I watched the village board meeting again Thursday night. Is the village board going to investigate what happened to downtown and return the garages to the condo owners?

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How many people out there would sell their personal vehicle by signing the title, handing over their keys and letting the prospective buyer drive off with only a promise to pay them at a later date? Once that person has your car, keys and title, do you really believe he will keep his promise and pay you? The Village of Lombard had the legal upper hand to ensure parking facilities were provided for the Park West condo owners, but they apparently abdicated their legal standing when they issued occupancy permits without the required on-site parking—required by ordinance. Once the developer got all his money, they seemed surprised to discover that the developer did not follow through on his promise of providing parking for the Park West condo owners. Unbelievable.

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This is Lombard calling. I love the Lombardian and enjoy reading it; however, I really think people should get off President Obama’s back, like him or not. I realize this is partially a Republican town but we have Democrats, too. The man is the president of the United States and deserves our respect. I don’t care; he is trying to do the best job he can with little or no cooperation from a bunch of apparently stubborn Republicans. Grow up.

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I had purpose to be at Terrace View Pond today and I must say, whoever is planning that out should be ashamed of themselves. They’ve made nothing but muck and mire, the birds can’t swim, the fish are dying and I will not vote for anybody on the current board. Thank you.

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Before you talk about voting President Barack Obama out of office, you ought to give serious thought to voting out what I think is the worst U.S. Congress in the history of the United States of America, as they are called the “do nothing Congress.” The only thing they apparently know how to do is vote 43 times to repeal Obamacare. They have done nothing; they don’t vote to give people jobs. They are the worst Congress we’ve ever had and you also should vote Ted Cruz out of office. Anyone who can stand there and talk about nothing and read “Green Eggs and Ham” is not a congressman; he shouldn’t even be in the Senate. I suggest you look deep into the Congress that you have now. They seem useless.

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In regard to last week’s caller in Lombard SPEAK OUT, give the village board some slack to work out problems they inherited. Mr. Masterson deserves a hat’s off for sticking his neck out and bringing the condo lot situation out into the open. How can verbal agreements be legal in this day and age? Goodbye.

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This is Villa Park calling. Why can’t the railroads publish their freight schedule so people could work around the closures at the tracks and not waste time and gas? Thank you.

Really? You can’t be serious.—blm

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Hi, this is Lombard. It’s been, I think, over a year since the state passed the no cell phone use in school zones law. I sit in front of the high school or drive past the high school quite frequently, and practically every second person is on a cell phone as they drive by. I’ve also noticed Glen Ellyn, Wheaton, Hinsdale, a number of towns, have posted on the school zone sign that it’s a cell-free area. I don’t know if it’s a law; it certainly is a good idea. We’ve had foot patrols check for seat belts in different places; I don’t know why we couldn’t do the same thing with cell phones at some of them, by the schools. It’s a law.

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Hi, this is Lombard calling. I have lived on Finley Road for many, many years, and with the construction on Finley Road, I have an idea. With all the dust and all of our dirty windows, and our cars being grossly, grossly dirty, I think it would be a good idea that the company that is doing the construction pay for our car wash and our window washing, or the village trustees come out and wash them. I would greatly appreciate it.

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Hi. This is a reminder to all drivers who cross the Prairie Path that as of 2010, Illinois drivers must come to a complete stop for pedestrians in all crosswalks, so those of you who think you don’t need to stop for pedestrians crossing Main Street at the Illinois Prairie Path, then you’re breaking the law if you don’t do so. Have a good day.

SPEAK OUT has repeatedly published a response regarding the issue of this particular crosswalk—most recently in the Wednesday, Aug. 14, edition. Here it is again: When the Lombard Police Department was responding to inquiries, one of the most frequent ones was with regard to confusion over Prairie Path crosswalks and rights-of-way. Back in 2011, then-Deputy Chief Dane Cuny, among others, explained that in those cases where the pedestrians have a traffic signal—in this case stop signs—they must obey those traffic signals. If you check Sec. 11-1002 (a), it says vehicles must yield the right-of-way to pedestrians crossing within a crosswalk “when traffic control signals are not in place or not in operation.” If you look on the Prairie Path, there are stop signs in place for users of the Prairie Path, which they must obey. Section (b) also states that pedestrians must not suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a moving vehicle which is so close as to constitute an immediate hazard. At the same time, the law indicates that drivers do have to stop for someone who has already entered the crosswalk. I hope this puts the issue to rest.—JAC

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Earlier this week I observed a Villa Park ambulance, with a Villa Park police car behind it, stopped at the train tracks southbound on Addison Road. Both emergency vehicles had their emergency lights activated, but they were stuck at the tracks waiting for a freight train to clear the crossing. Since both vehicles had their emergency lights activated, it is pretty obvious they were responding to an emergency call. If a sight like this doesn’t open some eyes, to the importance of an overpass or an underpass in Villa Park, I don’t know what does. People’s lives are at stake. Do you want emergency services such as police and fire waiting at a railroad crossing when you call 9-1-1 for an emergency?

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I read Rep. Tammy Duckworth’s column in the Sept. 25 Villa Park Review. The $39 billion “cut” she mentioned in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) refers to $39 billion in cuts over the next decade. The current annual cost of the program is about $75 billion per year. Its cost has quintupled since 2001, when it was about $15 billion. Of course, Duckworth seemingly would have you believe that evil Republicans want children, senior citizens and veterans to starve. Also, Duckworth stated the average SNAP benefit is $4.50 per day. Here are some facts. According to the Illinois Department of Human Services Web site, a household with a family of four can receive $668 in SNAP assistance per month. So you could go to the grocery store once a week and purchase $167 in food for a family of four. Have you ever lived on that amount, or less? I have. One more thing. The first word of the program is “supplemental.” The program is intended to supplement the food budget of people who need assistance, not necessarily pay for each and every meal. Why do so many people lap up Democrat misinformation?

