This is to the person who’s calling in about sitting at the secretary of state’s office in Lombard and there’s no air conditioning. Here’s something for you to do: Call your governor’s office. After all, he’s the one who has slashed everything to all our facilities, including not sending mailing out for your stickers and driver’s license and slashing all the help, so why don’t you call his office and let him know you’re uncomfortable waiting to get served at the driver’s license facility? I’m sure he’ll take care of it.

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I just read that the Village of Lombard, along with the school districts, is going to cover the cost of incentives for the Mariano new build at [the old] Kmart [building]. I wish the powers that be in this village would get their heads together. Our schools are already underfunded by the state of Illinois. Why would we take money from our education funds to build a grocery store? What are people thinking?

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Hey, this is Lombard calling. I just bought a new house in Lombard and it has asbestos in the flooring and my backyard floods. Are you going to help me mitigate these problems just like you’re planning to do for the new Mariano’s? Why can’t the developer and seller take care of those problems just like I have to? Leave the education funds alone. Thank you.

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Hi. Calling from Lombard. Thanks so much to the mail carrier and man who walks his brown lab on my property and went on the newly seeded grass. Unbelievable; you couldn’t go around and had to kill the grass seed that was planted. It wasn’t so difficult but you made sure to crush the new seed I paid to have planted. Thanks a lot; can’t wait to do the same to you. So disrespectful.

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It is staggering the level of scientific ignorance contained in last week’s SPEAK OUT by the reader who wrote in conflating immigration and the Zika virus. While there are still many unknowns about Zika and its after-effects, we do understand how the virus is spread, and legal travel/migration are the biggest ways it travels from human to mosquito to human over long distances. That is not an opinion; that is a fact. It’s also a fact that last year Donald Trump claimed “Tremendous infectious disease is pouring across the border,” yet he had no data whatsoever to back up his claim. Here’s my opinion: It is extremely disheartening that in the 21st century we have a national candidate who [successfully] uses xenophobic innuendo to incite an under-educated electorate.

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I agree with a comment about people riding on their bike and not obeying the rules of the road. I have also seen some very close calls with a bike coming out of nowhere through a stop sign and almost getting hit by a car. I am an avid biker and I follow the law because I value my safety. As a bicycler you have the same rights and responsibilities as drivers. When riding your bicycle on Illinois roadways, you must obey the same traffic laws. Obey traffic signals and stop signs. Ride with traffic; use the rightmost lane headed in the direction you are going; signal turns. As a driver I do not want to hit or hurt anyone on a bike; as a bicycler I do not want to get hit or hurt by a driver. Share the Road: Same Road: Same Rules: Same Rights. Do the Lombard Police ever address this issue?

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Will somebody please tell me this isn’t true? They are busing in kids from Chicago to the state capital and teaching them how to protest. From what I’ve read in the paper they are going into areas that are off limits. Is this really what we want to teach our kids? What kind of people would do this? It used to be, you heard about teacher negotiations a month before negotiations.  Now it is year-round, and from what I see, kids are not getting smarter. It appears to me that they got pretty good jobs, good benefits and most get the summer off. Can someone tell me what the average teacher in Illinois earns?

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Warning: Watch out for a Commonwealth Edison phone scam. They call and say they’re from ComEd and offer to save you 25 percent on your charges if you sign up for their state choice program. They say there’s no contract, cancel at any time; just give us a yes and another person will sign you up. I hung up, I called Commonwealth Edison customer service, who said Commonwealth Edison never will solicit over the phone or knocking at your door. This is another provider/supplier trying to get your business. I said does Commonwealth Edison have any so-called program for getting supplies from within the state as opposed to out of state, and they said no.

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Hi, calling from Lombard. How about at the old Mr. Z supermarket site we get a nice hardware store, something like True Value or an Ace? I think it would be very handy and convenient to have something in the middle of town so we don’t have to go to Menards or Home Depot.

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An example of government gone wrong, prompted by a citizen: We live on a little dead-end block, northwest side of Lombard. We had a new individual move into our neighborhood who rallied for a speed limit sign on our block. I used to chase speeders back when my kids were small, so I’m all about that. However, the speed limit sign has several disadvantages. It’s in my neighbor’s yard and he has to mow around it. Two, it’s useless. Three, 25, which is the sign limit, is too high to be driving down our street. Common sense dictates less than that—there are small kids. Because of ill-placed intentions this individual apparently had a sign put up without researching it out of emotion, not logic.

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This is Lombard calling. The Helen Plum Library will place a referendum question on the November ballot. The Helen Plum Library wants to tear down our current library, set up a temporary library for approximately 18 months and build a new site all on the backs of the taxpayers; an additional $131 for a house valued at $200,000 would be added to our tax bill for library services. It would be more cost-effective to replace the outdated boiler, make other necessary improvements if there are any and develop the property to the west of the library. This would be cost-effective and library services would continue during any improvements. The library should live within its budget as we as taxpayers have to live within ours.

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We have three rental houses in our neighborhoods and they are all eyesores. It brings the whole neighborhood down. The Village of Lombard should have a regular inspection program for rental houses. They look terrible.

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Are Illinois taxpayers aware that teachers and other government employees receive an increase in their pension year after year? Some teachers get their master’s degree in their final years just to get a larger pension. This does not help the students. It just increases our taxes. Most pensions are not increased year after year. It’s time for some changes. Thank you.

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Some people live in the world of the Obama smokescreen. Obama has been a disaster. The White House has revised the definition of deportation. According to the White House, if a person is turned back at the border, it constitutes deportation. What is my source? Fox News. Fair, balanced and unafraid. Lastly, Hispanics are unhappy with Obama because he promised an immigration bill and reform. As with other promises, they were conveniently forgotten.

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Hello, Villa Park calling. I think they’re doing a great job with the north side of Ardmore, north of the railroad tracks. I’m just curious where that funding came from and if any of that came from the road referendum that we passed to fix our roads. My street’s falling apart and I find pieces of it in my front yard every week. Thank you.

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Lombard, I was at the library last week and a young mother with three young children must have been checking out over 100 books. Isn’t there a limit of how many books you can check out? Also, I feel illegals should be sent back to Mexico. We have laws, so let’s obey them. Thank you.

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I’m calling to inquire why I received three library bulletins on one day, to the next, from the post office, and why did I receive, yesterday and the day before, two village fliers? This seems to be a waste of money. Something needs to be investigated. Thank you.

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Lombard calling in regard to our wonderful post office and heard that stamps went down two cents, called the post office, talked to a clerk, asked if the postage had gone down on the Forever stamps. She put me on hold so she could find out what the price of the stamps is. Smart people.

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This is Lombard calling. A giant shout out, a huge shout out, to the officers who attended the rescuing of nine ducklings from a sewer grate on North Lombard Avenue. I read the police blotter and it’s always negative, negative, negative, and then I read nine ducklings were rescued from a sewer grate. You guys are awesome, just awesome. This restores my faith in humanity, so great job, everybody. Thanks so much. Bye.

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Hi, Lombard. I’m calling regarding the library issue, which I’m sure you’re going to have many calls. The first thing is, for people who are not residents of Lombard, maybe you can raise their fee because we taxpayers are paying for what they are using. Insofar as having a quiet room, why can’t students study or be at home? And, why can’t senior citizens be at home? Or they can go sit at a park and read. I don’t see why we need a large area for children to play. I don’t know if it’s a place for music rehearsal. I don’t understand public event spaces when schools will be empty for summer.