I live in Lombard and I drive on St. Charles Road every day, past what I think was an old bank building on the corner of Park and St. Charles. Was that a bank? When was the building built? Are there any plans for it? It would be terrific if that grand clock outside could be fixed to show the correct time. I just love that building. Thank you.

The building to which you refer was once the Lombard State Bank (also referred to as the State Bank of Lombard). It was erected in 1909. Charles E. Lane was the bank president, and the bank boasted total assets of $215,000, according to Lillian Budd in “Footsteps on the Tall Grass Prairie.” What comes next for a seemingly iconic part of Lombard history is anyone’s guess.—JAC

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I went down Grace Street for the first time in awhile, having forgotten about the pot hole situation. Boy, these SPEAK OUT callers are right. I can’t believe how awful it was going northbound. Please, Village of Lombard, fix the problem. Being a thoroughfare into and out of Lombard, it doesn’t reflect well on the village.

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Is anyone as worried about the BP oil spill in Lake Michigan as I am? How can we continue to let this happen? BP said “their oil and water of Lake Michigan should never meet.” Well guess what? It did. BP spilled 39 barrels—one barrel equals 42 gallons—of oil into Lake Michigan. BP is one of the largest polluters of Lake Michigan. It is not as bad as the 4.9 million barrels they spilled in the Gulf of Mexico but it is scary to realize that our lake water, serving 7 million and supporting wildlife, can be put in jeopardy. Of course, BP always cooperates with officials, including the EPA, and pays all fines. They have so much money this doesn’t stop them from continuing to destroy our environment. It is all about making money and it appears our officials and politicians do not or cannot stop this threat. I am sure what the answer is, I know it is a lot more that this article in the local paper. I read “a group of politicians are pushing BP to be more aggressive in preventing spills.” I hope that works. It was once thought that Lake Michigan was so big that we could dump anything into it and then we saw the pollution in Lake Michigan. Since then the lake has been cleaned up and is getting better. While this spill “did not cause any long term harm to Lake Michigan” it brings our attention to the future safety of Lake Michigan.

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Lombard calling. This is to the person who called in telling people to circumvent the post office by paying bills online. He or she sounded like the same person who called in a couple of months ago complaining about the cost of postage, which is still under 50 cents and who’s going to pay all his bills online. How much are you paying for your online service? Furthermore, you are putting postal information into cyberspace that is accessible to all, hackers and identity thieves included. Enjoy your privacy today because you won’t have it in the future. Thank you.

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I can’t believe the illegals are on the news demanding rights every day. Don’t they have to work here in America? Stand in line and do it right. If we had governments who would uphold our laws and stop entitlements, they wouldn’t be here. Close the border, English spoken here, keep it America. Illegally sitting in church for another year of free living, Elvira and her son; term limits; put in someone who remembers the oath they took to uphold our laws.

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When the state income tax increased, did you receive any benefits? I didn’t receive any benefits. I didn’t get to live any better, but I spent more money. But, guess what? If we vote it down, you’re not going to hurt. All those who grabbed the money, or shouldn’t have had the money in the first place, they are the ones who will suffer and it will teach them a lesson. Vote the tax increase down.

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I am still waiting for Lombard to take down my dead green ash tree. I wonder how long I will I need to wait? Last summer I saw so many dead ash trees from the emerald ash borer that it took away the beauty of the village. I know Lombard has 400 dead trees but I do not see anything being done to remove them. Not only are the dead trees ugly but they present a danger when the wood becomes dry and brittle. One of our storms with strong winds can easily bring the tree down on a house, car or even worse, a person. I hope Lombard makes the dead tree removal a priority so we can start replanting new trees to keep our village and parkways beautiful.

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Lombard calling. I’m reading the April 2 SPEAK OUT and the caller said there are worse pot hole streets at Starved Rock State Park. I’m not concerned about Starved Rock State Park. I’m concerned about the terrible job public works in Lombard has done not plowing and not patching this winter. The director should be sent packing, just like the person who hired him was. And the post office? That isn’t much better. I’m still getting mail delivered with February deadline dates on it. We never did get an answer to when that problem is going to be solved for Lombard. How about it?

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Good morning, Villa Park and Lombard. I have a proposal and this goes out to all the people who blow stop signs and red lights. This is for the Village of Villa Park and Lombard. Why not put a law into effect that raises the price of a ticket for a stop sign to $250, and a red light to $500? I guarantee you will see things change immediately, plus that will bring in a lot of revenue for the villages. Thank you.

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Hi. My name is Kelly and I’m from Villa Park. I’m a four-legged dog and I want to thank Dr. Kipnis and his staff from Lombard Animal Clinic for making me well. Thank you, Dr. Kipnis. Bye.

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I would like to thank the Village of Villa Park for sending me a reminder to take down my Christmas lights. I know the village is concerned about their image. It really shows their concern as well, when they continually approve business licenses for massage parlors and title loan shops as well as pawn shops and cash for gold  places. Stay classy VP...not.

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I am calling in regard to the lady who posted about wanting to get rid of some eight-tracks, records and CDs. I’m 18 and I love all forms of music media and old genres of music. If you would be willing to let go of your media, I would love to take them off your hands as well as compensate you for your time. P.S. Can everyone please stop posting their government opinions in the SPEAK OUT section? It really gets old.

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This is the caller who suggested using the Internet to pay bills, calling to the person who said it was not a very good suggestion because they don’t want to use the Internet to receive and pay their bills. Well, my suggestion to this person is, next time you’re out buying a block of ice for your ice to chill your food, maybe you could stop at the library and see the benefits. Thank you.

