I’m calling in to respond about the person complaining about having dogs at Cruise Nights and the craft fair. I can’t believe we have people calling to complain about their dog being there. People consider dogs as being part of their family and if they want to bring them out of the house and stretch the dog’s legs, like animals should be allowed to do, you shouldn’t be complaining. If you don’t like it, avoid them. Also, this is just one example of how one person complaining can ruin it for a whole bunch of people and what’s happening everywhere. One person complains and ruins it for everyone else. Please leave the poor dogs alone and avoid them if you have a problem with it.

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Hi, Lombard calling. You know there’s a serious problem with our health care system when medical clinics are popping up as much as banks are.

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The day after—the heat rises and yet we are cool and grateful that no house was burned down by those who feel that it is all about them on the Fourth of July. As dry as it has been wouldn't it be nice if people would stop, just for a moment, and remember that we live in close proximity to each other. Speaking of which, living without power for 76 hours, it sure would have been nice if the people across the street would have offered even a bit of encouragement. Truly it seems we live in glass houses. It saddens me and I for one will remember the misery and reach out to help others, knowing how even a word would have meant so much. The ComEd crews deserve much recognition for their part in all this. The Village of Lombard could have had a central spot for updates—lack of communication was frightening, especially when you could not even reach ComEd. I would also suggest that there be a nighttime cooling spot for those who don’t have places to go.  Even if the cities had been grouped together and there was one overnight area. May we all remember and hopefully learn from the experiences around this Fourth of July.

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Ah, Villa Park—I like the sound of it, it just kind of makes you think of a quaint little town, not the seething pit of despair it is quickly becoming. I moved here originally because it was a hardworking blue collar town that didn’t put up with shenanigans and you could raise a family here without too much to worry about except the usual small-town woes. Well, that time has gone. The gang graffiti and strong arm robberies as of late are most disturbing. The police reports of the past two or three years have only gotten worse. I can’t let my son play in the front yard because others send their kids out on their own to make life miserable for other kids. I’ve asked several people what can be done about it; the response is the same—”They all have the same rights as you and me.” The neighbors are sick of it too, and nobody can do anything about it. Goodbye Villa Park, you are no longer my home, I still live here, but I’m embarrassed to call you “home.”

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Just want to say thank you to the families along Westmore Road who respected the American flag enough to pick them up from the road after they had fallen due to the storm. Others who are not so nice continued to drive over them instead of stopping to pick them up. Thank you, thank you.

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The “results” of the Lombard Idol at the Taste of Lombard on July 4 were an absolute travesty. All of the contestants at the four age levels did a fine job. I question whoever handled the determination of the winners. The winners of each age level were supposed to be the ones who received the most applause from the audience. After all of the singers performed, someone came on stage and held out what appeared to be a smart phone to gauge the applause level for each performer. That very system of judging is questionable, because the performers with the loudest supporters would win, regardless of their singing ability. I am not kidding when I say that not one of the four winners received the loudest level of applause in their age level. Moments after gauging the level of applause, the winners were announced to a disbelieving audience. It was clear to anyone who was not deaf who the winners were at each level. Whoever was in charge of handing out the cash awards to each winner apparently totally ignored their own ears. What a mockery. What a disgrace. What an embarrassment to Lombard.

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Lombard. I would like you to know about three teenage boys who came around Sunday after the storm on Edgewood and Washington, and helped clean up our street so that people could get down the street. Not enough is said about the good teenagers. They were so polite and helpful, and after they left our street to go help others, they didn’t want any money but were glad to have something to drink. We thought this kind of boy was a thing of the past. Thanks again to these great boys.

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Reading the Web site to stay current on storm details; first of all, who puts the Web site together? It asks us to contact the mayor, and then reports on council meetings. We are a village president/village board form of government, not a mayor/council form—similar but different. Also, a Taste update showed that ComEd was offering cooling buses for the Taste. Are you kidding? How about all of us who suffered in the sweltering heat because of the power outages? Thanks, ComEd.

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I want to thank our village manager Dave Hulseberg for assisting our neighborhood after the recent storm. Dave was out in the 100-degree heat helping people who had suffered damage and lost electricity. Not only did Mr. Hulseberg provide logistical support, but he physically helped me and several of my neighbors remove fallen tree limbs. Dave should be commended. He is a true neighbor and we are fortunate to have him managing our village.

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After listening to the illegal fireworks this July 4, the inmates of Lombard are now running the asylum. Lombard sounded like a war zone in Afghanistan. The police respond to calls but, just like at Faber College, the criminals are put on double secret probation. Either start writing tickets for setting off fireworks, and doubling them for each call, or don’t answer the 9-1-1 reports. Whatever the police are doing does not work and the village officials seemingly don’t care.

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If you have to bring your dog to the car show, just bring a short leash so you have more control over what your dog does.

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I feel bad for the people who live by the “Waste of Lombard” with all the garbage and people relieving themselves in their yards. If Lombard had a different type of music I think it would bring a different type of crowd, instead of all the people this kind of music seems to bring around.

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This is Lombard calling. First we had the heat wave—which was fun—and now power, and then we finally get nice weather on Saturday night. And what’s the first thing you smell when you open up your house? People burning from their fire pits again. And then Sunday, too. I mean, as soon as the weather gets nice and you can get fresh air in your house, it’s these people burning with their fire pits. Maybe I’m going to call the village; maybe we can come up with two days a month where people can burn because this is ridiculous, the abuse of these fire pits. Unbelievable. One of the people has asthma and still burns. I’m like, are you people crazy?

