Overburdened taxpayers, let me know if you feel like I do. If the president of the United States had been doing his job like he said he would do it, he wouldn’t be looking for handouts of more money and wasting time campaigning to hold onto his job. If he was working every day, doing what he’s supposed to do for this country to make things better, he would get in office or be re-elected automatically. Instead, he’s not performing his duties. He’s running around asking to be re-elected. Why should we waste our time and money on a man who didn’t perform like he said he’d perform? It’s a waste of time. Do not put the man back in office. We don’t need the expense of him running around in that big expensive airplane, wasting our tax dollars. We don’t have enough dollars to even buy the necessities anymore.

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The Supreme Court ruled that Obamacare was constitutional. The 10th Amendment of our Constitution says, and I quote, “ The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, and to the people.” Will somebody please enlighten me as to where Congress had the authority and enumerated powers to have a national health care? Please tell me where in the 10th Amendment they get that authority.

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The light for Walmart on 83 has gotten completely out of control. I don’t know what they changed about it but it’s creating traffic so bad that it’s almost backed up to St. Charles during rush hour now; it takes a few cycles of the light to get through it. They really ought to fix this thing because it’s making me and a lot of people late for work. I’d like to know what’s going on with that.

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The recent actions of the University of Illinois retiring vice president of accounting shows how easy it is to process a very lucrative lifetime pension in excess of $360,000 per year without oversight. The aforementioned vice president of accounting selected a pension he did not qualify for and apparently submitted the paperwork without supervision or authorization. Currently, the questionable pension is under review and on hold. No action has been taken by the University of Illinois against this retiring vice president of accounting.

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Pension funds for teachers, firemen and policemen have been raided or not paid into by local government that was required of them. These hard workers have contributed their share, but local and state government used the pension money for other bills or projects, shortchanging dedicated pension funds. It’s like robbing Peter to pay Paul. Have the local and state politicians eaten into their pension funds or are they untouchable? Untouchable is what needs to be done for all of the pension funds. Let’s not criticize the workers. Criticize the politicians.

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To the person who called about yield signs in the road and stated people should stop at Main and the Prairie Path. No, they should not.  Main Street is four lanes; if you stop in one lane can you guarantee the other three lanes of traffic will stop?  If not, you are creating a false sense of security for the pedestrian waiting to cross the street. If you stop in the right lane and wave the pedestrian to cross, how do you know the person in the left lane will stop? Or the drivers in the oncoming lanes? If they don’t then there could be an accident. By creating that crosswalk and median that are there now, the village created a condition that did not exist before and could be liable.  The Prairie Path has stop signs at every single street crossing. Pedestrians are supposed to stop prior to crossing the street. Vehicles must yield to pedestrians already in the crosswalk; there is no legal requirement to stop and allow them to enter the crosswalk.

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This is Lombard calling. For the woman at Westmore Woods walking with her dog blocking the path while she drank coffee, so my dog couldn’t go by her for five minutes, I guess you never learned your manners. It’s not too late. 

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Regarding the flap over Chick-fil-A founder Dan Cathy’s stating his view against same-sex marriage, as long as the business does not discriminate against employees or customers, he’s entitled to his opinion. Another example: Some businesses close on Sunday—I think Chick-fil-A is one and Hobby Lobby is another—based on a Christian foundation and belief. Should I boycott them if their belief is different from mine? I don’t think that should preclude whether a business can set up shop. I say, let the consumers decide whom to patronize, not the politicians.

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Hello, Lombard. I think the park district needs a big thank you again for letting the historical society host the Civil War re-enactment. It is an awesome historical opportunity for families, kids and anybody who’s interested in history to experience and it’s here in Lombard.

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I was at Cruise Nights Saturday and somebody had two big, and I mean wide-big, not tall, collies right smack dab in the middle of all the crowd, in front of the café, where people were watching the band. I could barely get through the wall-to-wall bodies, and I had a hard time dealing with all the people. I can’t imagine what it looked like from the dogs’ point of view.

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Lombard calling. Just like the founder of Chick-fil-A, I support traditional marriage. You know, it’s funny, but the mayor in Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, who seems to be an intolerant bully, bigot thug, apparently has shown his true colors. The other day he made a statement, “If you don’t, as a business, fit the values that represent Chicago, you’re not welcome.”He decides what the values are for all of Chicago? I am getting tired of tolerating intolerance.

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Hello, I was reading the July 25 issue and I see in SPEAK OUT where somebody was asking about the geese at the park and in your reply you said Canadian geese are protected under the federal migratory bird act. They aren’t. You know why? There is no such thing as a Canadian goose. They are a Canada goose. Why don’t you get it straight?

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This is to the wonderful woman who retrieved my purse from the cart corral at Ultra Foods on July 17. I can’t thank you enough for turning it in to the customer service desk with none of the contents missing. I wish there were more people in the world like you. I hope all things good come to you and God bless you a million times over. Thank you so very much.

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Hi, this is Lombard calling. I’m very happy to see someone besides myself cares about Terrace View pond. It’s an absolute disaster. Either fill it in or fix it. There’s an article about how they were taking dirt from Lombard to build the bridge, but they never came and did anything at the pond. Two guys were in the Daily Herald talking about how they’re going to fix the pond. Everybody’s about public relations but nobody’s about getting anything done. The north side of town is absolutely atrocious. Oh, by the way. Thanks for finally picking up the brush; 27 days after the storm. Twenty-seven—why not just wait for another storm to come through and then we can wait another 30 days and then you can do it all at one time? Embarrassed to live in Lombard? Yes I am. Bill Mueller, please resign.

