This is a person who lives on Collen Court in Lombard. I would like to find out why the village won’t let us put the extra-wide stairs back in our pool. There are a lot of people like myself who can’t make it up and down those little tiny ladders they have in a pool. We need the extra wide stairs back in our pool. Don’t be telling us what we can do on our own private property. Thank you.

Your concerns were forwarded to the Village of Lombard which provided the following answer:

“Since the address of the property was not offered along with the request, the village cannot offer a specific answer. However, the village offers general information that would be applicable to all swimming pools that are constructed in the community. The village adopted nationally established building code standards pertaining to swimming pools which are adopted to protect the life, safety and welfare of pool users. For single-family private pools, the 2012 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code and the International Residential Code do not have maximum stair widths for swimming pools. For public pools and pools that are associated with multiple family developments, they are regulated by the DuPage County Health Department and they follow the Illinois Swimming Facility Act and Code. The village is unaware of any regulations that would prohibit wider stairways for pools. In fact, such wide stairways are fairly common. If there are specific questions pertaining to pool design, please feel free to contact the Lombard Community Development Building Division at 630-620-5750.”—blm

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This is in response to the call in SPEAK OUT about poor Gov. Rauner’s being picked on to make it look like he’s responsible for all the debt. Everybody knows he’s not responsible. Everybody knows it is a bipartisan thing that has happened there because of stalemates, but let’s face it. This man has come in with his machete, and he wants to slash, slash, slash. But what does he want to slash? He doesn’t want to hurt the upper percent of the people in the state of Illinois; he wants to hit the affirmed. He wants to cut taxes on medical needs, on disability needs, on anything that will hurt the middle class people. He’s no different from any of the other Republican governors who have flushed their states down the toilet. I hope to God you people can realize this. Just listen to what he says. He isn’t trying to help us, the middle class. He’s trying to help the rich people.

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Is President Obama responsible for anything that has happened during his presidency? It seems like any bad news is still blamed on either the weather or George W. Bush. Obama’s been in office for about six-and-a-half years. If his economic policies were so wonderful, they would have worked by now. And I love the excuses about the “harsh” winter. This is from the same crowd that says global warming is the greatest threat to the planet. Jan. 20, 2017, can’t come soon enough.

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Hello, my name is Sadie and I’m from Villa Park. Come play with me at Eclipse Dog Grooming. I have fun there Monday through Friday and I have two other friends, McKayla and Cooper. They take great care of us. We get baths. We just get undivided attention. Come and have fun with us. We’re there Monday through Friday. Thanks, Debbie and Jenny and all the other ladies who take care of us. We truly love you guys and you spoil us rotten Four paws for Eclipse. Yeah.

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A lot of the people who thought Chicago’s strict gun-control laws would reduce gun-related crimes are the same people who believed Barack Obama’s pledge that Obamacare would cut families’ health care costs by $2,500 per year.

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It doesn’t matter if you’re Republican or Democrat. Rauner is business savvy—he is just using the GOP as a shell company. He could have run as a Democrat. He lives here because Illinois is a tax haven for the super wealthy, and his agenda is about protecting and expanding their interests at your expense. Hate unions if you like, but thank them for the five-day work week, lunch breaks, paid vacations, sick leave and child labor laws.

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Hello. This is for the residents of the 400 block of West Greenfield Avenue. Please make sure your dogs are secure. I have regularly seen a golden retriever and a black lab walking around the neighborhood. And the way that cars speed down the street, I’m worried that someday they’re going to get hurt. People need to get a better lock for their gates. Thank you.

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Regarding Superintendent Larson’s commentary, yes, cuts hurt the district’s budget, but some of his proposals smack of digging deeper into our pockets, like increasing the state income tax in particular. Typical political rhetoric. Find more ways to tax us. Instead, hold accountable those politicians who you say mismanaged the funds and get the money back. How about making cuts by eliminating a top-heavy administration, like Cronin is doing? We taxpayers have to make sacrifices and find ways to balance our budget—cut out the lattes, cable, vacations, whatever. I shouldn’t have to keep sacrificing in my budget so as to pay more into a school district’s.

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Hi. Oh, listen, there’s the ice cream truck. Let’s race after it, because that truck is flying down the street. The speed limit’s 25 mph. That ice cream truck seems to be going faster, and the kids would have to race after it. I mean, come on. Do you really want to get ice cream?

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Way to go, Villa Park. I just drove on High Ridge by Willowbrook. It looks like you guys took approximately one wheelbarrow-full of cold patch and put handfuls in each of the pot holes along the road. It would seem like you could do a little better than that. Get a truck and spread it a little bit or rebuild the road like it should be.

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Looking forward to another Paradise Bay season and also another great Waves swim season.

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Villa Park calling. I would like to thank Sen. Cullerton for throwing us under the bus when it comes to the plane traffic from O’Hare. For so many years when O’Hare was configuring the runways, we seemed to get all the traffic. I couldn’t even sit outside or watch TV without raising the volume. Now that the runways are complete, we got a reprieve for a short time and now Sen. Cullerton has brought it right back. Thanks, Sen. Cullerton. That’s all I’ve got.

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Lombard calling. Last week’s caller got it wrong. Rauner is not just against big unions, when he campaigned, he said he had nothing against unions, but after he got elected, he met with legislators and said he would see to it that there were no unions in four years.

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When I hear about Rauner telling the legislators that there will be no unions in Illinois in four years, I can’t help but think of Quinn saying that he knew that he was placed upon the Earth to institute pension reform in Illinois. If Quinn had just gone with the plan negotiated with the state unions by Cullerton, we would have pension reform right now. This bill that Cullerton just ushered through the Senate that requires Rauner to negotiate, in good faith, with some 38,000 state employees or go to an arbitrator is a bill that saves Rauner from himself. Sometimes it seems like Cullerton is the only adult in Springfield.

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Just a reminder, joggers and walkers using public roads are to face oncoming traffic, not go with the flow.

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Hi, this is Lombard calling. Please be considerate of your neighbors. If your dog is barking, please bring your dog in. Your dog will be happier and so will your neighbors.

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This is Villa Park calling. I’d just like to say to the people who are worried about the long branches and everything in Villa Park and them not trimming the trees, I think the tree trimmers went and hid with the street sweeper because I haven’t seen that in probably a couple of years. Thank you. Goodbye.

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OK, SPEAK OUT readers, the reason for my comment is because of an article by David F. Larson, superintendent of Glenbard Township High School District 87. They have a financial problem and they got into a problem apparently because they don’t spend it appropriately. His solution for the problem is to tax more people and more things and spend more money. This is what they’ve been doing for years and this is why we have a real problem in the state of Illinois, our county of DuPage and Cook County also. So if he can’t come up with any ideas besides tax people more to remedy the problem, I think he should resign his job and go get a job someplace else where they love an increase in taxes and spending. Goodbye.