Remember, voters, Carole Pankau voted against the Smart Grid with ComEd. Remember that next time you don’t have electricity for a couple of days.

According to votesmart.org and the Associated Press, you are mistaken: The senator cast a yes vote. In fact, in an e-mail called “Connecting With Carole,” she states, “We must keep up with the times. Smart Grid will help us keep jobs in Illinois by maintaining reliability of service and by meeting the demands of the 21st Century economy.”—JAC

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I want to congratulate Karen and the Lombard Town Centre for a wonderful Spooktacular this year. Karen, thank you for your dedication and everything you and the LTC do to encourage people to patronize the businesses downtown. It’s a shame those who have actually been voted into office in Lombard don’t appear to be as concerned with the welfare of the downtown or the financial benefits of having a bustling business as you and your volunteers are. Mr. Mueller, during the last election this largely vacant downtown problem was a flash point and little has been done about it on your watch. I suggest you take notice of what these people are trying to accomplish and begin supporting it more adamantly, or in case you haven’t noticed or been listening to the discontent in this village, after the next election, someone else will.

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Hi, this is Lombard calling. I’m just wondering why there is no left-turn arrow at St. Charles and Westmore when you’re going north on Westmore and want to turn left on St. Charles Road. There really should be a left-turn arrow. Sometimes it’s pretty difficult to get a left-hand turn. Hey, Lombard, you think you can get that done for us? Thank you.

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Regarding the letter to the editor about teacher pensions, OK, if the teachers contribute to their own pensions, how long is it before that total amount per retiree is depleted? Then who’s paying that person’s monthly pension? The pension system needs to be overhauled and not just for teachers, but for all government workers. It seems like DuPage County is at least trying to do that.

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Has anyone noticed that Terrace View Pond seems to look a little better? You could see the ducks actually swimming because the water looked less mucky.

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A huge thank you to the Lombard Historical Society and to the Lombard Park District for hosting the Civil War re-enactment group on Oct. 22-23. We were very impressed with how well it was run. It was a great way to spend an afternoon. We hope we do more things like this in the future. We enjoyed it very much and it gave us a good reason to be out in the fresh air on such a beautiful fall day. Lombard’s a family-friendly town, that has room for all generations.

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I have an idea. How about if Gov. Quinn allows slot machines at race tracks and airports and then the state gets a quarter of the profits of that money and puts it toward ComEd’s grid upgrade? Then we won’t get higher rates for ComEd upgrading our grids.

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Wow, conservatives had a field day smearing President Obama in SPEAK OUT on Oct. 26. They did, however, speak the truth when they called Joe Biden “wonderful” and applied the same superlative to his “boss,” Mr. Obama. Then they began to exaggerate, calling him “the smartest man in the world.” That isn’t anything our president has ever claimed for himself but he certainly is smarter than the average uninformed conservatives who call SPEAK OUT. For instance, one caller said that if you give (rich) people tax breaks, they use it to “stimulate” spending, they hire people who actually need jobs. Well, they have had the benefits of the Bush tax cuts since 2000. They undoubtedly spend more--five cars in every garage, memberships in at least three country clubs, etc., etc., etc., but where are the jobs the tax cuts would allegedly help to create? Overseas, that’s where. So much for that worn and fruitless theory.

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So Mr. Mueller and the village want to join with other municipalities to help the village and residents save money on electricity bills. That’s great, but now that ComEd will likely get rate hikes, despite Quinn’s veto for Smart Grid, will one negate the other? Similarly, if the village president is looking out for us, will he speak out against water rate hikes that seem to be on the horizon, and ask for the water commission to account for all that so-called missing money? What don’t leaders get about reaching into our already empty wallets? Please, Mr. Mueller, help those of us you represent.

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The village board just adopted a transparency policy for our local government. It is supposed to be the best in the state. The past two months the village board also held “special” meetings in the community room at the village hall.  They are not televised. How can they pat themselves on the back for being transparent then hold meetings that are not televised? You can’t do both. Every meeting of the village board should be televised if you really want to be transparent. The budget process will be starting and all the budget meetings will be in the side room to avoid being televised. Time for the board to change this and put everything out in the open.

