On this library issue, maybe you can answer a question. What percentage of Lombardians actually have a library card? I think this would go a long way in figuring out if the library’s taxes are worth it. This is a serious question.

According to Bob Harris, director of the Helen M. Plum Memorial Library, “As of the end of April 2011, 18,877 residents have a library card. This is 43.7 percent of the population.”—JAC

Hi, this is a longtime Lombard resident calling and I just want to say that David Hulseberg has been a thorn in the side of Lombard for too many years. He’s working for us; we do not work for him. We don’t need him to censor SPEAK OUT calls.

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Hi, I guess I’m embarrassed to live in Lombard. You’re so worried about the sprinklers in Terrace View Pond, you must not be one of us having flooding problems. I do have to say the park district has been a great proponent of holding the village’s toes to the fire to help us get some resolution in our area, since our trustee doesn’t feel that it is important enough to take care of. The Lombard Park District has stepped in as the facilitator in this situation and we residents of Terrace View thank them.

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I guess the rolling stop and right turn, which was a controversy for the red light camera folks, doesn’t apply to the police. I saw a squad car turn right from St. Charles Road onto Main Street, using a rolling stop. I’m serious. If there had been a camera there, would the officer have to write himself a ticket?

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Hey, Lombard calling. I am very disappointed to see that once again we are going to host Taste of Lombard. The business I work in, I associate with people from surrounding towns and call it something less flattering, wondering where do we get all the people from who go to that event. I’m not sure why we have it. It certainly is not a family-oriented thing. I wish we would just get rid of that thing.

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I want to say thank you to the person who called in and said that a person who is making $100,000 a year and noted that teaching was very, very easy and has a doctorate, thank you, because that is our point. Teachers who are not very good teachers at all who are making $100,000 a year should not be teachers. Thank you for making my point so clearly. This is what we’ve all be talking about. Teachers who teach and and perform well should be well paid. Teachers who don’t teach and think it’s really, really easy should be making less or not be teachers. Once again, thank you for making my point. I couldn’t have said it better.

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The Democrat-controlled government says they can’t afford to give the Social Security a cost of living allowance and they can’t afford to help them out with Medicare. If they can’t afford all this stuff, how can they afford the millions and millions of dollars President Barack Obama is spending flying around the country, with all the security, the helicopter, Air Force One; all that money could be spent but they can’t give us a cost of living allowance. They can spend all kinds of money on that president. All he’s doing is thinking he’s extending his agenda to become president again. Don’t vote for that guy or the Democrats any more. Otherwise we won’t have a life or a country.

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The last election the people spoke with sometimes a clear and distinct voice. Be about the people’s work. Democrats and Republicans, some of the electorate, have risen. The people are concerned; they’re afraid; they’re hurting. They don’t want ideologues from from either party. Address the problems of jobs, budget, deficit, to name a few. What has been done so far is not good enough. A word of warning to both Democrats and Republicans. Be about the people’s work or you’re fired.

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This is Lombard calling. Hey, Bonnie MacKay, I have a solution for the new village policy on not answering questions or concerns for anonymous residents. Can’t you submit the questions with your name as the questioner? Then, you will get an answer and be able to print that answer in the SPEAK OUT section.

Thanks for your comment. That’s how we’ve always done it. Unfortunately, with the new policy, it no longer works.—blm

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Hi, I’m calling in response to the Wednesday, May 18, about the routine traffic stop. I would just like to ask the caller what’s routine about a traffic stop and how he or she knew that’s all it was. Were you doing a ride-along? If not, I think you should keep your comments to yourself.

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I just want to respond to all of those who have been misinformed about teachers. I, even as a substitute teacher, do not work only the time allotted from 8 a.m. until 2:30 or 3:30. I put in more hours than most people do sitting behind a desk. I am more exhausted and more emotionally drained at the end of a school day dealing with 25 children who didn’t have the common sense to say please or thank you because their parents apparently didn’t teach them so. I, as a teacher, have to finally go and teach manners because all of a sudden we forgot as parents what they were. So no, you may go and think we don’t deserve as much as we get, but we deserve far more than anyone in the past 30 years has given us credit for because teachers had to take over.

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In response to the SPEAK OUT comments on May 18, I’m going to tell you one more time; $125,000 per year for a P.E. teacher is too much. Again, teachers work seven hours a day, nine to 10 months a year. You want what you’re promised but our politicians promised too much. Our politicians should be washed and changed like dirty socks. Teachers with tenure cannot be fired no matter how bad a job they do. We are under the misguided assumption that to make something better, throw money at it.

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Lombard here. It’s interesting certain individuals in this village government are pushing for no questions, no answers from SPEAK OUT. They want to ignore the people of Lombard and treat them like they are a transplant from outer space. The same village people are getting big bucks while a lot of us are struggling without a job or just trying to make ends meet. It sounds like they are running out of answers—or excuses—for their actions. Don’t call SPEAK OUT about state or federal problems with government; the problem starts at home, here in Lombard.

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This is Lombard calling. What is going on with the Westin Hotel? I read there was a lot of stuff going on. I read that our leaders don’t want to commit to any comments or answers; apparently they can’t admit they made some dubious decisions when everyone was high on speculation and greed. Anyone out there with information on how much it’s going to cost us taxpayers, please call in. I’d like to know.

