This is the Democrat again. Federal funding is only pulled by the president of the United States. If you want all funding pulled, then you need to vote for a Republican. If you’re worried about saving lives, then you need to vote for President Obama. If you’re worried about anything else, just vote all of them in office because then you won’t have anything to worry about because your Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, anything you want will be gone.

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Hi. This message is for SPEAK OUT. I am calling because it shows that due to space limitations, it may not be possible to print all calls. Does that mean just for that week so that call will travel into the next week or that call will never be printed?

The policy, first off, means that not all calls received will be printed. Calls are put in somewhat of a “queue” for publication and may carry over to the next week—or more—if space limitations warrant it. Additionally, publication of some calls can be delayed while waiting for a response.—JAC

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I agree with the caller about way too many Lombard banners on Main Street. I also saw them up and down St. Charles Road. Besides the cost to buy the banners, I also wonder how much it cost the taxpayers if village workers installed them? After all, they could have been doing other village business.

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Hi, Lombard. I’m a taxpayer to DuPage County and a resident of Lombard for the last 50 years. I take pride in my neighborhood and my home. The last two years my neighborhood has been held hostage by a local business, with trucks and cars being parked in and around the neighborhood. After efforts by DuPage County and Addison Township have failed, I am turning to the good people of Lombard and DuPage County to make this practice illegal. There is nothing stopping the owners from renting a lot for storage. Yours truly, frustrated.

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Hi, I’m a Highland Hills resident and I’m wondering what’s going on with Blast Gym that was supposed to have been opened March 15. I’m just kind of curious as to what is going on. I paid for membership and they’re not wanting to return it and I’m a little upset about that. They claim they will open and I should just wait a little longer.

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Congratulations to Lombard. As if Maple Street wasn’t bumpy enough east of Grace Street, they had to put a sewer down the middle of it and put some bumpy old crummy blacktop into the concrete all the way up to Edgewood. That would be good for my dentist; he’ll be able to fix my broken teeth. It jars you all over the place. Thanks again.

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Now that the village is forever in debt for the Westin, the fire department is leaderless, employee morale is ruined, businesses continue to go through red tape and we have more unions, can we please get a new village manager? Trustees, please take a good look at this and get the village back on track.

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Looking at the staff report for the village board meeting on a satellite village office downtown, it makes no sense. How much visibility is there in a basement? Just like Town Centre being on a second floor, nobody knows they are there. Take the money wasted on Town Centre and use that to pay rent on a vacant storefront. Downtown started declining 30 years ago when they moved the village hall and police department from downtown. So yes, the village owes it to the downtown area to buy into the revitalization.  What better way of doing this than to have a presence in downtown. You can’t do that from below ground.  Maybe the village manager can hire another consultant to help him make the decision?

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To the person who called in complaining about different organizations using an establishment from outside of Lombard to sponsor their events, let’s turn this scenario around. Why are we not asking our local establishments why they are not getting involved like the establishment from outside of Lombard is? Some of these events have been around for several years.  Why are they not asking and offering to be a part of these events? Many of these events are held as fundraisers.  Maybe, just maybe, our local establishments are priced too high.  Maybe our local establishments don’t want to be involved in these events or just don’t have the time. I was at the Lilac Ball and noticed that the only liquor establishment that donated anything for the auction was the establishment from outside of Lombard. Why? Did you happen to know that the person who works at this establishment outside of Lombard, and is sponsoring these events, happens to be a Lombard resident and is happy to give back to his community? Again, let’s ask our local establishments why they are not getting as involved and stop vilifying someone who is involved.

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I would like to address the person who called in last week saying it was a disgrace that the arts and crafts show, which was held in downtown Lombard, brought in outside food vendors for the events. Any large event that is held in downtown absolutely needs outside food vendors. The average number of attendees each year for the arts and crafts show is approximately 4,000 people. The area in downtown Lombard where the fair is held has five restaurants. There is no way that our five restaurants have the capacity to feed 4,000 people. Any other town that holds fairs like this—such as St. Charles—all bring in outside vendors for exactly that reason. St. Charles has many more restaurants but yet they bring in outside vendors also. 

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Still laughing out loud at you hate breeders, the amount of vapid hateful comments about Democrats, and their “leftist” counterparts, etc. Keep it up, then you can all bask in the light of an out-of-touch billionaire who made his living destroying middle-class Americans like you and me. Keep it up and you too can be forgotten and pushed aside when you retire by the same people you so brutishly pushed through. I realize that the Democratic party is lazy, and somehow keeps getting into office, then raising taxes, claiming the state is broke. I also realize that people need to research the people they want to replace them. I do not vote on party lines; I vote for the best candidate. Do your research on a non-partisan basis. Stop slamming the “other guy” and open your eyes.

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Hi, Lombard calling about the so-called repairs just east of Grace Street. Anybody who did that must have used a rolling pin because it’s bumpier than the old road was, if that’s possible. The old road was bad; now it’s terrible.

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The person in last week’s SPEAK OUT called and said his taxes went up 4 percent. The amount is up 4 percent but it’s worse than that because the tax rate went up 9 1/2 percent from 6.6908 to 7.6531, which rounded off, is almost 10 percent. So if the rate is up 10 percent, what’s going to happen when our house values go back up, if ever?

