York Township Highway Commissioner Dick Schroeder provided the following response to a call in last week’s SPEAK OUT concerning some of the roads in York Township. According to Schroeder, the caller was mistaken about a couple of the points in the telephone call. First, Schroeder said that 15th Street, off Highland, has been annexed into Lombard for at least 15 years. As for West Edgewood, off Finley Road, Schroeder said the first couple of homes on this block are in Lombard now and are not in his jurisdiction. “In general, our roads are in excellent shape,” Schroeder said.—blm

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Where should cuts be made in the federal budget? Some facts, then you decide. The following are salaries: President of the United States, $400,000; House and Senate, $174,000; Speaker of the House, $223,500; Majority and Minority leaders, $193,400; average salary of a soldier deployed in Iraq, $38,000. You decide.

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Lombard here, to JAC. In regard to your attempt to partially clarify my comment—I assume it’s not the village government that answered that, as they no longer talk to us—I am perfectly aware that Lombard’s $200,000 for their police commend vehicle—their new toy—was purchased with drug seizure/DUI money, but you seemed to miss my entire point. Where does it say these dollars have to be spent on such frivolous pieces of equipment, as opposed to something that would serve the citizens of Lombard in a more beneficial manner, such as mosquito abatement? It’s not as if we have major crime sprees and catastrophes daily here. Spend the money in more efficient manners, especially in these times of economic stress, rather than equip the village departments with all sorts of new toys that they can brag about, while it sits in some garage collecting dust.

You seem to have missed the point of JAC’s reply in the 8/17 SPEAK OUT column. You were right when you noted that we did not obtain the answer from the village due to the new policy, which was approved by Lombard trustees on May 19. It is against village policy to acknowledge or respond to any item that is from an anonymous source. If you have further questions regarding this, you should contact the Lombard Village Hall at 630-620-5700 for assistance. While we cannot obtain an answer from the village for you, I can cite the village press release that stated that the funding for this expenditure was a creative approach the village opted for in order to save general fund dollars that could be used for other expenditures. The drug seizure and DUI funds are restricted in that they are only able to be spent on law enforcement and commodities that will assist in the prevention of alcohol-related criminal violence throughout the state. Per this article, the village would not have the option to spend these funds on something like mosquito abatement–unless the mosquitoes were “flying under the influence.”—blm

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A few weeks ago a caller called in asking any union member to answer a question for him. Why do union members shop at big-box stores when they’re not supposed to? I would like a union member to call in and tell us why. I can tell you why—they want to save money like the rest of us. I don’t think they should. They should go to union stores only and over pay. That’s what a union’s for; vote union. If you want to pay less at these box stores, vote union, no. Would a union member call in and give us an answer to it?

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SPEAK OUT, I would like to say that I’m a longtime subscriber to the Lombardian and enjoy SPEAK OUT. However, lately it seems a little skewed with no answers from the village. I’m hoping maybe SPEAK OUT can answer these questions. One: Was it published anywhere that the accreditation was going to have an open mic night where we could speak on the Lombard Police Department? I didn’t see it anywhere. I also didn’t see the return of this Marine. The five-Scott picture, just ridiculous, but I realize sometimes you’ve got to do silly things like that. The $200,000 on our personnel RV, I believe it’s probably a lot more than that, but that was our money from drug busts—was that the best way we could spend it? Other than that, keep up the good work, SPEAK OUT.

An article about the police department accreditation appeared in the July 27 edition, and an article and photos about the return of U.S. Marine St. Bill McIntyre was featured in the Aug. 17 edition.—JAC

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As another school year draws near I want to remind everyone that underage drinking is against the law. Last school year, there was a big problem among the student body at a local high regarding underage parties. I urge the public to call the police when a neighbor or someone your child knows is hosting an underage party. In my experience the police have been less then helpful in curbing and stopping these underage parties. Regardless, call the police and report it. These young people are not only putting themselves in danger but the innocent people they may encounter driving home. If local police are not doing their jobs effectively then call your congressman/woman and state authorities for help. The underage parties in Lombard and Villa Park need to be put to a stop. Parents, it is against the law and you can be prosecuted for allowing underage drinking to occur in your home. Be a responsible citizen and parent, call police and let them know you will not stand by while they do nothing. When will the police take action? When there is a tragedy?

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So, representatives the Tea Party is meeting with at a country club in a wealthy town; does that tell you something about their membership?

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Thank you, thank you, to the two Lombard school bus drivers, the man with the boards and the lady with the dog, for your assistance when I ran over a curb in town. Lombard is a great place to live. Neighbor helping neighbor. God bless.

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Hi, this is Lombard calling in regard to the Terrace View Pond. Do you know what the difference between a pond and a swamp is? Well if you don’t, just go take a look at the Terrace View Pond. The Lombard Park District says they can do nothing about it as the water continues to recede and it is absolutely nothing more than a swamp.

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Lombard calling. I’m driving Saturday morning, it’s pouring rain, I’m driving on Westmore. Why aren’t the police out there giving tickets to those out there who are driving without lights? It’s a state law. Afraid to get wet?

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Hello, this is Villa Park. I’m just wondering if the Village of Villa Park could let the law be known about cars crossing the Prairie Path and Great Western Trail. Every since they put up those signs that say "stop for people in the crosswalk," bikers and joggers, which I am both, seem to think they don’t have to stop at the path, and it makes it even worse now. So. please, Villa Park, post the law, put up bigger stop signs or something, because somebody’s going to get hit by a car.