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This is Lombard calling. I read SPEAK OUT and everybody is disgusted with what’s happened to our village. People are upset with Bill Mueller, people are upset with Dave Hulseberg, but you know what? We voted Bill Mueller in. Bill Mueller’s been here forever. Bill Mueller will get elected again. In District 1 where I live, the claim to fame that he seemingly brags about is that he got parking lots for the commuters put in downtown, using up what little valuable space we have that could be used for retail. Instead, we have parking for residents of other towns to use the train. He’ll get elected again. Hulseberg was appointed but the people who appointed him will all get elected again. That’s what I don’t understand about you people. Stop complaining if you’re going to keep voting these same people in. Don’t complain about the bridge to nowhere over Grace Street. I agree with you; it is appalling the way our village wastes money. Let’s not mention the Westin Hotel and convention center.

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Lombard calling to agree with the person who called to complain about people leaving their handicap placard hanging on the rear-view mirror while driving. I have a handicap placard and it states right on it, “Must be removed before moving vehicle.” If you don’t remove it, you may get a ticket. If you’re afraid of forgetting to put it up, then get a handicap license plate.

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Congratulations to the 2011 undefeated Montini Broncos sophomore football team. St. Pius X graduates on the team are A.J. Melarkey, Tom Long, Austin Pohlman, Ryan McAuley, Frankie Vosicky, Daniel Jennrich and Jeremy Giderof.

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This is Villa Park calling and I was appalled to see that Villa Park businesses were having a festival on Saturday because of the re-opening of Villa Avenue. They should be having a protest of anyone who had anything to do with the way that Villa Avenue was constructed and what they did to the businesses. That is absolutely criminal and whoever masterminded that deserves the protest. That was the worst thing there was for residents and business owners. Go into any store and they had to let help go. That’s nothing to be proud of, Villa Park. You were just in a time warp. It’s just the saddest thing there is and I am so sorry I even live in the village. It’s just a sad, sad thing.

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I’m commenting on the letter to the editor regarding teacher pensions and how they deserve all what’s coming to them. She indicated they pay 9.4 percent of their paycheck toward the pension. Well, they get about 60 to 85 percent of their salary, say, an average of $75,000, as their pension. Other people contribute 6.2 percent of their salary with their employer contributing a 6.2 percent match, so they’re putting in 12.4 percent to Social Security and they don’t get anywhere near 60 to 80 percent of a $75,000 package. So, teachers need to realize the pension system is unsustainable because they’re not contributing enough to make it sustainable and something has to be done.

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Big hats off to the park district. Big hats off to the historical society and big hats off to the living museum. My wife and I on Saturday went to see the encampment of the Confederates and Union soldiers and the skirmish and everything else that went on with the Sheldon Peck house. We enjoyed it so much we went back on Sunday. Please, everybody, support this. This is wonderful; absolutely wonderful. Thank you, Lombard, thank you very much for putting this on for the people and thank you to all the living museum re-enactors. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It was just wonderful. That’s what Lombard should be like.

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Hi, this is Lombard calling in response to the person who keeps complaining that no one else flies the flag on Sept. 11 or any other day that the flag should be flown. There may be people who don’t have the ability to fly the flag in front of their house; some people fly it in the back of their house in their back yard, not in the front. The flag needs to be seen by the people who are flying it. It doesn’t need to be seen by everybody. I wish you people would just stop complaining and realize that some people just don’t have the ability to fly a flag in the front yard and it is in back.

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I have a few pet peeves to share. First of all, aren’t we a democratic society whether we are Republicans or Democrats? Democrat, not Democratic Party. And when I read about people being busted for drugs, why do officials seem to always call them narcotics? I learned in college that narcotics is not a blanket synonym of drugs, but means drugs that are, in general, in the opiate family, which does not include meth, cocaine, etc. When a new lane opens at a store, why is it that people who didn’t have to wait as long as I did appear out of nowhere and rush up to the new line? That’s rude. Lastly, it seems ironic that the village says SPEAK OUT callers are hiding behind anonymity, but aren’t they hiding, too—behind a self-serving policy that they arbitrarily came up with?

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Hi, Lombard calling. We want to give a huge thank you to the Lombard Historical Society for organizing the excellent Civil War encampment a few weekends ago. My family enjoyed talking to the re-enactors, the surgeon and Mrs. Lincoln. Thank you to everyone involved; you provided us with a fascinating and fun way to spend the weekend.

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Hi, this is Lombard calling. I just discovered Rancho Viejo. It’s a Mexican restaurant in the strip mall on North Main Street, Lombard. It’s cozy, clean and comfortable and most of all, the food is very good at reasonable prices. I urge Mexican food lovers to give it a try.