offered this explanation: “The Village of Lombard does have provisions pertaining to construction timelines. A permit, once issued, shall be valid for a period of one year for single residential construction. Up to two time extensions (for time periods of up to six months each) may be granted by the village, subject to a fee of 25 percent of the original cost of the permit. Where work has started, and has been abandoned for a continuous period of twelve (12) months, all rights under the permit shall be terminated. A larger project can sometimes be issued several permits through the course of years.  For example, there might be a permit for a second story addition, a separate permit for an addition on the side of the house and a third permit for a deck in the rear yard.  The permits may have all been issued at different times and therefore allow the total project to continue for several years.  Although the Building Division tries to work with property owners, especially during these difficult economic times, violation notices could be issued if the project exceeds time limitations. If anyone has questions regarding specific projects or code requirements, feel free to contact the Building Division at 630-620-5750.—JAC

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Again, I ask about fairness for parking. I park on the street at a friend's house near the high school and I get a ticket. Again, today, Wednesday, there are cars parked on Hammerschmidt, where it is posted “No Parking”and they don’t get tickets. Why is this allowed? Can I park there too?

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This is Lombard calling. I am a tenured math teacher in a district near Lombard. I agree with last week’s caller stating that P.E. teachers make too much money. To be honest, I think that most teachers make too much money. However, anyone who thinks that core curriculum teachers only work 35 hours a week is wrong. I am at school for at least 10 hours each day, bring work home with me, and grade all weekend. In fact, the majority of my coworkers also put in several hours each night and on the weekends. We do this for our students, bottom line. Next time you want to place judgment on someone’s profession, get your facts straight.

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I saw in a daily paper that Lombard is supposedly getting serious about its plans for the downtown area. First, I think it’s time to stop blaming Yorktown, although I can understand why people living near there don’t want to drive to the north side of town to shop. Secondly, as a northside resident, I do frequent a few of the businesses, but there aren’t enough to choose from to make it worth my while very often; I mean, how many hair salons does a downtown need? Lastly, I have to wonder why businesses come and go so quickly—high rent, no foot traffic, tight restrictions? The businesses and building owners need to work with the village to bring in more customers, and the village needs to listen to their concerns.

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To the person who complained in the March 23 Lombardian about the coverage of Montini school sports, Montini is a Lombard school as stated, and yes, since it is a private school students are from all over. If you go to Glenbard East you will see there are a lot of students who are not from Lombard. Montini is known for its athletics and when they can win championships two and three years, and how many times, it is just letting us know that and it does deserve the coverage it gets. Just accept that it is a good school, athletically and scholastically.

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While I liked Mr. Hogan’s idea for saving money in the fire department by using fire science student interns, I was disappointed to read that he would consider using them for what he called “routine duties,” such as cleaning, moving equipment, snow removal or picking up lunch. While those are responsibilities firefighters have to deal with, I’m sure no student intern wants these duties to be the highlight of an internship resumé for the future. These students want to put what they’ve learned in the classroom to use in the field. I never heard of a class called “Routine 101.” If I lived in his district, that statement alone would have cost him my vote.

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Regarding the Westin, here is exact wording from the documents the village filed for municipal disclosure as required by law: “13) Are parties, other than bondowners, participating financially in the Restructuring Plan? Yes. As mentioned previously, the Restructuring Plan involves the financial participation of the following parties as detailed below: Village of Lombard – the village is extending debt service guarantees on the refunding bonds to enhance the marketability of the refunding bonds in order to secure interest rates on the refunding bonds that is supportable by project cash flows. Depending on the amount of the bonds tendered for purchase, the refunding bonds are estimated at approximately $90 million. The village is increasing its level of direct risk on the project from $43.4 million (with respect to the Series 2005B bonds) to over $130 million.” This was filed March 11, 2011 and here is the link to the document for reference: http://emma.msrb.org/EP507869-EP396194-EP793385.pdf. The answer in SPEAK OUT by the village finance director stated the Westin is not owned by the village but by the LFPC. The LFPC is appointed by the vIllage; the village manager and finance director are the spokespersons for the LFPC.  Then why doesn’t the LFPC file for bankruptcy to get out of debt?  Apparently because they can’t—the village would have to file bankruptcy. In a letter dated Jan. 1, 2011, the finance director stated, “. . .  a 1.9 million dollar payment was unpaid and will accrue for future payment.”  Isn’t that the same as default? The two statements are wildly different but I believe the one filed where false statements carry penalty of law. It is time to be honest; the village and the LFPC are one in the same: The village owns the Westin.

