This is Lombard calling. Hey, District 44 administrators, let’s do right by our children this year— with emphasis underlining “this” in regard to providing their classroom curricular and textbook materials at the beginning of the school year instead of five weeks into the school year like last year. And for heaven’s sake, let’s not hide it if there’s a problem when the parents inquire. Let’s make sure the materials are available for our children on time in the classrooms for their learning. Administrators, you have cut back on field trips and recess at Manor Hill, saying that they’re not learning opportunities; well hey, guess what? So is not having classroom materials on time.

Dr. Maura Zinni, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning, responded to your comment that last year there was “a transition with administrative assistants in that building over the summer,” and further stated that with all the schools ordering supplies in August, “there can be a backlog.” She emphasized that the district acknowledges the oversight. However, she concluded, “We corrected that and this year that problem did not exist in District 44.”—JAC

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Where did the caller get his/her “information” that Obama and the EPA are—by edict—reducing our coal capacity by one fifth, at a cost of 1.5 million jobs, and causing “rolling blackouts” across the country? Where is the evidence supporting those claims? That call is a prime example of how Obama-haters are either woefully misinformed or deliberately dishonest in their shameful attempts to smear the best president this country has had since Bill Clinton.

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Hi, I’m calling from Lombard. I’m addressing the person who’s calling SPEAK OUT about the police RV at German Fest. I don’t understand what the big deal is. The police RV is paid for. I would rather have it being used in the community sitting at an event or function rather than have it sitting in the parking lot of the police station not doing anything. I believe having the police RV at a festival or event, we’re getting our money’s worth and getting use out of the command vehicle, whether it be for a crime that just occurred at a festival or maybe for first aid. It’s paid for so why not use it in the community and it can get out to the community in case of an emergency. Take a chill pill.

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I would just like to say thanks to Pat Quinn, our governor. He saved us millions and trillions of dollars. Why? If you’re illegal, we’re going to give you a free education, even though you did something wrong. Let’s take down the borders, let’s take down the fences; we don’t need immigration anymore, we don’t need border patrols. Let’s get rid if the DEA, too, and the ATF. You know, Pat Quinn, you’re the best thing that ever happened to Illinois. How do we get rid of you? Has anybody voted for Pat Quinn? Please, please, don’t vote again—ever.

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Hey, Lombard, can you believe what President Carter has done to our economy? Oh, wait a minute, it’s not President Carter, it’s President Obama. Gee, I thought I was back under the Carter administration with the way the economy, unemployment and housing has gone. Well, it looks like we didn’t get the third term of George Bush—we got the second term of Jimmy Carter. Thanks, President Obama. How’s that hope and change?

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To the person saying the Tea Party doesn’t care about the middle class and the poor pay no taxes, if you did a little research, you’d see that the truly rich, the top 1 percent, pay 95 percent of the taxes in our country. The bottom 44 percent pay absolutely no income tax. To the one saying that Al Gore is a wonderful leader and thank God for him, you should listen to the kind of language he uses. I don’t think God would agree with it too much. You’ve got to do your research and not just believe what these progressives will tell you. It seems they want to turn everybody against the tea party because they can’t let you accept the truth. I believe they have to lie to you.

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So Obama and others, including Warren Buffett himself, are pointing out how he has a lower tax rate than his own secretary? OK, dig a little deeper. The political analysts have pointed out that this may be true, but it’s comparing different types of tax rates. The billionaire seems to be comparing his capital gains tax rate to his secretary’s tax on her salary. From what little I know, the lower rate on capital gains is because that encourages people to reinvest in business and so forth. So, add up what they actually pay in dollar amounts, and let’s see who really pays more.

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Lombard, I would like your opinion of Village Ordinance Chapter 153: signs. The purpose and scope of signs is the ordinance codified in the regulations cited as referred to as the Village of Lombard Sign Ordinance. The purpose is adopted to preserve, protect and promote public health, safety and welfare; to enhance the economy and the business and industry of the village by promoting the reasonable, orderly and effective display of signs and encouraging better communication with the public; to enhance the physical appearance of the village by preserving the scenic and natural beauty of the area. There’s a sign that’s been horrifying in town for over a year. Either tear it down or put something up. Your opinion, Lombard.

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Hello, all you loyal citizens of the United States. All the subsidies that go to these companies has to cease: oil companies, corn producing countries, our own, and the other thing that has to cease is the expensive foreign aid that we ship out to everybody else around the world. We have to start feeding ourselves, our own people and put our own people to work. Companies that are sending businesses out of the country and producing out of the country, cut their subsidies off. Let’s stop this nonsense and get back to the basics of our country; take care of our children first, our family first and then we can correct the problem.

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Someone asked a simple question in SPEAK OUT this week. When is the sign at Madison and Ardmore coming down? Thanks for the long response with the government line, but you did not answer the question. When is the sign coming down? It seems like it’s been there for two years. 

