This is Lombard calling. I would like to know why North Avenue and this area has such a disproportionate number of car businesses, car-related parts stores whether sales or auto parts, compared to other areas. Is this targeted purposely to keep certain areas of high real estate value and to keep other areas with eyesore business clutter? I don’t see so many auto-related businesses on the North Shore, Northbrook, Deerfield, or even along Dempster Avenue, where they have all sorts of diversity of business, including clothing, retail, restaurants that North Avenue seems not to have, ever.

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Lombard calling. I suspect that if my yard was as weed-choked as the Hammerschmidt parking lot on St. Charles Road, they'd be issuing me tickets galore. The place is a mess.

Your comment was forwarded to the Village of Lombard. We received the following response: “The landscaping that is in question is not weeds. They are native prairie plants that were planted in bioswales to assist with drainage. Due to the lack of available stormwater basins to drain the expanded parking lot, the parking lot was constructed with permeable brick pavers and the drainage system was designed and constructed using best management practices for managing stormwater on-site.  The seed mix was compliant with approved Illinois Department of Transportation mix.”—JAC

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Thank You Willowbrook High School for your display on Veterans Day. It was very nice to see all the flags. As a veteran, I really appreciate the effort.

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I thought local governments couldn’t publicly support other taxing body causes. I drove past the Lombard village campus on Election Day morning and there were signs on the west side of Stewart and south side of Wilson, public property, saying to vote yes for a new library. What’s that all about?

Your question was forwarded to Village of Lombard officials, who responded: “Political campaigns and their placement are regulated through Illinois state statutes as well as the Lombard Zoning Ordinance. With respect placement of such signs on election day, the village offers the following:

1. Section 153.227(A)(3) of the Village Sign Ordinance prohibits political campaign signs on the public rights of way. Village staff regularly enforces this provision, including on Election Day, and removed such signs that were observed by Code Enforcement officers.

2. Regarding political campaign signs at polling places at polling places, state statutes (10 ILCS 5/7-41 et. seq.) preclude such signage within 100 feet of a polling place, as defined and set forth in the Statutes and referred to as the Campaign Free Zone.

3. State statutes (10 ILCS 5/7-41)(c) also reads in part: “The area on polling place property beyond the campaign free zone, whether publicly or privately owned, is a public forum for the time that the polls are open on an election day. At the request of election officers any publicly owned building must be made available for use as a polling place. A person shall have the right to congregate and engage in electioneering on any polling place property while the polls are open beyond the campaign free zone, including but not limited to, the placement of temporary signs. This subsection shall be construed liberally in favor of persons engaging in electioneering on all polling place property beyond the campaign free zone for the time that the polls are open on an election day.”

Village Hall property is deemed to be a public forum space and therefore signs are legally permitted to be placed there on election day, as long as they remain outside of the Campaign Free Zone.”—JAC

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Well, the election is over and so the Rauners have released their 2015 tax return: adjusted gross income on their tax return was $187.6 million. Is anyone else amazed at how well Rauner’s business is doing now that he has left it? 

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Just a reminder. The polling “experts” who keep telling us that President Obama has a high approval rating are the same people who kept telling us that Hillary Clinton was going to win the election.

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I’ve voted in eight presidential elections. I’ve voted for the winning candidate four times. I’ve voted for the losing candidate four times. When the candidate I voted for was not elected, I didn’t cry. I didn’t seek counseling. I didn’t need a safe space. I didn’t commit vandalism. You can’t always get what you want. Judging by all the whining that’s taking place, it seems like quite a few people haven’t figured that out.

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If we want to fix the tax problem in Illinois, how about a pay-as-you-go system for the police, fire, teachers, just like corporate has done? You can’t take more than you give, so what you pay in, you get to take out. Why don't the lawmakers know this? Anyway, let’s spread the word. Thank you.

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Regarding the village: Sell a sticker for high schools students to park on the streets, similar to what Fenwick High School does in Oak Park? The village would then split the money with the high school. It's a win, win, win. Regarding the library, for the last 20 years I have voted at the library. We've always voted in the basement. Suddenly this year, we're squeezed upstairs? That was apparently great psychological warfare for the referendum people. You won.

According to information obtained from library officials, “The relocation of the voting area was the not the library's decision. As we had posted throughout the library during the week prior to Nov. 8, election officials requested the move of the voting location to a space where they could access WiFi. The lower level of the building has a very unreliable connection and the election judges needed access throughout the day to transmit results.”—JAC

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Hello SPEAK OUT. On Veterans Day I drove by Willowbrook. Loved the flags on the main driveway. Great job, Mr. Krause. It looked spectacular.

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Just wondering how many people this happened to. I requested a ballot by mail. I received it, sent it in. It was returned to me after the polls had closed on Election Day. Too late to vote now. Did anybody else experience this?

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Good morning Lombard. I look around at all the leaves still on the trees and realize that Lombard has its last day of leaf collection before Thanksgiving. I know this is not the first year this has happened, and I'm hoping that the folks who vote on this will seriously consider changing this. This change has contributed to the leaves throughout the winter and I realize that mulching is advised; there's only so much mulching that can be done for some folks. I'm also realizing that many other folks have professionals to pick up those leaves for them and are out of tune with what the common person needs to do for these leaves. Thank you so much for considering extending Waste Management in the future for the pick-up of leaves.

As reported in the Oct. 20 Lombardian, the Village of Lombard did negotiate with Waste Management to extend the free leaf pick-up to Friday, Dec. 2.—JAC

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This is a shout-out to the Villa Park board. Congratulations. My water bill is now higher than it was when I was paying for watering plants. We are now becoming more unaffordable than Oak Brook or Hinsdale. You punish your residents by adding fees to the water bill every single month. Stop it. We effectively got rid of the board president’s bid for Congress. Come election time we can vote out all of you, too.

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Hi. I think we could all use some reassurance from the police department that hate crimes are not to be tolerated in Villa Park. Thank you.

Your concern was forwarded to the Village of Villa Park. The response is as follows: “Village officials understand there is some concern relating to the recent presidential election results; but the village will continue to move forward lawfully protecting and supplying services to our residents in an efficient and responsive manner. Any type of harassment/hate crimes should be immediately reported to the police using 911. Our police will respond and act accordingly to resolve the issue.”—JAC

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Donald Trump has been in the public eye for more than 30 years. No one branded him a racist until he ran for election against a Democrat. I hope more and more people are noticing how Democrats reflexively demonize their opponents. It seems you cannot have any reasonable disagreements with Democrats anymore. If you don't agree with them, you are branded as a fool and/or a bigot.

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Hi, this is Thursday, Nov. 17. It's a very beautiful, sunny day and we just came from Yorktown and the parking lights were all on, as were the building lights. Seems kind of crazy.

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Good morning, Lombard here. Our new fearless leader and those on the left who are rioting, we’ve gotten quite some stories every day. The Hollywood people who want to leave this country for good—if they were only telling the truth it would be great. They’ve got quite a bunch of Hillary supporters and Bernie supporters out there. They're the Hollywood people who apparently advocate broken lifestyles, cry like babies when they don't get their way, demonstrators who light fires, punch Trump supporters and other supporters they don’t agree with in the face, disrupt, virtually violate the First Amendment rights and constitutional rights; that's a great bunch of people. I’d sure be proud to be aligned with them.