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Regarding the Wednesday, May 18 SPEAK OUT, first of all, the little graphic with the flowers trying to get a drink, that’s really cute and every time I look at it, it makes me smile. The second thing, someone called in about Lombard parking and was referred to the Village of Lombard. For train parking you need to refer them to Metra. Metra has all sorts of rules about parking and how parking is taken care of in each village. So, refer people to Metra.

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I heard a commercial on the radio for a place up north of here whose business it is to get rid of scum and algae in lakes and ponds. So, there has to be a way to do it, right?

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This is Lombard calling. I read the letter to the editor from Tom Masterson. Granted, the cabinet store is probably not the most ideal business for the downtown; however that building’s been vacant for about five or six years. Very nice for the landlord and adjoining people to see some activity there. And the people who come in there might just go across the street and get a coffee at 7-Eleven, eat on the corner or get a pizza; whatever. I don’t know what this guy is trying to do but it seems he doesn’t have the best interests of downtown Lombard in mind.

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Lombard calling. It’s funny how we can have taxpayers pay for street lights to be on down the street every day, we can pay for statues to be put up all throughout town, but yet we still can’t have speed limit signs on the block between St. Charles Road and Maple on Highland Avenue. Every day cars go down here speeding and yes, it is a residential street, people. Please, Lombard, wake up and start spending money wisely.

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My question would be, with all the problems we have going on in Lombard and the financial responsibilities that we’re having trouble with the Westin, is the village manager really in China? I guess we won’t know because apparently the village can’t answer any questions. This wouldn’t be anonymous; if SPEAK OUT would put my name in I’d be happy to leave it. That’s my question. Maybe somebody else out there knows what’s going on.

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Hi, we’re calling because if anybody who reads this has a lost girls pink bike with a white seat left on Fairfield, we left it there for a day, thinking you might come back to pick it up, but we’re afraid somebody else was going to take it, like a junk hauler or someone, and we don’t want you to lose your bike. We had the police come to pick it up, so if you lost your bike, please call the police department and you can go pick it up. It was right near the Prairie Path on Fairfield.

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Lombard calling. Since the village will no longer respond to the anonymity of its citizens or its media, the loudest anonymous comment that can be made is to vote them out. Then they won’t have to respond, will they? The best transparency in government that can occur in Lombard at this point is clearing out the village hall of the entrenched society of self-importance that currently occupies those offices and start all over again.

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Lombard calling. Once in awhile something comes up about the railroad. Usually the comments are on the negative side. The railroad plays a major role in our lives. I personally think the only organization that is more efficient in getting things done and on time is Disney World. The railroad intersection at Grace and St. Charles was closed on May 16 for 10 days. It was back in full operation May 27. Hats off to the Union Pacific’s great teamwork. I wish there was more of that in today’s world.

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The great thing about computers nowadays is you can find out everything, so I did some research. Soon I’m going to have a child at Glenbard East. Glenbard East has 176 days of school; of those days of school, only 145 are considered full days of school—the rest are early dismissal. That means that a teacher at Glenbard East works an average of 6.5 hours a day for those 176 days. If you take that now-infamous P.E. teacher who makes $125,000, that works out to $109.27 an hour. Last year in Illinois the median income for an individual was $45,000 which works out to basically $22 an hour. I have a feeling this might be why people are a little bit upset with the salaries in our schools nowadays. You guys aren’t even close to what the rest of us make and no, don’t tell me about all the stuff you do at home. Other people have to do stuff too at their jobs. The facts are the facts, folks.

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I’m one of the veterans who attended the sunken garden event and would like to thank Mr. Brandon Catt of Glenbard East Eastwind Vocal Ensemble because he did such a great job and so did the young people. It was a great day and lovely singing. I’m a disabled veteran and I appreciate it very much.

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Lombard calling. There was something in SPEAK OUT someone said about professors not even teaching at the college level, that they have graduate assistants and assistant professors, and student teachers. That’s not at every school; that’s at your big state schools, state colleges and state universities. Check out a small school and you will have the professor himself teaching the class. Why would you go to a state school? That’s a waste of money to have a fellow young adult teaching the class.

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Lombard calling. I keep hearing how much we pay teachers. How about the payroll of a village manager and his hired staff? They apparently consider themselves exempt from holding themselves responsible for their actions and decisions impacting our day-to-day living in this village. They don’t even want to answer to us. Who works for whom? I thought if you pay someone, he or she works for you. We need to fire the rascals.

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I was at the memorial service over at the park and I want to tell you it was extremely moving, a wonderful service. For all who participated in it, thank you, thank you. It was just so moving, so beautiful. I was there many years ago, the first year they had this and hadn’t been for years, and it certainly was impressive. A real tribute to what Memorial Day should be. Thanks to all who put it together. It was a beautiful, beautiful day.

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Hi, this is Villa Park. I want to thank the family who anonymously left the greeting card filled with various gift cards. During this difficult time, the support of family and friends is invaluable. We cannot thank you enough.

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There’s a lot of controversy out and it’s being addressed by many professional medical people that fluoride is very bad for the human body and it would behoove the water department in Lombard to study this. There is a lot of information out saying that it is bad and detrimental to our health. They should be looking into this instead of being hoodwinked that it’s for our benefit. It does not do us any good. They should get into this and study it more closely before they get all of us to consuming something that is destroying our health.