According to Vydas Juskelis, director of public works for the Village of Villa Park, “We will remove the sign once we are notified by IDOT that the project has been officially closed out.” He added, “The project is physically completed. What remains is just [to] close out [the] paperwork.”—JAC

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Hi, I’m calling from Villa Park. I have proudly worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 27 years and I would like everyone to know the USPS receives no financial support in any way from our government. Since 2006 the PAEA Act was enacted by Congress which requires the pre-funding of retiree health benefits for our postal workers. We have already paid $50 billion to $75 billion into this fund. If not for this requirement, the USPS would not be in such a bad financial state. Many cutbacks have been made and if not for this pre-funding mandate, we would be solvent. We believe this pre-funding money is being used as a slush fund for other government agencies. Again, most importantly, we are self-sufficient and operate on funds generated by products and services we offer to the public. We receive no help from our government.

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I was watching the president give a speech in Iowa and I am sick and tired of people quoting Warren Buffett on how he pays less of a tax rate than his secretary. It’s comparing apples and oranges. Warren Buffett pays taxes on capital gains. His secretary gets a payroll tax. If he was concerned about it, Warren Buffett should pay his secretary more and should give all his money to the federal government if he’s that worried about it. The only thing that really is more disturbing than Warren Buffett is that the president, who’s supposed to be the leader of the free world, quotes Warren Buffett. Next thing you know, the president is going to start quoting George Soros. Thanks to all of you who voted him in.

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This is Lombard here. I think the issue of bullies is not going to stop. Measures have to be taken to counteract what bullies are doing to children these days in our high schools, junior high schools and our primary schools. So, if we want our kids to grow up and not have anything to worry about, we really need to counteract bullying. It’s been going on at all levels of school I don’t care if it’s from grade school all the way up to seniors in high school. Seniors in high school—they should know better. Something needs to be done about that because that can really put some traumatizing thing on a kid’s life. It needs to be taken care of and if people don’t take care of it, then shame on them and shame on those who you grew up with.

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This is to thank the person who found a black shoulder purse along Roosevelt Road Labor Day in Villa Park and next day returned it to my front door. Thank you very much.

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Can you believe it? Laura Fitzpatrick took the lead on Westmore where a business apparently was upset that a business next to them was having their customers park in front of the store. Laura put signs stating it is for their business only; all others will be ticketed. Now, people are getting tickets who park in front of the store but are not using it. I didn’t know you could only have a store sign for your store on a public street, but could you please find out for me how I could get street signs for my store so no one else could park there? I’m sure this would be very, very helpful to me and endear Laura’s persona in the village. Good going, Laura. We’re for ya.

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Hi, this is Lombard giving out kudos to Schroeder’s Ace Hardware. If you live in Lombard, Villa Park, Elmhurst, anywhere in the vicinity, please do yourself a favor and go to their location. They are the most hospitable, family-oriented business I’ve ever come across. We love you, Ace.

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According to one of the recent callers to SPEAK OUT and I emphasize "speak out," I am one of his/her fellow Lombardians also referred to as a bully. Hello, this is America, where freedom of speech is a right according to our constitution. Your very comments are an expression of those rights but yet you are critical of other people who express their opinions. Do you know how many furlough days village employees are expected to take during these tough economic times? None. Have the salaries of any of the village employees been frozen? No. Have the village employees been asked to pay for all of their health benefits? No. Does the village manager still have convenient use of a village vehicle? Yes. Are the village employees feeling the economic deprivation that many of other people in our country who are unemployed experiencing? No.

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It seems that politicians lie, lie, lie all the time and never tell us the truth. What I’d like to know is why newspapers can’t start telling the truth. They keep writing up the unemployment rate as 9 percent. The unemployment rate is really about 18 percent. They only report the people who are applying for jobs. They don’t talk about the people who have been unemployed for two, three, four, sometimes five years. This is a false number. Stop lying to us people. Report the true figures; stop printing what the government tells you to print to make it look good for them. The true figure is somewhere around 18 percent of the people being unemployed. Let’s start telling the truth and stop the lying.

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This is Villa Park calling. In the adopt-a-fire-hydrant program, one of the rules is words must be in English only. Why is that?

Village of Villa Park Village Manager Rich Keehner explained that English-only text was one of the rules of the family who proposed the program. “We left it in. Most of us aren’t bilingual, so I think it’s easier to drive by and make sure it’s OK—not inappropriate text of a different language.” Some 77 fire hydrants have been adopted as of press time, according to Villa Park Village President Tom Cullerton.—JAC

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Hi, just wanted to thank the village employee who came by our house, on our property, and gave us an opinion on the tree that we have a concern we would have to take down. We really appreciated his opinion and it did save us a lot of money, and as I said, it was on our property and he was more than happy to do it. So, I just want to say thank you very much.

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Lombard here. While reading SPEAK OUT in recent weeks, I see several articles pertaining to President Obama’s 10-day vacation, during these trying times, as well as referring to him as a communist. While Obama is not blameless for the many messes we find our country in, let’s not forget that our beloved Congress decided to take almost the entire month of August off, rather than stay in Washington and attempt to solve these many problems. Also, a recent Chicago Tribune commentary compared Obama’s first 31 months in office to other recent presidents during a similar period of time, with respect to vacation time taken. Low and behold, “W” Bush runs away with that title, with 180 days of vacation in this same time frame. That’s almost six months out of 31months, compared to Obama’s two-plus months total. So, let’s at least lay off this criticism of Obama and identify real issues that need to be addressed. And as for inferring he is a communist, that’s as bad as referring to Bush as a fascist or Nazi, which he is neither.