I’ve lived in Lombard since 1993 and when the numerous freight trains go by day and night they blast their horn for almost the whole time they’re going through Lombard. It’s become a nuisance. We have windows open between Maple and Parkside. What’s up with this annoyance? Please check this out.

The Union Pacific’s Web site, www.uprr.com, explains with the following: “Operating a safe and efficient railroad is Union Pacific’s top priority. Maintaining the safety of our employees, our customers and the general public is at the core of everything we do. For everyone’s safety, federal regulation requires locomotive horns be sounded for 15-20 seconds before entering all public grade crossings, but not more than one-quarter mile in advance. This federal requirement preempts any state or local laws regarding the use of train horns at public crossings. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) required pattern for blowing the horn is two long, one short, and one long sounding horn, repeated as necessary until the locomotive clears the crossing. Locomotive engineers retain the authority to vary this pattern as necessary for crossings in close proximity and are allowed to sound the horn in emergency situations. The federal regulation concerning train horns is officially known as the FRA’s Final Rule on the Use of Locomotive Horns at Highway/Rail Grade Crossings and became effective June 24, 2005.”—JAC

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The village manager, Mr. Hulseberg, is in the hot seat. He was in charge of community development while working into his new job as village manager. He apparently still runs community development and that is why Lombard keeps passing more code restrictions to make more revenue. Pretty soon you’ll have to register your shoes to walk on the sidewalk. No wonder it’s so hard to live in Lombard and get something done. Now they say they are going to streamline permit applications? Who made it hard in the first place?

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Hi, Lombard calling in a comment to the person who’s complaining about the $200,000 for the police command vehicle and they feel the money would be better spent on mosquito abatement because we don’t have crime running rampant in Lombard; well, maybe we don’t have crime running rampant here because we have such a well-equipped police department. Criminals would rather run around where there are no mosquitoes and an understaffed police department, rather than a town like Lombard where there are lots of mosquitoes and lots of police. I’d rather have that.

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I’m calling regarding the village’s reluctance to answer any questions from the citizens of Lombard. Perhaps, is it possible the paper could list the names and addresses of the trustees, along with their phone numbers so we citizens could contact them and express our dissatisfaction and rather incompetent move on their part?

Checking the Village of Lombard’s Web site at villageoflombard.org, the following telephone numbers for the Lombard village president and trustees were obtained. Once you click on government, pull the menu down and click on Village President and Board of Trustees. If you would like to e-mail your trustee, you can do so by going to villageoflombard.org and clicking on government on the right side of the home page. Find the trustee(s) to whom you would like to send an e-mail and click on e-mail Trustee X and compose your e-mail. The telephone numbers for village board members also are available on TV Channel 6.

• Lombard Village President Bill Mueller—630-627-2252
• District 1 Trustee Greg Gron—630-620-8457
• District 2 Trustee Keith Giagnorio—630-953-2105
• District 3 Trustee Zachary Wilson—630-495-6920
• District 4 Trustee Peter Breen—630-403-5963
• District 7 Trustee Laura Fitzpatrick—630-426-0621
• District 6 Trustee Bill Ware—630-629-5805

—blm

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OK, here it is, in a nutshell—cars, stop for pedestrians that are already off the path, in the street. Do not stop to let people cross in front of you, who are not already in the crosswalk. Pedestrians—you do not have the right to wander into traffic. Stay on the curb until there are no cars. Bicyclists—you are required to stop at every intersection before crossing; you are considered to be a moving vehicle and thus, must follow the rules of the road. And to the foul-mouthed person who launched a veritable cornucopia of filth my way the other day, you still aren’t supposed to just walk in front of a moving vehicle.

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Good to see that the communist tactics of the village will be applied to their own employees. Print names and salaries, then pay for a study to freeze their salary. Hope that includes the overpaid village manager.

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Hi, Lombard calling. Sept. 11 is coming up; the 10th anniversary. Can you believe it? And yet people in this country still seem to forget it every year. Just a little trip down our dead-end street and you see many flags not displayed on Sept. 11. In fact, it’s usually the same three people who have the flags out. Is that to much to ask to honor our veterans and our veterans’ parents and relatives who are still here? It’s not to much to ask. Everyone claims to be patriotic but no one puts the effort into it. What a disgrace to our soldiers and soldiers’ families. It’s a slap in the face.

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Why are the banks that control foreclosed homes allowed to let the grass grow uncut? They set a target for vandals and the village should be getting after these banks.

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Recently someone called in and tried tying the Tea Party to wealthy country club people. I’m a Tea Party member and I’m not wealthy. Actually, the overwhelming majority, the major demographic of Tea Party members, are senior citizens who, before this, had not been involved in the political process. As far as if you want to make that connection because someone was at a country club, our president stayed in a house that rents for $40,000 a week, so who does he represent? Our president, who complains about millionaires, is the first person to achieve a billion dollars in his campaign chest, which were contributed to him by billionaires. Who does he represent? Our president has bailed out billionaires and bankers. Who does he represent? I get a kick out of these people. They don’t even know what the Tea Party is and we have a president living the lifestyle of the rich and famous.

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OK, SPEAK OUT, here are some of my ideas for eliminating some of our problems. First, it’s immigration, legal or illegal. One thing they must do—they have to pledge allegiance to the United States or get out of the country. Then we should make it mandatory that they speak English and last but not least, any money they make can’t be shipped out of the country. It has to be spent here. They made it here, they wanted to come here, let them spend it here. We need them to spend the money here, not send it out of the country. We should prevent that. The other thing is jobs, jobs, jobs. What we need is jobs, like manufacturing that produces something. We don’t need highway jobs that create jobs and cost us tax dollars. They don’t get money to do construction work without the politicians taxing us to death. We don’t need jobs that require taxing. We don’t need more government jobs. They cost us too much money. We need manufacturing jobs that produce and bring income and pay taxes.

