In response to a caller about parking boats in the Butterfield East subdivision, Butterfield East Homeowners Association President Dennis Devitt suggested contacting the DuPage County Economic Development and Planning Office at 630-407-6700. “You need to have the exact address of the home that is in violation and the reason for your call,” he stated, but the office will not ask for your name. “They will give the information to one of the zoning officers who will go out to the address and inspect the violation,” Devitt specified. He also said anyone can visit http://www.co.dupage.il.us/edp to fill out a form under “report a violation.” “This department has been very helpful to those people who have called,” the president added.—JAC

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Having lived in Lombard for 20 years, the quality of life in general I moved here for has diminished. No wonder people are upset. Now, these guys don’t even want to answer questions posed by the very people of Lombard who pay for their salary and mistakes. I challenge anyone who can call in on their behalf, since they no longer can defend themselves as per the village policy they have set.

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What is the Lombard rule about fences around pools? People are putting these 3-foot by 12-foot inflatable pools up for summer months and leaving them up. Any kid can walk up and jump in. It seems like Lombard should be worried about kids' safety and make sure there's a fence around these types of pools.

Anyone with questions regarding the village should contact the Lombard Village Hall at 630-620-5700 for assistance. It is against village policy to acknowledge or respond to any item that is from an anonymous source, as was approved by the board of trustees at the May 19 meeting.—blm

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Great story about the father and daughter who walked around Lombard; Bill Walsh for village president.

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What does it take for people to stop at the line on side streets and coming out of store driveways? I have to swerve to the left to avoid you, and then, if there’s a car coming up behind me to the left, I risk hitting it. Please, people, do not pull out so far that other vehicles have to swerve to avoid you. That, and people who pull up too far turning left at a stop light, at least keep your wheels straight so that if you get hit from behind, you won’t get pushed so far into the oncoming lane. These are simple safety practices that can save lives.

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Hi, this is Lombard calling to voice my concern about the fact that on the night of the big storm, there was nobody answering the 9-1-1 call center. There was a fire in front of the building where I live due to a downed power line, and we could not get through to 9-1-1 and had to call through Downers Grove to get somebody dispatched out of Lombard almost 20 minutes later. Absolutely disgusting with the cost of taxes that I pay in this town to be able to have that blatant disregard for service.

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Hi, Lombard calling. To the party who said don’t call SPEAK OUT and ask the general public for information because they won’t be able to answer if for you, you’re wrong. I got an answer. I called and wondered what the purpose was of the crossing signs at Madison Meadow on Wilson and a neighbor on Wilson filled me in. So, you do get the information even though you can’t get it from Dave Hulseberg and Company. Lombardians helping Lombardians. Kumbayah.

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I’m disgusted beyond words with the way the Lombard pool is being operated. This is just one example: The other day it just happened to be drizzling when it was time for the pool to open, but because no one was waiting at the gate, the pool closed, "due to the weather." There was no threat of lightning and supposedly the pool "opened later and then closed again because there weren’t very many people swimming." By 3:30 p.m. the sun was out and it was above 80 degrees but the pool was closed for the day because "it would cost too much to keep it open." It doesn’t matter how many people show up; the pool should be open every day unless there is an obvious threat of lightning or more severe weather. The ridiculous amount of taxes that go toward this district, along with the outrageous price of pool passes, there is obviously adequate funding to keep the pool open every day. How dare they take our hard-earned money and then treat us that way?

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This is Lombard here. I think we can all take a deep breath, go outside and just soak in that moment. Instead of complaining about teachers’ salaries, Terrace View Pond, President Obama or the light poles down on Main Street, you know what? In the vernacular that’s very appropriate for this kind of post, quit complaining. Please. Enjoy life; enjoy what you have because it doesn’t last long. So, if you go about complaining you’re just going to be known for going about complaining. If you go about living for the day, you will go about living for the day and feel a lot better about yourself.

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Bravo to John Q. Public, who lives in Greg Gron’s district and who called in on the June 22 SPEAK OUT. I hope Mr. Gron does call in and say he’ll answer questions. I’m John Q. Public and I live in Keith Giagnorio’s district and I’m wondering if he’s willing to stand up to Mr. Hulseberg; or does he work for Mr. Hulseberg instead of the other way around? Let’s hear from you, Keith.

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Hi, this is Lombard. I just want to give a shout out to Com Ed, who with these horrible storms, restored our power in less than 24 hours. We appreciate your 24-hour work. Thank you so much, Com Ed.

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This is Lombard calling. When you attempt to go find parking for Metra during the week after 8 a.m. there is no parking or you have to park very far away to try to get to the Metra train station. There are two empty lots that are grass that have to be cut every week: the old DuPage Theater and the Hammerschmidt lot. One or both of those lots needs to be converted to parking for Metra train parking. It would be great; they would pay for themselves, it costs $1.25; we are the cheapest of all villages around. Elmhurst charges $2 per day. It’s a great opportunity for us to have more parking instead of trying to find parking every time we need to take the Metra train during the week.

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Hi, Lombard calling in response to the person who doesn’t get summers off but works 45 to 50 hours a week. As to the teachers’ salaries, maybe you should feel free to have students come into one room in your house for eight hours a day. When it comes to your lunch breaks, you have those with the students. Oh, when the students go to recess, you have to stand out there with them, too. Teachers do not go into teaching for salaries; they go as a community servant. I wonder if you are a private sector employee.

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Lombard calling. This is to John Q. Public in the June 22 edition of SPEAK OUT. John, baby, why don’t you just get ahold of Greg Gron, identify yourself and ask him your question? What are you afraid of?

