Hi, this is a voting taxpayer from Lombard and I’m just wondering, has anybody noticed that Chicago, Cook County and Springfield are ruling the whole country of the United States? Look where all the money’s going. It’s going to Chicago.

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I see where the city of Hammond is willing to sell us people in the Western suburbs water at cheaper rates than the city of Chicago. I strongly suggest everybody in Lombard, Villa Park, Wheaton and Glen Ellyn call their local representatives, their mayors and the DuPage Water Commission to get the ball rolling, instead of just being puppets and give money to Chicago. Let’s get this rolling and let’s buy our water from Hammond.

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The call last week questioning Trustee Fitzpatrick for asking about the LPFC members was wrong. She knows who they are; the point was to make their names public and ask why they do not attend a meeting in which they are asking for almost a million dollars. The part that was wrong is when she asked Hulseberg who they are, and he apparently pretended to not know and asked the finance director Sexton for the names. The designated representatives of the Village of Lombard to the Lombard Public Facilities Corp. are Dave Hulseberg and Tim Sexton. The only part Trustee Fitzpatrick did not get right is calling out Hulseberg for appearing to play dumb.

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I applaud the thoughtful, educated and thoroughly entertaining insight into teachers’ salaries; according to our resident expert “you don’t have to do any heavy lifting, you never have to work out in the bitter cold or blazing heat, you never have to fire anybody.” For the original writer of this beautiful tome, I should point out that I am being sarcastic. I can only speak for myself, but those dedicated to teaching and nurturing my children are carrying quite enough of a heavy load, and I am happy to spend my hard-earned tax dollars to keep them in my district. Education isn’t free, and to become a board certified teacher in Illinois, it is time-consuming and quite expensive. I know you are busy with your rants and news cycles, but maybe it’s time to get upset with the men who brought this nation to the brink of financial ruin—it certainly wasn’t my daughter’s kindergarten teacher who put you in foreclosure.

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This is for the person who thinks that all Democrats are anti-God heathens. Do you really paint your entire life with such a broad stroke? Do you ever read the Bible and see what it says about the proud and those who make a public display of their prayers? They are hypocrites in the eyes of the Lord. When you make such un-Christian comments, you really show how removed you are from God’s word. I am a Democrat and not a liberal God hater. Remove the plank from your own eye.

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Since the Westin is going to cost us taxpayers $50,000 a year in ruined credit, not to mention embarrassment, I have the following suggestions for the three individuals who pushed this overpriced project in the first place. Bill Lichter should resign from the LPFC board, Bill Mueller’s name should be removed from the ballroom and the $50,000 should be deducted from Dave Hulseburg’s salary. They also should consider changing the newsletter from the Pride to the Shame.  

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You know, it’s funny, no matter where I go, the toll roads or wherever anybody lives in DuPage or Cook County, all these tollway increases are supposed to create jobs, but it seems to me in the last three or four years only one company has profited from this money. It’s the only one I’ve ever seen working on the toll roads or creating off ramps and on ramps, or expanding lanes. Why is this the only company I’ve ever seen in the last four years doing any work on the Illinois tollway or suburban road systems?

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Did you ever see the movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” with James Stewart and Jean Arthur? We need a Mr. or Mrs. Smith in our town government, state government and federal government. The Smith type would think of the republic and its citizenry over party and ideology. Remember, we are responsible for our representatives and their actions. It is our republic—not the Democrat Party’s or the Republican Party’s republic. If you like the actions of your representative locally, statewide and in Washington, do nothing. It is up to us.

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Like all of you, I recently received my new property tax assessment. I was outraged to see that the DuPage County supervisor of assessments thinks that the value of my house has fallen only 5 percent. It’s obvious that this is to keep my property taxes high so the teachers don’t have to participate in the recession like everyone else. I wrote to my state representative and senator, and strongly urge you to do the same. Just write one or two sentences to express your outrage and demand that they hold hearings. You can reach Chris Nybo at chrisnybo.org and Ron Sandack at senatorsandack.com. We need to do more than just call SPEAK OUT. Take five minutes and do it now.

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President Obama remarked over the weekend that a lot has been accomplished since his term began but admitted that there’s a lot more to do, which is why he needs another four years. On the light side, how long would a pro sports coach last with that philosophy? On the serious side, how many people can hang on that long? Lost jobs, lost homes, businesses can’t expand and/or hire employees, etc., due to increased taxes and government regulations. This domino effect hurts everyone. This downward spiral needs to be halted in its tracks and we, the people, need to make sure that happens—from the local level on up—at the ballot box.