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This is in response to the recent comment in SPEAK OUT that "the poor have never been poorer.” What a ridiculous statement. Think about it. This is 2011. Do you really think “the poor” of today—however they are defined—are in worse shape than the poor of 1911, 1811 or 1711? Many people who would now define themselves as poor, or fit some government definition of poor, have access to food, clothing, shelter, running water, electricity and emergency health care, not to mention televisions, microwave ovens, cell phones, computers, etc. I don’t believe “the poor” of decades past were so fortunate.

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If the Jaycees really wanted to help Lombard voters be informed, why didn’t they hold the forum prior to March 31? How about before early voting started?   

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Hi, this is Lombard calling. I recently read an article in the Lombardian about a prostitution sting that was conducted. My question is this? Don’t we have enough crime in our village that we have to start calling prostitutes from Chicago to come into our village to make an arrest, just to make our police department look good? I think their priorities are a little off base here. They can’t justify bringing crime into our town. We all know that the three from Chicago are going to get off with nothing more than supervision and a fine, and the ones from out of state are just going to move out of town. There’s no justification for doing this. Deal with crime in our village.

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Willowbrook has its football lights on 24/7, because the field has Astroturf. I thought we were supposed to try to save money with energy and the economy. Willowbrook, you’re not saving money; you’re spending more.

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I have no problem paying teachers what they’re worth. However, $125,000 a year for someone who works nine months out of the year, who teaches P.E. I don’t want to call it gym because it’s a room. It’s a little out of control. I’m in favor of getting rid of collective bargaining and tenure. I don’t have it; I get paid based on my performance. I get a bonus based on my performance. That’s how teachers should be paid. I’m all in favor of paying a teacher who teaches reading, writing, arithmetic, foreign languages, $100,000 a year, but I have a hard time paying a P.E. teacher $125,000 to teach volleyball, basketball, track and field.

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Voters, please note that Peter Roskam’s March 30 column, on the country’s new health care law, in which he derisively labels PelosiCare, offers absolutely no positive suggestions for improving health care in this country. Repeal the entire law, he says. He wants to start over from scratch with another round of time-consuming congressional battles with all the attendant grandstanding speeches, and gushing of lobbyists’ money. He rants on and on about how the new provisions hurt small businesses, with no mention of the workers who struggle to make ends meet, with no possibility of health insurance. And what about students who lose their parents’ insurance? Seniors in drug industry’s doughnut hole? And those with pre-existing conditions? For all of these situations, he presumable prefers the emergency room solution or Medicaid. Guess who foots that bill?

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Barack Obama wants the cutback on Medicare. He’s already cut back on the cost of living increase on Social Security. We haven’t had a raise in two years and yet things are more expensive. How come he isn’t going to cut off his vacations? Why doesn’t he stop flying that big expensive jet? Why doesn’t he take a cut in pay? Why doesn’t he give up some of whatever he gets—his cost of living allowance. Why don’t the state politicians give up some of their cost of living allowance instead of taxing us? Speak out loud and clear, because if you don’t, you’re going to be a prisoner some day.

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Hi, I wanted to respond to the people talking about Bill Clinton and the housing issues. I just wanted to let the caller know that if he or she were to look up the keywords on the Internet, Bill Clinton, homeownership of affordable housing, the person will see that Bill Clinton is clearly the reason why we had an economical issue with the housing market. In 1994 he wanted to make sure that anybody who wanted a house could afford one, whether they had a down payment or could even afford the monthly payment. So again, the first caller was right on this issue—Bill Clinton had much to do with that.