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Villa Park calling on the teacher bandwagon. Teachers sometimes don’t get paid in the summer. I know; I’ve got a lot of friends who are teachers and they have to work summer jobs to have supplemental income. So, if you could stop cracking down on the teachers and start backing them up—plus they’re baby-sitters for your kids and you pay a baby-sitters $100 sometimes a night, sometimes $50 a night. Teachers spend more time with your children than a baby-sitter does, so I think the teachers deserve the pay.

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I live in Villa Park and every week I look forward to my paper and reading SPEAK OUT and every week it’s almost entirely Lombardians complaining about something going on in Lombard. I read a response once that Villa Park was not being excluded, but simply Lombard had far more gripes. Well, I feel sorry for all those Lombardians and I feel so happy I live in Villa Park.

For the record, it’s not that Lombard has more gripes, it’s that Lombard residents call in more often than those in Villa Park, whether it’s to complain, make a comment or to offer a compliment.—JAC

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Lombard calling. To the person who said in SPEAK OUT, why not just e-mail the village your questions instead of continuing to use the SPEAK OUT forum since the powers that be won’t answer questions anymore. To that person I say, we continue to leave our questions in this space not out of fear, but based on principle—something you obviously don’t get and something Lombard elected officials apparently don’t have.

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You know, older people know that we are in a depression, and it’s only going to get worse. Young people are deluding themselves that it’s all going to be taken care of with Barack Obama. That guy doesn’t know what the heck he’s talking about, let alone fix anything. Getting to another point, the chief executive officer of General Motors said that gasoline should be taxed another dollar to bring it up to $5 a gallon. What is he drinking? People don’t have jobs; they’re not going to go out and buy car. They can’t afford a car. They don’t have enough money to pay their bills. They only have enough money to make their mortgage payments so they don’t lose their house. He wants to raise the price of gas to make you spend more money just to buy a General Motors car. He couldn’t care less if you went broke. Just buy another car. It’s going to save mileage. Baloney. We should have been getting better mileage out of these cars all these years. There’s no improvement at all.

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This is Lombard calling. On this freezing, freezing day, I’m sitting here wondering why we haven’t heard from Al Gore recently. Bill Clinton, when he was president, was on TV one time and informed us that the thing with global warming is, it’s going to get a lot colder. One of the Quaid brothers was in a silly movie where the Earth froze because of global warming. Yes, I know. The Earth froze because of global warming. You can call it global warming, you can call it climate change, but a scam by any other name is just a scam. I wish Al Gore would open up his pie hole so that it can get warm out.

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This is Villa Park calling. The reason for my call is I called our village several times to have our parkway tree trimmed because the grass doesn’t grow underneath. It needs to be thinned out. The village never returned my phone calls, nor did they trim the tree. Also I would like to mention that the streets are horrible, our tax dollars continuously go up—my tax bill increased by $400—and our streets aren’t being improved. I don’t mind paying for schools, the library and the police as long as our streets get repaired.

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I’m a person who really enjoys playing golf and I like playing over at Western Acres Golf Course. Last year it was devastating the way the DuPage River overflowed and ruined the sixth, seventh and eighth fairways. I don’t know why the Lombard Park District doesn’t jump on the state of Illinois to clean out that culvert that goes underneath Butterfield Road. This year I called to make a reservation, and the course is closed because it’s flooded again. Last year the guys did a lot of work over there on the golf course to straighten it out, but there’s always something in that culvert that keeps backing it up because it narrows down, goes underneath Butterfield Road and extends out into that big well across the street. They want to make revenue, well, if they want to make revenue, then they have to change that culvert so the water can get out of there. They also need a new phone system, too, over at the golf course. It’s absolutely horrible. That’s it. I’m all done complaining.

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How in the world are we supposed to take care of things addressed when the village has no accountability whatsoever? The Village of Lombard is an embarrassment with regard to the follow-through and the way they treat the people who live in Lombard and pay substantial taxes, including myself, to get absolutely no service whatsoever. Terrace View Pond is a disaster, the north side of town is a disaster, but Mr. Mueller, you’re doing a great job with Yorktown and the south side of town. We live on the north side of town and get absolutely nothing from the village with the exception of Cruise Nights on Saturday nights. It’s embarrassing to live Lombard, with the village board and with this park district. I want a refund on my tax bill this year. It’s a shame you don’t hold each other accountable.

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Lombard resident calling. The squirrels are eating large holes through our green Waste Management garbage can lid. We’ve observed this. If you have this problem, Waste Management advises soaking a rag in bleach or ammonia and putting it inside the garbage can. Brake fluid around the garbage can will help deter critters.

Waste Management was contacted for clarification of these deterrent methods. Spokesperson William Plunkett relayed the following information: “Squirrels and other animals can sometimes present a pesky problem and cause damage to waste containers, especially in neighborhoods where there are lots of trees. Unfortunately, there’s not an easy answer to keeping the critters away despite manufacturers’ best efforts to come up with the perfect squirrel-resistant container. Our recommendation is first preventive medicine. Seal as tightly as possible in plastic garbage bags any food waste that will be placed in the garbage containers. This will help minimize odors that may attract animals. Second, try not to overload the container so the lid seals properly, making it harder for animals to enter the container. We do not recommend using toxic fluids or other substances as a way to deter squirrels, since this could harm the animals and present a potential hazard. If the waste container lid or container is damaged, contact Waste Management. The company will repair the lid or exchange the damaged container for one in good working order.”—JAC