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Hi, this is Meadowlark Quilt Club. Remember, Lilac Time is approaching us and please, go to the coach house during this time to make sure you look at all the wonderful things the ladies at Meadowlark have made. This is to raise money for us to buy materials to make quilts and lap robes for the veterans, babies at the NICU, the hospitals, care and counseling, Catholic Charities, unwed mothers, the list goes on and on. So, I hope you’ll purchase some items that the ladies have made to raise money. Any donations you make are greatly appreciated and again, thank you and God bless you. This is our only means of raising money to buy more material. Thank you once again.

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Madigan, House speaker, is proposing a millionaire tax. Madigan’s plan would affect all small-business owners with their state taxes, further cutting our jobs and job creation, when Illinois has one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates in the United States. Lifelong politicians like Madigan made their millions at the government’s trough. Rauner and Oberweis made theirs through free enterprise, hard work, smart choices—the old-fashioned American way. It’s time to throw off the chains that keep Illinois at the bottom of heap. Too long, so long, Madigan must go. The numbers are from the Tribune, March 23, Page 4.

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Sen. Dick Durbin, the senator from Illinois, can’t help Illinois with its financial problems. He can’t help Chicago with its financial problems. He can’t help the United States with its financial problems, yet he can waste his time and waste our tax dollars to go to Russia to tell them how to settle their problems. This man does not deserve another day in this office. He’s wasting our time, our money and everything else. It seems he doesn’t even know what he’s doing. Goodbye.

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To the person who doesn’t believe in global warming: If you think the only weather in the world is in Lombard, you need to get out more. The Greenland ice sheet is melting at a rate of 10 billion tons of ice a year. While our winter was cold and snowy, Europe had one of the warmest winters on record. The Iditarod race in Alaska suffered from a lack of snow. If you knew anything about how weather actually works and affects us globally, you’d know that the warmer the Earth gets, the more extreme the global weather becomes. The drought out West—the wildfire season seems to extend the entire year. Typhoon Haiyan was one of the strongest storms ever recorded. Glaciers in Antarctica are quickly melting and that threatens to raise global sea levels. While climate change may be cyclical, the factors speeding up that cycle can’t be ignored, especially when the most immediate consequence is rising prices at the grocery store. My hope is that you actually fact check this to finally construct an educated and informed response. Also realize there is a whole big world, hence the world global, outside of your little isolated world in Lombard. And before you say it, no, I don’t watch Fox News or CNN.

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Faux “news” Republicans last week mocking global warming again even though 70 percent of the globe is above normal reminds me of an old joke. How do you hide money from a Republican? You put it in a science book.

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Could one of the global-warming alarmists provide some useful information in SPEAK OUT? We just endured a very cold winter in most of the United States, but even if it was true that the planet was getting warmer—a big if— so what? Are you claiming we are headed for 150 degree temperatures? Are you claiming the planet is on the verge of burning up? If the average high temperature next winter winds up being two or three degrees above normal, will that cause an epic disaster? Seriously, could you provide any intelligent information, or will you just respond with a snide reference to the Fox News Channel?

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Hi, I’m a resident of Lombard and my family desperately loves Giagnorio’s Pizza. Why aren’t any more coupons being put out in your paper? Very curious. Thank you.

I posed your question to Keith Giagnorio, who related that Lombardian and Villa Park Review readers can look for a new ad in the near future. “We’ve had a 20-year relationship with the papers and it’s always been great,” Giagnorio said, adding that it’s Gianorio’s 20-year anniversary this year and as part of his marketing strategy he wants to have a new look for his ad. “We’ll definitely be back,” he said.—blm

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Hi, this is South Lewis in Lombard calling. It is Saturday and again, there’s a man walking two dogs in the middle of the street. The street is for cars. You shouldn’t be in the street. Kids aren’t in the street anymore. Dogs and men should not be in the street either. Thank you. Have a good day, Lombard.

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Hi, this is Lombard calling. Just wondering. Once again, no Lombard flags south of Wilson, even though we taxpayers here all paid for the fancy light poles and the flag things sticking out. No flags south of Wilson. Doesn’t anything south of Wilson exist? Thank you.

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This is to the misinformed person who called in to talk about the Republicans wanting to get rid of Medicare and Social Security. You ought to go online and check who’s the president and which party he’s with and which party was in charge of the Senate during all changes to Social Security, all cuts to Social Security; and you’re going to find out what your party is doing. Because your party, the Democratic Party, is the one that keeps cutting it. Check the records; the facts of what has been changed to Social Security will show you the Democratic Party was in charge during every change to Social Security, not the Republican Party. Try again. Democrats do it and blame everybody else.

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Happy spring everybody. Just wanted to throw a bit of rhetoric out there for everyone to chew on for a minute: With all the partisan chattering going back and forth, I find myself stuck in between almost 50/50 and I believe what this country needs is a viable candidate who can combine the social responsibility of the left with the fiscal sense of the right. This being said, they’ll still have to be independent from corporate lobbying, and close loopholes for corporate tax breaks. What a lot of people don’t realize is that giant corporations received insanely huge tax refunds without paying in one penny. That’s our money. Not theirs. That’s a right side thing. On the left, we have such shining examples of things like free cell phones and Internet. Another blunder. What will it take to get somebody in the middle to throw in a legitimate bid for office? We can’t continue these giveaways and not expect to collapse. There’s got to be a viable in-betweener out there somewhere.

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Sitting there on St. Charles Road wondering why I never see a cop. There are people speeding—the speed limit is 35 and people are going 45 and 50. There used to be a police office hiding somewhere. Never, ever do you see them anymore. People are blowing stoplights. This is getting ridiculous in the towns of Lombard and Villa Park. What do we have to do? I don’t understand anymore. Why do we pay for a police department on both sides? Please, somebody reply.

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Hi. Not sure who is responsible for the new tennis courts at Pleasant Lane School, but they are incredible. These courts are in perfect shape and everyone who likes tennis should take a look.