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The president ran an attack ad on Mitt Romney, basically going after him for having a Swiss bank account. If the president thinks I’m more worried about what Mitt Romney did with his own money than what he’s been doing with my money for the last four years, he’s sadly mistaken. I don’t think most Americans really care about what Mitt Romney did with his money. We care about what the president’s been doing with our money. Can you say $15 trillion extra debt?

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Hi, my husband and I both live in Lombard. We’re senior citizens; our income is under $50,000 a year and we had our taxes frozen about three years ago. Last year they went up about $500, this year they went up about $500—they said we couldn’t have the tax freeze for whatever reason, which I don’t quite understand. I don’t understand how you could have your taxes frozen and how the taxes keep going up. Obviously they don’t want seniors living in Lombard or in DuPage County.

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The Republicans’ last two nominees for vice president were Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin. Liberals in the media and entertainment worlds have relentlessly criticized and mocked both Cheney and Palin. Fair enough. The Democrats’ last two nominees for vice president were John Edwards and Joe Biden. Edwards and Biden. What a pair. Have you followed Edwards’ recent trial? What a character. And how about Biden? What an intellectual. There’s nothing that warrants any criticism or mocking of those two, is there?

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This is Lombard calling. I would just like to thank Commonwealth Edison for its quick response, on Monday, May 21, to our power outage. They were out here in less than an hour and had us turned back on. I tried to call Commonwealth Edison to thank them but the automated attendant doesn’t want to take messages. So again, thank you, Commonwealth Edison, for a good job. Thank you for keeping us in power.

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This is Lombard calling. I just had a local business do some work for me and they did a terrible job. What they quoted me was supposed to do certain stuff and then they didn’t do it. Always make sure that you check online to see if there are any bad reviews and make sure they stick every little detail in the contract. This man tried to charge me an extra $100 that should have been included in the first place.

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Touch of class to President Bill Mueller for his letter in regard to Dr. Steve Humphrey’s retirement. The question begs, where’s the letter from Villa Park, where’s Tom Cullerton at the retirement party. Apparently Tom is too busy running his own state senate campaign to do anything good for his own community. Boo hoo hoo. Where’s Villa Park? Steve Humphrey deserves better; we deserve better.

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My wife and I are living here in Lombard for a number of years. We’re both retired and had our assessments frozen. We’ve gotten the taxes that came in last year and this and they went up over 20 percent. Both of us are living on a fixed income, which is hard to justify that increase. But the state doesn’t really care about taking care of its senior citizens anymore, it seems.

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The African American parents of District 44 children have a reason to be upset and insulted over Goal 2 about achievement for black students. People need need to speak out. I thought those African American parents were speaking out.

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I would like to second the Speak Out comment from the person who likes the columnist JAC’s responses. I’m too ignorant and too lazy to do any research on my own. It’s really too much for me to do, for example, a Google search of a subject, so I also rely on someone else to do it for me. Yes, it’s best to let someone else go on the Internet, find some information and print what they found. Then I can read it in Speak Out and accept it as the truth. That’s really the best way to stay informed.

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I agree with the one call that stated the problem is with the electorate. We are a problem. Our representatives do not fear us. We are content with the $15.7 trillion deficit. We are content with the 8.1 percent unemployment. We are content with a stimulus costing billions. We are content with back-room deals. Guess what—no uproar, no articles condemning it. We get what we deserve and work for. In November if we have the same president and same Congress, shame on us.

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SPEAKING OUT FOR 25 YEARS

The following comments are reprinted from the May 21, 2003 SPEAK OUT column in celebration of SPEAK OUT’s 25th year.

Hi, This is Lombard calling. During one of the last storms, the siren of the village went off, and I was wondering what exactly do the sirens mean? Does it mean that a tornado has been seen? Or there’s a tornado warning? And what are the residents supposed to do? Are they supposed to go to their basements or just take shelter? And are there any siren warnings that we’re supposed to be aware of like for terrorism or anything else? If somebody could please let me know, I’d appreciate it.

(Note: This call is from 2003 when the village still provided answers.) According to then-Lombard Fire Battalion Chief Mike Kalina, Lombard’s tornado warning siren is only activated if a tornado warning exists or a funnel cloud has been spotted and is traveling in the direction of Lombard. “When you hear the sirens—go,” said then-Lombard Police Deputy Chief Dane Cuny. Kalina said if the siren is activated, residents should take shelter in the basement or an area of your home that does not contain a large amount of glass. As there are no “all clears” sounded, Kalina said residents should listen to a radio or television once they have taken shelter. The tornado siren is a constant sound, Kalina explained. In a civil defense warning, the sound goes up and down.

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Hi, calling from Lombard. I’m just wondering if we could get some more street lighting in the neighborhoods. St. Charles Road has one every 40 feet, yet on our blocks, we have one on each end of the block. There’s no lights in residential areas where they actually need them. Maybe we could talk to somebody about getting more lights into residential areas.

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Hi. This is Lombard calling. Spring is in the air and so is baseball. Since the season has started, we the homeowners around Terrace View park do not appreciate the additional litter from pop cans and treat wrappers dropped on the parkways or our lawns by the players and their families on their way back to their cars. Please use the trash receptacles or take the trash home.