This is Lombard calling regarding advertising signs posted on village property. According to village ordinance, “No signage can be placed on Village property, including, but not limited to; village parkways and telephone poles.” With this being said, I am wondering why village employees do not remove publicly posted advertising signs. So my question is, as a private citizen can I legally remove these annoying signs?

Community Development Director Bill Heniff responded: “In most cases, signage is prohibited from being placed within public rights of way or on village property. If one sees such signage, they can contact the Code Administration Division of the Community Development Department at 630-620-5749 for removal. If you note the nature and location of the sign, it will help our staff more quickly respond to the service request. There are no provisions against individuals from removing illegal signs from telephone poles or parkways.  However, we do note that selected sign types, such as some types of sandwich board signs and special event signage approved through a special action of the village board can be placed in the parkways.”—JAC

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This is Villa Park calling and I have a question. I was watching the Feb. 14 board meeting on cable and they voted to pass a bond issue for $2.5 million to pay current expenses. I don’t know how they can do that, paying expenses with bond money; but they voted Monday night to pass it and do it, then the next day they said they bought the bonds already Monday morning. How could they buy the bonds before they voted on it?

According to Villa Park Interim Finance Director Vydas Juskelis, “We were accepting bids on Monday to determine the marketability and rates of the bonds. The final sale of the bonds was contingent on the village board's approval at the Monday, March 7 meeting. Once the approval was given, the bond sale proceeded the following day. The determined use is all related to capital funding, whether refunding of prior bonds, reimbursing for prior capital expenditures or capital expenditures planned for the future. The only expenses incurred are the costs of issuance and the underwriting fees.”—Chris Fox

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The Village of Lombard, state of Illinois and the federal government will soon be spending $6-10 million on a bridge for the Great Western Trail, a bridge to nowhere. Meanwhile Barrington is looking for funding for a bridge for ambulance traffic to get across town, Villa Park has the Ardmore Avenue bridge closed for more than a year because of no funding and Lombard is trying to fund the Hill Street bridge by begging Glen Ellyn for help. Shouldn’t we as taxpayers and Americans put our money to better use and spend the money where it is most beneficial for citizens and maybe save a life?

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This is in response to the March 9 SPEAK OUT about teacher pensions. First of all, gym is not a subject; it is a room. Yes, there are physical education teachers who make $125,000, but they coach three sports and do various other extracurricular activities to earn that money. P.E. is a valuable subject because it is something you can do for a lifetime. When was the last time you did something physically active? When was the last time you participated in something and needed to use social skills? When was the last time you completed something with someone else, aka a team member? These are all things that are important in physical education. You go and teach the youth of today and get people complaining about you and your job constantly and tell me how much your pension is worth. Don’t attack teachers until you walk in our shoes.

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This is for the person who was bothered by the sign on the church that said pray for peace in Afghanistan. There is no limit on the amount of prayers we can give. So we can pray for peace in our country and we can pray for peace in Afghanistan, too.

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Hello, Lombard. I have a funny question. In 2008, when oil and gasoline prices soared, it seem like every 30 seconds there was a story about how President Bush was causing this because he was an oil man and driving the price of gasoline up so he could make more money—which was not true. Today, with gas over $4 a gallon in some parts of Chicago, where is our lovely media today saying President Obama is driving up the price of oil so he can make money? Is it because he’s not an oil man? Is it because he’s a Democrat?

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Hi, this is Lombard calling. I implore the parents of elementary school children to talk to the school teachers and administrators to make sure they have Internet blocking software in place; not only Internet blocking software, but maybe you could do what is a reverse list, where you can only put in Web sites that are allowed as some Internet sites don’t put the parental rating on their own sites. Once again, call the teachers and administrators at your child’s school to make sure that Internet blocking is in place and therefore is working.

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Lombard calling. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are supposed to protect We the People from government intrusion in our lives. The Second Amendment, which is the right to keep and bear arms, is the only right where you are required to get a FOID card to exercise it. Why? Answer, progressive, liberal Democrats.

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The caller who urged others to “learn the facts” should do just that before calling SPEAK OUT. One may recall that President Obama’s opponent in the 2008 presidential campaign was Sen. John McCain. By the caller’s reasoning, McCain was not a working senator for two years either. That whole premise is nonsense. As for facts, it is a fact that President Clinton didn’t make any loans to anybody. Loans to people who couldn’t really afford to buy a house were made by financial institutions that failed to exercise due diligence in determining whether loan applicants could really afford to buy a house. It was the pure greed and malfeasance of those institutions that led to the near fatal collapse of the American economy and the mess Obama inherited from the imperial-like  Bush Administration. I say again to the caller, “Learn the facts.”

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Hey, just curious. I’ve been thinking, after the horrific earthquake in Japan and the tsunami and all the damage, I was just curious if all the countries in the world or the stars of Hollywood are going to start sending money as quickly to Japan as they did to Haiti. I’m just trying to draw a comparison here. I’m just curious.

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Now you people know exactly what Republicans are like. Why don’t these people in Wisconsin take a big pay cut? When they retire they get the pension, they get the health insurance, they get the whole shot. It’s all theirs. But no, they have to take it away from the working family. This is ridiculous. This is what Republicans do. They try to break the unions.

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Gov. Quinn. Are you seriously considering taxing senior citizens who are on a fixed income? Governor, you would be better served being like the heroes of Wisconsin, Indiana, New Jersey, Ohio and New York. Get a little courage. Become heroic.

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This is Villa Park calling in response to the person in Lombard talking about his or her gas bill. I live in a one-bedroom apartment in Villa Park by myself and I use gas. The heat is supplied but I have to pay for my stove, which is the only gas that I use. It seems ridiculous to me that I pay delivery charges of $14.42, taxes of 80 cents when I only use 49 cents’ worth of gas. What’s wrong with this picture? I wish somebody could figure it out. By the way, am I just paying to have the gas delivered or am I actually paying to use it?

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Hi, I’m calling on the Village of Lombard’s parking policies. On one street, there’s a pickup truck parked in the front yard. I just wonder how long we need to look at this in our neighborhood. Also, cell phone texting, my gosh. The police could be making so much money if they would just look for it. That’s where they could earn some money to fill some of these budget gaps. Let the police start policing again.

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Hi, this is Lombard calling. I notice they put a skating rink in next to the lagoon next to Grace and North Avenue. When I was a kid, we used to skate right on the lagoon and they haven’t done that for a couple of years. They have a warming house and used to serve cocoa. Is there some reason why they don’t use the lagoon? It was an ideal spot and they just have to plow the snow off of it.

Paul Friedrichs, executive director of the Lombard Park District, responded: “For the safety of our residents, the park district prohibits skating on any pond with less than 9 inches of solid ice. This winter, the ice on the ponds came close, but never reached nine inches. In fact, we have only allowed skating on the Lombard Lagoon once in the last 14 years due to the lack of ice thick enough to skate on. Because of this safety precaution, the park district spends considerable time and effort to produce skating rinks in the parks (including at the Lagoon) off the ponds. Thank you for your inquiry and as always, please feel free to call the park district with any questions or concerns you have at 630-627-1281.”—JAC

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Villa Park. A good way to make some money is to start ticketing people who park their car across the sidewalk. Hmm? Think about it.