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So, did I understand the article correctly regarding Roy Strom and garbage pricing in Villa Park? Our trash collection rates are going from $15.85 to $19.36 a month in three years? That is a 22-percent increase. Yard waste is going up to $2.70 per sticker. Lombard yard waste stickers are almost a dollar less and their maximum charge for trash collection is $16.63 a month.  How could the trustees approve this? What’s going on here, Villa Park? Was there even a bidding process or did you just give it away?

According to the article, the new contract calls for $16.55 per month through June 30, 2014; at which time the rate wil be raised to $17.21 per month for the next year. Then, the rate will increase to $17.90, $18.62 and $19.36 over the three-year period from July 1, 2015 through the end of June 2018.–JAC

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Hi, Lombard calling. It’s Monday, Sept. 30, and I am thrilled to see that the Lombard police are out with their radar. Inside of five minutes driving through downtown I saw three vehicles stopped. A giant truck loaded with I don’t know what—a semi trailer loaded with something speeding through town—got them stopped by the post office, and two on Main Street by the cemetery. That stretch of Main Street I think is 30 or 35 mph and they go 50 down there. So, thank you, Lombard police, I appreciate it.

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Lombard. I don’t mind if some people run businesses from their home, but let them park their trucks on their side of the street, not in front of my house. Also, does Lombard have a residence law where so many people can live in a house of so many square feet? They build these big houses, they have long driveways and they have all these cars parked, plus they build a parking space in front of their house. I hope this doesn’t become like Chicago, with all these illegal apartments. Bye.

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Yes, this is Lombard calling. I’m reading in the Lombardian about the power outage at District 44. With all the hundreds of thousands of dollars that I have spend in grammar schools and the middle schools putting air conditioners or putting in a parking lot, wouldn’t it be logical for all schools to have a gas generator so when there’s a power outage the electricity will stay on and they won’t have to go through the inconvenience of trying to tell people to stay home? What’s the difference? It would be great to see all schools have a gas generator for electricity that will turn on automatically when power goes out. Thank you, bye.

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This man dies; he went and stood in front of the pearly gates and saw St. Peter and he noticed this clock that was in pieces on the floor. He asked, “St. Peter, why is that clock in pieces on the floor?” St. Peter said, “That’s George W. Bush’s clock. He wrecked it. It’s in shambles now. It’s just pieces all over the floor, and even God doesn’t have enough money to fix it.” Have a nice day.

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This is Lombard calling. This call is to all the residents of Lombard. I’m wondering if you are all aware that a developer wants to put a subdivision in where the present Ken Loch golf course is. You might say this doesn’t affect you, but since Lombard floods, all of DuPage County, the residents over there flood and we do have something in our books that we wanted open space. There are enough houses for sale, and condos and townhouses for sale without a developer going in and taking open space away and wanting to put a through street through a residential neighborhood. Please write letters to the county board or find out and attend their meetings. Thank you.

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This is Lombard calling. I’d just like to reply to the person who thinks the village did right by banning RV parking in their driveways. They did not do right. That’s an economical way for people to enjoy their lifestyle. What will be next—the color of your house that they tell you how to paint? Thank you.

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Hello, this is Lombard calling. In regard to the Prairie Path crossing on Main Street, Grace, Westmore and all other streets, I think a sign stating “Cross traffic does not stop” needs to be affixed to the stop sign on the Prairie Path so that bikers, runners and whomever else would be able to read it. What a great idea. And lastly, whoever is letting their dog do its business on my sidewalk, please pick it up.

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In a recent SPEAK OUT a caller called in complaining about the price of gasoline, how it’s eating a hole in his or her pocket. Well, I agree with this caller—it is eating a hole in our pocket. I actually spend about $150 a week on gasoline going to work. That’s a huge amount of money. It’s a needless amount of money. I just have to wonder, though, in this state in particular, does that person vote for Democrats? The odds are the person does. If you do, then don’t complain about it because this is what you get. We elected a president who came out and said he is all for $7 a gallon gasoline and he is all for shutting down the coal industry. Folks, we should call our congressmen; we should call our senators. Dick Durbin should not even be a senator. The fact is we are sitting on a sleeping giant in this country. We should be tapping into this sleeping giant like the Dakotas have. This whole country should be in a boom. We should be working like crazy, we should be pumping out natural gas, coal; we should be cranking out the energy.

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Did you know that the stores of Yorktown charge you 9.25 percent sales tax, whereas 8.25 percent sales tax is the norm for the rest of Lombard?

Lombard’s tax rate is typically 8.25 percent. An undated page from the village’s Web site indicates the following: “However, at the request of Yorktown, the village board approved an additional 1 percent sales tax for the Business Improvement District which only includes the new development on the site of the old Montgomery Wards store, some of the out lots along Highland and Butterfield and a portion of the southwest wing of Yorktown. The money will be used to offset some of the development costs associated with The Shops on Butterfield project at Yorktown. The rest of the mall as well as the three anchor stores, Carson’s, Von Maur and Penney’s, are not within the district and therefore are not subject to the tax. Restaurants that offer sit down dining are also subject to an additional 1 percent local Places for Eating Tax.”—JAC