Hi. Your staff at SPEAK OUT seem to be on top of things. Could you possibly find out what happened to the Sonic that was supposed to go into Villa Oaks shopping center?

According to Shubhra Govind, director of community development for the Village of Villa Park, “There is a restrictive covenant that one of the anchor tenants of the shopping center has which has been a hindrance in moving the Sonic forward. The landlord is working on the issue so that as soon as they have the covenant removed, Sonic could move forward with submitting plans for a location west of the entrance (as opposed to what was approved east of the entrance) off Roosevelt.”—JAC

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I’m calling because I really have a problem with the sports coverage. You tell me how many of the girls on the Montini championship basketball team live in Lombard or Villa Park, and the answer is none. I’m not sure why it covers all the pages when your local athletes and the parents who subscribe to your papers don’t get any coverage at all. It’s worthy to have an article, not full pages of coverage like you’ve been doing. Get a grip on where these kids are from.

We are aware that some of Montini’s athletes are not residents of Lombard or Villa Park. Montini is a Lombard school, and when a Lombard school wins an IHSA state championship, it is a noteworthy achievement. Our sports section did not feature much coverage of Montini’s wrestling and girls basketball teams during the course of the winter sports season. When those teams recently won IHSA state titles, they did receive plenty of coverage. It is not accurate to state that local athletes haven’t gotten any coverage at all.—Chris Fox

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I wish we had Gov. Walker in the state of Illinois. Good job, Gov. Walker.

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Lombard calling. While some celebrate the Earth by turning out the lights and sitting in darkness, we Christians celebrate during this Lenten the life of Christ, the true light of the world.

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Hello, SPEAK OUT and all you people who read this column. I think the president of the United States should learn to keep his nose out of other countries’ business. We don’t need to be getting into another war. Mind his own business. Let those other countries take care of their problems and straighten out their problems. We should sit by and let the United Nations do that work. That’s what they were created for. Why should we be using our men, our tax dollars being wasted because the president doesn’t even know what he’s doing?

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The caller who responded to “learn the facts,” Obama inherited. I’m tired of hearing that nonsense. What has he done? Let Obama stand on his own; $1.4 trillion in spending for each of two years; $700 billion in stimulus that didn’t work; 9.6 percent unemployment; three wars still going on—the border, Afghanistan, Iraq; redistribution of wealth, which is socialism. I say again, to the caller, learn the facts—Obama is costing us our freedom and country.

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Hi, Villa Park calling. I watched the candidates forum on cable the other night, and was surprised that a library candidate tried to give the impression that use of the Villa Park Library has decreased. Use of libraries throughout the county has increased. In fact, there were more items checked out at the Villa Park library last December than in any previous December in their history. He should use his statistics in a more responsible manner.

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This is Lombard calling. I just saw on the news that Obama has done something very productive since February. And that productiveness was? He made his own beer at the White House. He could have been doing something better for the country, maybe doing something for the union protests in Wisconsin, maybe some policies for the Libyan turmoil, but no; he was brewing beer that his wife contributed honey to from the White House garden beehive. I hope that beer tastes really good, like the seed of the country you should really be focusing on. Thank you, Obama; hey maybe Joe Biden will butt in when you have a taste test of it.

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I was driving down North Main Street on this beautiful day, and saw that the Village of Lombard apparently hired a landscape company to clean up the parkway. While I understand taxpayer money being spent for such a purpose, why did the village hire a company from Schaumburg? Do you mean to tell me that there are no Lombard businesses that could handle the job? We’d rather pay Cook County taxes than hire one of our local landscaping companies? How can we hope to do a better job attracting businesses to Lombard if those in power choose to outsource such a task? If we want to improve our community, we need to appreciate what each one of us can offer to it. Village board, please rethink the meaning of money well spent.