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Hi, this is Lombard calling. I’m just curious after the hike on our homes and everything else, Lombard, why is it that I just registered my daughter, a sophomore in high school, and spent $692 and another $150 to register my eighth-grader? What are they doing with our tax dollars? That’s all we want to know.

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You Democrats, you’re funny. Just because Reagan and Bush raised the debt ceiling, doesn’t mean it’s right. You know what the difference is, and if you didn’t know, I believe Barack Obama has invoked Reagan and how wonderful he was as a president several times and even referred to him in his speech recently as being a great president. The fact of the matter is, we had low unemployment, the economy was flourishing both under Bush and Reagan. What is happening now is we have this person running this country who thinks, I can spend all the money I want, and I’ll just raise taxes on people who make $250,000 or more. I’m a small business owner and my gross income last year for my business was $280,000, so I’m going to get taxed because of this. That doesn’t mean we should be taxed. President Obama has spent more money than he knows what to do with.

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Let’s see. Barack Obama. Where do you start? Gitmo’s still open, now instead of two wars we’ve got three; high unemployment; high debt; can’t figure out how to raise the debt ceiling; shovel-ready projects; I think that adds up to one thing—failure. I can’t wait for hope and change.

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I saw on the news that Pat Quinn signed paperwork so illegally documented people can go to college. Is it my imagination, if you are illegal in this country, not here through the right ways, you can go to college? All these illegals must be taken out of this country. I’m sorry; if you’re illegal, then let’s send you back, not ship you to college. If you’re legal, I have no problems. My family came her legally. They got mad at the people who came here illegally. Now all of a sudden we’re sending illegals to college during a time of recession. Thank you, Pat Quinn. Let’s ship him off to Mexico.

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The president’s always talking about how everyone needs to give. I’m OK with that as long as Congress and the president, and every federal employee, take a 10 percent cut across the board. I think that would be a good start toward reducing our deficit. I’ve given enough. My taxes have gone up, my interest rates on credit cards has gone up; everything has gone up and I keep working my tail off to try and make ends meet. Yet these people in Washington, D.C., sit back and continue to make as much money as they can by voting in raises every year. Cut them all off; cut them back 10 percent. That would be a good start to paying down our deficit, and then put a freeze on their wages for three or four years and see how they like it.

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Lombard calling. Recently someone complained about Peter Roskam. I, by no means, am a Peter Roskam fan; although I am a conservative, I do not care for Peter Roskam. The person complained that the only ones getting rich in the last decade off of tax cuts have been the rich. Well, in February, their president, Obama, stated that if the Bush tax cuts were allowed to go away, and not extended, it would cost the average American family $3,000 a year. Folks, the big lie is that those tax cuts were for the rich. Overwhelmingly 75 percent of those tax cuts went to the average American family. You know what I find amazing? Right now there are so many people in this country who are willing to steal their kids’ future, their grandkids’ future and think they have a right to their neighbors’ money, especially if their neighbor worked harder than them and made more money than them. I don’t get this. I really can’t understand how anyone wants to keep spending the way we are. Folks, you’re stealing from your kids.

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Hello, this is Lombard calling. Just wanted to make a note to the police department that the Prairie Path crossing on Main Street is quite hazardous. Drivers are stopping to let bicycles cross when I thought the bike riders are supposed to stop to our traffic on Main Street going north and south. And the other thing is, please, if you have a dog, pick up its waste.

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Hi, it’s 6:30 on a hot summer day and noticed the lights on in a couple of business parking lots. I thought we are supposed to be practicing energy conservation, particularly on these hot days. Could we get the message out to all our local businesses; please do not use the lights in the bright, sunny times.

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Hi, this is Lombard calling about everybody calling in and wanting to talk to somebody about the problems and saying nobody will answer them because it’s anonymous, I’ve e-mailed my trustee and put my name down and still haven’t heard a response from him, so I know they’re not doing anything. I just thought I’d call and let people know. We need to get new people in there.

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Hi, this is Villa Park calling. I’d like to know when they’re going to take down the sign on Madison and Ardmore.

Actually, these signs can be found in a number of locations around Villa Park, announcing upcoming projects. According to the Village of Villa Park Web site, they are related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, or ARRA, a stimulus package enacted by Congress and signed into law by President Obama on Feb. 17, 2009. The law was intended to provide a stimulus to the economy for such spending as infrastructure, transportation and utility projects, among others. The site explains that “The Village of Villa Park has been making every effort to take advantage of financial assistance made available by the Recovery Act,” for a variety of improvement projects. The site further explains that the village has applied for funding from a number of sources for nine capital improvement projects—four have been granted ARRA funding, with several more notifications pending. Detailed information on the projects, sources of funding and amounts requested will be posted on www.invillapark.com/government/village_departments/public_works/pwarra.asp when it is available. Questions can be directed to public works at 630-834-8505.—JAC

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Here are two tips for consumers to consider: Dollar General has a house brand of baby wipes that are large in size with great strength, and have gentle ingredients that do a great job of cleaning up. These wipes are made in the USA. Some other stores’ house brand of wipes are manufactured in China. Schroeder’s ACE Hardware has a terrific assortment of cleaning products that are environment and people friendly ranging from hand soaps and laundry detergent to rug shampoo. Hats off to Schroeder’s for giving us a choice when buying products for the home.