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For the second week in a row, my Lombardian is completely soaked. This week I went out Wednesday at 10 p.m. and my Lombardian was not there. When I woke up on Thursday morning it was sitting on my driveway completely soaked. It will probably take 48 hours to dry out so I can read it. Is there a chance that your carriers can wrap the Lombardian in plastic when it looks like it might rain? That’s what the daily papers do and it makes sense for the Lombardian, too, If you want us to read it, please make it easy for us to read it. Thank you.

Sorry to hear about your wet paper, but I wish you would have called to let us know your address so we could have provided you with a dry paper instead of only an answer. Additionally, if we had your address, we could have notified your carrier and reminded him/her to use plastic if rain is in the forecast. Our carriers have been using plastic bags for decades, but unfortunately we all get “caught”in the rain once every now and then. Sorry it happened to you two weeks in a row. If this happens in the future, give us a call at 630-627-7010 and we will take the proper steps to help eliminate this.—blm

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Hi, this is Lombard calling. I went to Germanfest last weekend and enjoyed myself. I did notice one thing; I saw that band 7th Heaven play, and I noticed they pulled their sound check in the middle of their performance for over an hour. Don’t they know they’re supposed to do that before they perform, so they don’t bore the audience to death?

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Hello. Lombard Village Manager Hulseberg instituted the gag rule for village employees seemingly for his own convenience. If public works department director Carl Goldsmith was able to comment in SPEAK OUT about the slow pick-up of tree branches and debris, I’m sure he would have. The catastrophic damage caused by the last windstorm left much debris in the roads and public rights-of-way. The public works department has a set amount of employees who are busy keeping Lombard functioning day to day. They aren’t standing around like Minutemen waiting for catastrophes to happen. When the storm hit they had to leave their normal jobs and put in many hours cleaning up the aftermath of the storm. Not only that, it was hot, and they are human beings like the rest of us, not supermen. They did a good job of clearing the village’s main rights-of-way so the emergency vehicles could get through and people could get to work. They cleaned up the areas around Madison Meadow and within the park so people attending the Taste of Lombard wouldn’t trip over branches while walking around in the dark at the fireworks. I think the public works department should be commended for all the work they’ve done in service to our community.

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I just have one question? How does Sacred Heart Church get away with closing off Elizabeth Street from Parkside to Maple for the Germanfest? Between that on Saturday night and Cruise Night, where you couldn’t drive down St. Charles Road; the police would stop you at Park and let everybody cross the street, and keep you on St. Charles Road for 20 minutes, and you try to turn on Elizabeth and you can’t, so you go down to Finley, which is going to be closed pretty soon but isn’t yet, and there’s a train. So what do you do? I don’t think they ought to be allowed to close off the streets, and that’s my comment.

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I just wanted to say, to the person saying they can’t understand why somebody would be upset that Paradise Bay closed because of low attendance, apparently that person is retired. When you’re working and look forward to the one or two or three days to get out and get some swimming because it’s so hot out and enjoy the pool and they closed it because it had a low attendance? If you buy a pool pass or you want to go to your local pool and you support it, that pool should be open unless it’s a dangerous situation, such as storm, rain, anything in that area. That pool should be open. I do not agree with that at all. That pool should be open unless there’s a dangerous situation.

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This is Lombard calling. I’m calling in regard to the person who said drivers are being disadvantaged over people walking across the street. Pedestrians, you have to be careful of upcoming cars. You do not own the road. Show consideration for drivers and do not pull out in front of them. Drivers have to obey the law and so do you. Just think about how the drivers would feel. Respect them as you want to be respected.

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Lombard calling. I see along Westmore-Meyers from Norton south to Roosevelt Road they’re putting in sidewalks. Who is going to be responsible for cleaning it? The village? Which I doubt.

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I believe that the liberals are manipulating the weather in an attempt to convince people that this global warming nonsense is true.

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Hello, this is Lombard. This is in reply to the caller last week about Paradise Bay’s low attendance policy. I did not pay an arm and a leg to sit home all summer because the lifeguards don’t want to watch so few people. Passholders should be able to go swimming on a hot day without worrying about the pool being closed. Are you kidding me? This is only the tip of the iceberg of problems in Lombard. Believe it or not, some people aren’t fortunate enough to have working air. How do you know that the handful of people at the pool aren’t there just trying to survive? Can you guarantee that those people have somewhere safe to cool down? I wouldn’t want that on my conscience.

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Hi, after reading the July 18 SPEAK OUT, I just wish the Village of Lombard would have waited to clean up the trees from the storm damage until everyone was done complaining in SPEAK OUT about how long it was taking. That way they could have served the biggest complainers first.

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This is in response to a call in the July 18 paper. This is about the stop signs at the Prairie Path and Ardmore. There is a stop sign at the Prairie Path there. It is for the people on the Prairie Path. There is one at every intersection. I think the education should go to the adults who do not pay attention to stop signs. They need to be educated and follow the rules so we drivers do not have to keep stopping at every other block.

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We are the answer to our country’s problems. We are responsible because we elected those who govern us. Pensions are out of hand. In California, firefighters earn $160,000 per year and can retire at 50 with 90 percent of their salary. Then we wonder why we have a problem. The average salary of a member of Congress is $174,000 per year, with office expenses averaging over $3 million a year. This does not include additional office space or furnishings. Why do we have a problem? We have allowed the power to be taken from us. We pay the bills. They make the bills.

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I see the president and his attorney general are hard at work to steal the election again, so he can keep his dream of a defenseless, third-world communist country for America.