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For the person who thinks they know the facts; you’ve got to be kidding me, comparing Barack Obama to John McCain. John McCain’s a war hero. He’s held a real job, has spent many years in elected office. Obama was in office for six years and ran for office four of those six years. Never held a real job in his life. Are you kidding me? There is no comparison. By the way; you like the way he’s handling the economy? How about unemployment? How about gas prices? How about the crisis in the Middle East? How about the tragedy in Japan. Let’s just forget it and take a trip to Rio for the weekend. As for all those loans, it’s related to the Democrats lowering the requirements to receive a loan to begin with. It’s time to get your head out of the sand and really learn the facts.

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This is in response to the $125,000 PE teacher: Gym teacher, you are overpaid. For those teachers who get a failing grade for allowing students to graduate who can’t read, communicate or add, shame on you. These teachers should quit. They know because of tenure law they can’t be fired. Another teacher is hired to teach their class while the failing teacher sits around not teaching but still being paid. Finally, for the dedicated ones who try and try to turn out educated students, God bless you. Remember one thing: Teachers work on average 35 hours a week with approximately nine to 10 weeks off of work. This means teachers work nine or 10 months but get paid for 12.

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Hello, Lombard. I’m so glad to see that President Obama closed Gitmo. Oh, wait; he hasn’t done that yet. But at least there are no more trials there anymore. Oh, wait; he’s resuming trials there. Didn’t he promise to close Gitmo and no longer have trials there? Oh, I guess he broke that promise. At least unemployment is no higher than 8 percent. Oh, wait; it was 9 percent. I think he broke that promise, too. But he cut spending, Oh, wait; no, he spent more in February than the entire Bush budget in 2007. Oh, sorry.

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This is Lombard calling and I’ve got to chime in on the teacher pensions. First off, someone said you shouldn’t complain about teachers’ salaries and pensions unless you are a teacher and went on to the typical talking points. We get to complain about it because we pay these exorbitant salaries and these exorbitant pensions. When I look at what it takes to become a teacher, and what it takes to become a doctor, do you realize there are some family practitioners who make less money than teachers do? Let’ face it. Our education system in this country is broken. It doesn’t work. We’re not doing a good job educating our kids. We’re paying too much money for too little. The schools have been set up for the teachers, not the kids.

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Hi, Lombard. I just want to remind you that Paradise Bay, our new water park that we enjoy each summer, that was from the hard work of Kim Angland and people of the parks. So please vote for Kim Angland as park commissioner.

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Yes, this is Lombard and I just want to say I saw the Glenbard East basketball team on TV, which was nice to see. My only concern was that none of them put their hand over their heart during the national anthem, but the Simeon team did. The Glenbard East team, they had their arms around each other and were swaying back and forth. I was kind of upset that our hometown team did not use the correct respect for our flag.

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I see that our District 41 representative, Chris Nybo, is already paying back his deep-pocketed industry backers. His HB 1552 seeks to limit the investigative process when employees bring discrimination cases against their employer. I hope everyone who is not the boss remembers Mr. Nybo’s true loyalties when he seeks re-election next year. This bill does not improve Illinois’ business climate. It only makes the powerful more powerful.

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Hi there, this is Lombard calling. I’m just wondering how long somebody has to remodel his or her home. It’s been going on for 3 1/2 years and my neighbor does it one little piece at a time. All you hear all spring and summer long, which I’m not looking forward to, is nailing and hammering. Why does the Village of Lombard allow people to complete building on their homes for four or five years? I’m embarrassed to live in Lombard.

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Hi, this is Lombard calling. I would like to know who we contact when we have neighbors parking the cars on their front lawn and also, if there are people parking over the sidewalks, do we just call 9-1-1 and will they get a ticket because it happens a lot and it’s a good way that Lombard can make some money.

SPEAK OUT has printed numerous calls about illegal parking which suggests that people aren’t reading them: The police department has said to call 9-1-1 to report it. Police officials have said that tickets are issued for violations of such no-parking ordinances.—JAC