Information on the Prairie Path crossings was reported in an article in the Aug. 17 edition of the Villa Park Review.—JAC

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Next month the second payment is due on my property tax bill. I still haven’t figured out why there was a substantial increase in comparison to last year’s bill. Nothing has changed with our 60-year old dwelling that explains the increase in our property tax bill. I contacted both the York Township assessor and DuPage County assessor for an explanation regarding the increase. All I got was something about a tax formula that was used to compute the yearly increase that made no sense whatsoever. I was sent a copy of the tax formula for my personal awareness and attempted to compute the tax increase. The formula does not take into consideration any decrease in the value of our house but only follows the yearly tax increase process. Talk about a stacked deck.

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This is for Villa Park. Is the Dunkin’ Donuts on Lincoln and North Avenue ever going to get built? It has been promised for almost two years. First it was supposed to be started on April 15, then it was supposed to be started on May 15 because they were waiting for the TIF money. It still has not been started. Also, what is the status of Sonic on Roosevelt Road? That was also supposed to be built two years ago. I’d be curious to find out. Is anything ever going to get built in Villa Park?

According to Shubhra Govind, director of community development for the Village of Villa Park, “Both projects have been stalled due to private party negotiations. The village is very supportive of both projects and has done everything to move the projects forward quickly and efficiently, and looks forward to seeing both projects accomplished.”—JAC

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Hi, Lombard calling. Has anyone noticed how beautiful the homes on East Hickory have become between Main Street and Craig in the last couple of years? Amazing. Great for Lombard and keep up the good work.

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Lombard here. It’s time, people. We have to get the communist out of the White House and out of Washington, and all of his cronies, because he is destroying our country. I tell you, the guy is the worst thing that ever happened to us.

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Looks like more great use of village time with five police officers with the same name posing for a picture. I don’t understand how that benefits the village or the police department. I didn’t think it was good putting pictures of police officers in the paper, other than when appropriate. Just my comment. It’s good everything’s so under control we have time to do this. That was sarcasm.

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The sculpture in front of Lombard Village Hall should be called “No one’s listening.” Evidently not. The words I hear downtown are consolidation and recall. Suppose we have a village and nobody cares? We need people with a vision and passion for our village, not those who want another day toward retirement. Many of us spend our lives building our village. We keep electing new trustees and praying for change. There is a saying, If you do not make change within six months, you are part of the problem.

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I just wanted to give a shout-out to Schroeder’s Ace Hardware in Lombard. I had a dryer problem on Monday morning and my husband went over there and asked if they had any suggestions and they gave us the name of an appliance repair man by the name of Ron. He came out right away and serviced my dryer and told me what was wrong with it. He had to go and get some equipment for it and was back as quickly as possible and within a few hours my dryer was up and running. So, I would like to thank Ace and the appliance man for doing such a wonderful job of getting my dryer up and running. So, any time you need some help go to Ace Hardware and ask for their advice and they’ll give you some suggestions. It was great to have the dryer done and completed in one day. And the repair job was not all that expensive. Thank you, Ron, and thank you, Ace Hardware.

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There was a turtle missing on July 23 at Southland Park. Again, there is a turtle missing in the roadway at Grace and North Avenue. Whose turtle is this? We don’t have turtles being reported in the blotter. Just wondering who let some turtle go and how big it was. Thanks. Don’t do this to us.

I believe the turtles you are referring to were just trying to find their way back to the ponds where they live.—blm

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It was nice to see the acknowledgment about Carol Bauer and her long service to the Lombard blood drive and many other things she has given time to. She is a shining example of the vast majority of our village employees. Most of them have been doing a great job for many years. I hope our village manager treats them well for their efforts, as a good employer in the private sector would. P.S., I am not a village employee.

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Is anybody else out there slightly perturbed that our country’s going down the tubes? There’s approximately 17 million people without a job in the worst recession ever, and our president, who complains about millionaires and billionaires, is living the high life for 10 days with Larry David and other billionaires. And this same man who complains about millionaires and billionaires is the first man to have raised a billion dollars from millionaires and billionaires. Why are we paying for his campaign stump through Illinois and Iowa? When George Bush was president, the media were all over him making sure that whenever he went on a campaign stump he paid for it, not us. I’m not working but I’m paying for this man’s campaign. I don’t even like him.

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Hi, I was at German Fest and it’s really a wonderful event, but I noticed a great police presence plus the command vehicle from the Village of Lombard. I know the village won’t answer but maybe you can find out through other channels who pays for the security, who pays for the police command vehicle to be out in front of German Fest. I’m a taxpayer of Lombard, and if any organization is getting that for free, no matter if it’s a good and gracious organization, it still may be wrong.

“As in past years, Sacred Heart Parish has hired off-duty Lombardian officers for security at our Germanfest. They are paid from the revenue of the fest,” responded Roxanne Ditta, office manager and pastor’s secretary.—JAC

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Hello, Lombard. We need to repeal Lombard’s version of don’t ask, don’t ask. In other words, Lombard people, don’t ask, because we’re not going to tell. Repeal it. Recall.

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Improvements in the teaching and increases in the scores of the ACT tests are very important and vital for the goals of our students’ future.