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This is Lombard calling. This is to all the people who use the schools’ dumpsters as dumping grounds for their own personal garbage. The schools use these dumpsters for their own use; everybody pays for garbage stickers and a garbage bill that is used for your garbage. Dumping in the school dumpsters needs to stop and you are being watched. We all know who you are.

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With all the money that we pay in salaries to so-called experts, with all the wisdom that our trustees have, with all the wisdom President Mueller has about the Westin, why did they find it necessary to bring somebody in to tell them what to do? Why are we paying all these salaries to the village manager and his assistants, and his assistants’ assistants, and to the finance director. Don’t we have one person in Lombard who can figure out what to do without having to pay, I’m sure, tens of thousands of dollars to some so-called expert?

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We have a rogue president and government who seem to think they are above the law, organizing injustice, lying about unemployment, gutting our defense. When we are bankrupt and can’t defend our nation, what’s next? Chains and torture if you are for God, law, liberty and the Constitution?

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Hello, this is a message to Waste Management. I’m from the Lombard area and I was so glad to get a phone message from Waste Management telling me when my garbage pick-up would be for the week of Christmas and the week of New Year’s. That was very nice of them to do, even though a lot of my neighbors must not have gotten the message, because they put their garbage out way too early. Anyway, thank you Waste Management for the nice message and I hope you had a great holiday season. Thank you very much from a Lombard resident.

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This is Lombard calling. I was reading SPEAK OUT on Wednesday, Jan. 4; everybody’s complaining about the DuPage Theatre site. Well, I’ve got a great idea for the DuPage Theatre site. Make it more Metra parking, where it’s really, really needed, where people cannot get enough parking spaces after 7:30 a.m. The parking lot will pay for itself by getting $1.25-plus per parking space per day.

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Lombard calling. I just wanted to say thank you to all who decorated Lilacia Park this year. It was a wonderful Christmas gift; a beautiful, magical winter wonderland. Thank you for sharing it with us.

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To all you people who are constantly griping about the human race, get a walker. I have recently been relegated to a walker and you have no idea what nice people there are out there. I have two or three a day who just can’t do enough for me. God love them. Try it sometime. You might like it.

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This is Lombard calling. I’m watching our president touting job creation. Since he has been president some three years now, we have a net gain of zero jobs created. That’s correct; zero. There are still less jobs than when he became president and this man gets on TV and claims that he is creating jobs? Holy cow, and I agree with the rest of the people, too. Time for Hulseberg and Mueller to move on.

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Enough with the propaganda and hatred against teachers. If anyone really thinks that teachers make more than the average worker, go to a parking lot at any high school and look at the cars. Notice the 10-year-old sedans with rust on them that are grouped together and then notice the SUVs and roadsters. If you think those newer, nicer cars are the teachers’ cars, you are fooling yourself. The expensive ones are the ones the students drive, purchased by their parents with the private sector jobs. But if you still disagree and insist that teachers make a killing for such easy work, why don’t you become a teacher yourself? Do it. I challenge you. Or just substitute for a week or even a day, then call back and tell us how easy it was. We’ll wait for your response.

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Several years ago the Village of Lombard went to Springfield and got the law changed to allow a local government to issue tax exempt bonds for a shell organization, LPFC, to build a conference center. Other towns like Downers Grove and Naperville had the same plans; they dropped them, for obvious reasons. Governments should not be in the business of owning conference centers. The village will tell you that the downturn in the economy could not be predicted. That’s right; because of that they should not have built it. Nobody told them the economy would be bad, nobody told them it would be great either—they made the decision based on inflated projections. There are many costs associated with this decision that future boards will have to deal with. The egos of Mueller, Hulseberg and Lichter pushed this through; now hold them accountable. Mueller is done in April 2013, Lichter retired, now let’s get rid of Hulseberg and let’s get this fixed.

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Lombard calling. Another longtime business has closed in the downtown. Bona Pizza is gone. I know the people at Bona and I will miss them. We can blame the economy or we can point the finger where I think it should be pointed—60 percent of their business is carryout and their busiest days of the week are Friday and Saturday nights. So when you park Cruise Nights cars in front of their business, choking 60 percent of their business for three months of the summer on the busiest night of the week, what can we expect? I would like everyone to think about something—businesses don’t need help getting people in on Saturday nights, particularly during the summer, otherwise the businesses would all be crying for the same type of help the other nine months of the year. They don’t and now Bona is the most current victim of this. They pay a ton of taxes for a business downtown which is largely vacant, and then you take away the parking for 60 percent of their business during which it should be their busiest night. Bye bye, Bona; one last place to eat in this ghost town.