Hi, Lombard calling. Wow, those teachers really do care about those kids, and how caring and compassionate they are. Those are words liberals use all the time. They’re out marching and want even more money. They want their wonderful Democrat party to denigrate a man who makes $250,000 a year, say, working on his back all day in crawl spaces plumbing, doing heating and air conditioning; he’s a rich evil man. The people we have to continue to tax the pants off of, and continually vilify. But these teachers, making $106,000, as in Lake Forest, which was close to the average, if not on the average, they’re fine—they’re poor, compassionate individuals. That’s all the liberals talk about. They don’t care about reality or facts, it’s just caring and compassion. It’s hypocritical and I’m tired of it. These teachers make that money for working nine months out of the year. The rest of us are struggling and they’re protected and they dare to cry for more job security? No, you mess up, you get fired like the rest of us. This is ridiculous.

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Villa Park calling. This is regarding the parkway trees that desperately need trimming. Branches falling and breaking onto our lawns; the garbage trucks will not pick them up because they are too big. What should the residents do?

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This is Lombard calling. I just wanted to give a big shout out to all of those people who work for the Citizens Police Academy, or the alumni, because they’re just volunteers and boy, they really help out the community. Thanks a lot guys; you’re doing such a great job.

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Hello, this is Villa Park calling and I was wondering if there were any rules as to how many fires one may burn? My neighbor seems to burn in his fire pit every day and every night and it is become a real nuisance to our neighborhood.

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Politicians like to talk about the middle class. Who exactly is in the middle class? Who is rich? Who is poor? If you make, say, $75,000 a year, you might consider yourself to be a middle-class person, and not rich at all. But someone else might think you’re rich. If you make $30,000 a year, you might consider yourself to be poor, or are you in the middle class? How much money do you need today to be rich? Members of Congress make about $175,000 per year. Are they rich? It depends on who you ask. People like to toss around the labels of rich, middle-class and poor, but no one seems to define them.

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I see all the Republican rhetoric about the Obama 2016 movie, and ask myself; are these people really so stupid that they believe the right-wing propaganda? Especially after it has been proven that their speeches are rife with outright lies in order to suck in the weak-minded. They condemn the middle class at every turn and refer to them as leeches, and worthless; open your eyes for crying out loud. You are portraying yourself as sheeple—figure it out.

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Hi, it’s Monday, late afternoon, early evening. Oh, my gosh, the first story on the news on every local channel? Rain in the area. Rain during the summer/fall months. What’s next, snow in the winter? Oh, my gosh, what will I do?

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I noticed that in last week’s Lombardian column “At This Stage,” co-authored by Kevin Fitzpatrick, that there was no mention of the previous week’s village board meeting. This column always has comments and remarks about what is happening in town. I think they dropped the ball, for obvious reason, by not commenting about the lack of leadership at the meeting. If you want to write a column, then be unbiased and call it like we all saw it.

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Yes, this is Lombard calling. I’d like to find out how come some people, like some friends and other people, who are not 65, can get the taxi voucher here in Lombard and I can’t. I’ve got to get a doctor’s note to prove that I’m disabled. They’re not 65 but I have to prove it.

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I am so tired of worrying about the drivers here in Lombard and their shenanigans. I have to look out for people pulling out in front of me on Main Street nearly every day, or edging out so far that I have to swerve to avoid hitting that car or being hit, not to mention if I have to swerve into a lane of traffic in any given direction. It’s not just on the main streets, either. I had three incidents happen in one afternoon alone, two of which were off the main drag, where someone decided to either not wait their turn or ignore a stop sign. I am just glad I was paying attention.

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Yes, this is Lombard calling. I have lived in Lombard for 27 years and I have not seen the most embarrassing shame of the trustees trying to have a power struggle. This was evident shortly after Bill Mueller’s death—everybody was trying to see who they could pass and show their glory. None of the trustees are qualified to become the president and all the trustees should be gone. Even though we voted for them, we should totally impeach them, get rid of them and get some new blood in Lombard.

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This is Lombard calling. I’m reading SPEAK OUT from Wednesday, Sept. 26, and the person who’s complaining about downtown Lombard—first of all, it’s not salons and condos. There are 90 businesses that have opened up in downtown Lombard. The deli, the new wine tasting place, Fairy Tales has expanded, there’s the coffee house. There are a lot of businesses that are opening in downtown Lombard. If it wasn’t for those businesses and it wasn’t for the growth of Cruise Nights, the downtown would have been a disaster area. So, don’t complain. Be happy that we have all these extra businesses in downtown Lombard.

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Hi, I just saw the saddest thing in my own backyard. A beautiful monarch butterfly came out of its chrysalis and was pumping up but its wings were deformed and it only had four legs instead of six. The poor thing is crawling around trying to live its life but it was crippled probably because of the effect of pesticides that everybody uses in their home and garden. I implore the readers of this column to read about the effects of these toxic chemicals that we are putting on our own homes, where our children play. If it has this effect on a butterfly in the yard, at some point it will start to have the same effect on us.

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This is not a Lombard issue. Really—Republicans, Democrats, everybody in government is responding to the NFL referee lockouts and the Monday night game in which a call was blown. We have greater things going on in this country than a stupid sports game. How Stephen King was right with his last movie, “The Running Man,” where sports will take over the entire world. God help us all.

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If anyone witnessed an accident on Tuesday, Sept. 25, on Roosevelt Road sometime in the morning where a vehicle hit a red Toyota Prius and got any information on the vehicle that hit the red Prius, please contact the Lombard Police Department. This vehicle reportedly hit my mom and after police were on the scene, took off. The police officers did not go after him and labeled it a hit and run. Please help my mom find out who did this to her. Thank you.

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The Lombard village board is showing us they missed the point. The trustees should be dedicated to the people who voted for him or her to occupy the position, not to the people who campaigned for that person for the position or helped them get there. Mr. Gron may not possess everything for the position of pro-tem president, but neither does anyone else. We all have faults. Trustee Gron has more time and experience in his bag than any other board member. Gron should automatically take over. The rest of the board should leave their political agendas at home.

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Having viewed the latest comedy roast, the Village of Lombard Board of Trustees meeting, on Thursday, Sept. 19, I am appalled and disgusted that our town is represented by a bunch of individuals who act more like 5-year-old children playing together, than our paid representatives who are supposed to govern this town. That they could not intelligently and diplomatically reach a decision on who would represent Lombard as its interim village president until the next election simply amazes me. How do they expect to govern in regard to every day important decisions that will affect all of the voters? Three of them took their toys and went home. Hopefully they all will have the decency to at least agree to not accept their pay for these positions until they can again act as reasonable adults, as they surely have not earned it. It appears that a thorough housecleaning is truly needed. Until the next election, they all need to go to their rooms without dinner and be grounded for an indeterminable amount of time.

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I am calling in agreement with the person who commented about the mess at Terrace View Pond. I student-taught there almost 45 years ago. The pond was clean, the walk around the pond was uncluttered; it was lovely. I agree with that person that it is a mosquito plus whatever else breeding ground. It is truly a mess. I am older now and cannot walk around the pond with my dog as much as I used to, but it was a lovely place. Please, somebody clear it out. Return it to its original status. It used to be very lovely.