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This is Lombard calling in regard to the Cruise Nights on Saturday nights. Anyone who is against the Cruise Nights has the option of packing up their bags and leaving.

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Thank you for the opportunity. This is Villa Park calling. At the June 25 board meeting of Villa Park, a trustee ended the report with, “I would like to see a doggy park in Villa Park.” How senseless to spend money on a doggy park when there are roads crumbling, infrastructures falling apart, police and fire needing more help with their vehicles. Maybe it’s time for the trustees to use their head instead of their doggies.

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I’m a resident of Lombard and I just wanted to say a big thank you to the village for the recent clean-up efforts after the storm. In this extreme heat, especially with the holiday in the middle of the week and the Taste of Lombard going on, I think the public works guys did a great job of cleaning up after the storm. I hope everyone can stop and think about exactly how much work that really was to clean up 1,000 trees that fell in only one week. So, thanks guys; well done.

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Hi, Lombard calling. I’m very angry at several things that were written in the Lombardian in regard to the Village of Lombard. I’m angry about the soaking of water at Madison Meadow so that we could have fireworks. In this time of drought, we really don’t need to be spraying the park so that we can have fireworks. That should not have been a priority. I know that the village was concerned about the electricity being out after that horrible storm and there was a priority there, also, for the festivities, while other people were sweltering in this horrible heat. I just think that’s terrible. That should not have been tops on their list. Also by the park, all the trees have been cleared away but in other areas, there’s nothing being done. I really think the village dropped the ball on this. I’d be interested to hear if anybody else thought the same thing.

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This is Villa Park calling. I want to thank the kind police officer who helped me find my way home after all the streets I tried were blocked by the Villa Park July 4 parade. He asked me to follow him and led me to my street. I wanted to publicly thank you, officer, as I did not know your name. God bless you.

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I am just calling to tell you what great fireworks the Village of Lombard had. I am from Carol Stream and our fireworks were cancelled; we came to Lombard and they were fantastic. Way to go, Lombard—enjoyed them.

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I would just like to commend all the hardworking men and women with ComEd for getting the power back up and running as quickly as they did. These are all union workers and they all did one heck of a job. Thank you.

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This is from Lombard. This is to all the people who worked with ComEd after the storm. Nice job, you guys; you did a great job. Thanks.

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I live about a block from Madison Meadow and was without power for three days when I passed Madison Meadow and it was all lit up, and they were clearing broken trees from the park, and yet the residents, here we sat, with no power.

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Day three of the power outage and I couldn’t get any answers from ComEd or the Village of Villa Park, and I didn’t see any Villa Park trucks or ComEd trucks on the north side of town. Yet, the village trustees already had power. I called the village hall and got nowhere. I called ComEd and all I got was a tape recording.

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I wanted to say how disappointed I was to see a gas station in Villa Park gouge us by raising gas prices by 20 cents a gallon, overnight, after the storm hit on Sunday. So many of us needed gas to run generators and the gas station had a great opportunity to help those of us out in the neighborhood who were suffering. Instead, they chose to gouge us. This was not a market reaction as there were gas stations not even a mile away that did not raise their prices. I will not be patronizing their store or their gas anymore.

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One of the best storm stories was captured in our Lombardian. Kudos and God’s blessings to 10-year-old Charlie Wozniak who saved 18 American flags so they could wave again along Lombard’s roads. Yeah.

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Lombard should be ashamed of itself, putting the Taste of Lombard before its citizens. This outage was more than an inconvenience. It was dangerous. I hope no one got hurt. If they did, it’s on your head.

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The recent wind, hail and rainstorm put ComEd’s electrical grid project to its first real test. According to the thousands of ComEd customers who rarely lose power and those who frequently lose power, it’s back to the drawing board for ComEd. The only benefactors in this record-setting power outage are the following Democrat and Republican politicians who received donations from ComEd: House Speak Michael Madigan, who received $58,000; Senate President John Cullerton, $91,000; House Leader Tom Cross of Oswego, $106,000; Senate Leader Christine Radogno, $86,000; and local Sen. Kirk Dillard, $19,000. Keep these names in mind in November.

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On Sunday after the storm our neighbors stood outside and decided that one person would call ComEd rather than tying up the phone lines with multiple calls concerning our power outages. Apparently this is a bad idea. Commonwealth Edison counts every call and decides which area is a high-needs area based on the number of service calls they receive. So instead of getting a service call right away because there was a power line down, we ended up waiting until July 4. The Commonwealth Edison gentleman who explained it to us was very kind and they tried to work very fast to get our power back but in the future, make sure everybody in the neighborhood calls individually; that way Commonwealth Edison knows the correct count of people who have power outages.

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The Fourth of July has come and gone. What part of the illegal fireworks law in Illinois don’t people understand? They continue to shoot off all over town in crowded neighborhoods. It’s unsafe. Lombard, how about a big fine like Plainfield? It might make people think twice.

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Lombard, to the person who complaining about the handicap door they put on the north side of the church building, why complain in the paper? Go to the parish office and complain in person.