This is Lombard calling. Where I live they’re trying to tell us we have to get rid of our barbecue grills, barbecue, charcoal or gas grills. What is the village ordinance on grilling. Please print something about that in the Lombardian. Thank you.

Your comments were forwarded to Village of Lombard officials, who responded: “In general, the Lombard Fire Code states that multi-family buildings (including apartments and condominiums) shall not have charcoal burners and other open-flame cooking devices operating on combustible balconies or within 10 feet of combustible construction. The exception to this rule is small LP-gas cooking devices that have an LP gas container that limits the LP gas capacity to one pound or less. Please feel free to call the Lombard fire marshal at 630-620-5750 for questions on specific locations.”—JAC

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While it may be a tradition that the youth football team and cheerleaders to TP one another’s homes each year around this time, it may not be so fun for us, the neighbors, when the strands and pieces end up in our yards. This is especially annoying if it rains before we can pick up the debris. Please be more considerate and come back to clean it all up.

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Hi. I was wondering if you could tell me if, on Circle Avenue in Lombard, off of Harrison, if those new street lights and sidewalks, streets and curbs, brand new aprons to the driveway and parkway sod, commanded a special assessment. Those are different street lights than we see in the rest of the town, and it appears that neighborhood looks a little bit different than the rest of the neighborhoods in town. We'd like to know what the story is behind that, financially. Thank you very much. Bye, bye.

Your inquiry was forwarded to Village of Lombard officials, who responded: “The Circle Avenue Reconstruct Project was included in the Village’s 2015-2024 Capital Improvements Plan. FY 2015 CIP contained $1,800,000 for the reconstruction of the existing roadway (including curb and gutter and storm sewer) to the current village standards. The project included the replacement of sanitary sewer and water main, as well as installation of streetlights in accordance with the Village of Lombard Streetlight Policy. The streetlights that were installed as part of the project are the standard specification for installation on residential streets, which included concrete flared base poles with post top luminaire.  The village’s guidelines for streetlights was revised in 2012 to require all new installations to use Light Emitting Diode (LED) bulbs for energy efficiency. The project was funded through the village’s Water & Sewer Fund for the underground utility portion and the Capital Project Fund for the roadway and lighting improvements. Information on the village’s 10 year capital program can be found on the village’s Web site at www.villageoflombard.org/CIPPlan.”—JAC

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I have occasion to use the Prairie Path two times a day from Grace to Main Street, but I’ve been keeping track of some of the following problems I’ve had: like two out of 100 people give any kind of warning when approaching from behind, about three out of 10 when I’ve been out there after dark had any form of lighting on their bicycles; four out of 10 had any kind of bell or horn on the bicycle but didn't seem to use it at all. According to Jesse White, these are requirements for safe cycling.

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The spending for the fancy Helen Plum Gazette is evidence the library cannot be trusted with more tax dollars. The cost of producing and mailing the Gazette is $31,107 a year, or $622, 140 for a 20-year period, and that doesn't include inflation or personnel costs to put the Gazette together. Vote no on the Helen Plum referendum until the library becomes a better steward of our tax money. I also doubt that the library can support their contention the Gazette is responsible for the 15-percent increase in program attendance and 50-percent increase in online learning and resource use. Many factors likely contributed to that increase.

Your comments were forwarded to officials from the library, who responded: “Many in the Lombard community find the information sent to them in the Gazette is very valuable. Nearly every public library, park and municipality sends frequent newsletters to their residents as an informational service. The staff at the library works very hard to provide great resources and plan terrific programs, and not letting people know about those offerings would not be the best use of your tax money. The library always has produced newsletters with program and service information available in-house, but only sent one annual issue out. As we would need to pay to continue to have a few pages in the Lombard Village Pride newsletter, we feel the best use of funds is to offer quarterly mailings focused on library services. We are continuously hearing from patrons that they learned about our programs, classes and services from the Gazette.”—JAC

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Thanks to the Village of Lombard for their cooperation in getting the partial resurfacing of South Craig Place done so our annual block party could go as scheduled. Thanks again. Greatly appreciated.

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Lombard calling. I see these signs from time to time around town about zoning hearings and changes of zoning and I don't find anyplace online where I can look up the number that's on the sign and find out what's going on with the zoning; what they're changing it from, what they're changing it to. I would like to know if it's available and if it's not, in the interest of transparency, I think it should be. Shouldn't be too hard to do. Thank you.

The following is information supplied by village officials: “The public hearing notice that is placed on properties does list the Village of Lombard Community Development Department at 630-620-5749. The community development department follows the legal requirements of posting public hearing information in a newspaper of general circulation (such as the Lombardian, Daily Herald or Suburban Life), between 30 and 15 days before the public hearing. Notices with public hearing information are sent directly to all taxpayers of record within 250 feet of the property.

Additionally, the Village of Lombard posts upcoming public hearing summaries on the Village Web site at www.villageoflombard.org/publichearings. If you missed a meeting or if you’d like to view any past public hearing meetings, you may view archived videos of Plan Commission meetings at www.villageoflombard.org/archivedmeetings. If you have any further questions please feel free to contact the community development department at 630-620-5749.”—JAC

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To the reader who was bashing Mr. Trump, yes, he says some screwy things; he's not my ideal. At least he has a backbone, as does Mr. Putin, who, yes, is anti-American. He's got more spine than our president had, or ever would hope to have. The Republican Party and the news media are trying to destroy Hillary? The media is all liberal, basically. There are only a few outlets that give us an alternative. It’s all biased. All you have to do is check your facts. There are too many people with blinders on.

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A former library trustee quoted a dollar a day is worth it for a new library. Keep in mind that this is a dollar a day for the rest of your life. Let's do the math. That's $365 per year and in the rest of my lifetime of, say, 40 years, that comes to over $14,000. Don’t forget that your home's assessed values go up every year, so the numbers will go up every year. I can buy a lot of books for that kind of money. So no, it is not worth it. Thanks. Bye.

Your calculations were forwarded to library officials for verification/clarification, to which they responded: “The dollar a day estimate would be applicable only to a homeowner who pays more than $15,000 a year in property taxes. The increase for the typical Lombard homeowner is less than $15 a month. The bond payments for the new facility would be paid off in 20 years. The library's board of trustees would have the option at that time to reduce the tax rate. Homeowners can estimate their increase by visiting our online calculator at www.helenplum.org/estimated-2016-tax-increase.”—JAC

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Hello, SPEAK OUT. How about fixing the pot hole at Finley and Roosevelt Road? When you are in the right-hand lane going north on Finley, it is before the Mobil gas station, going east on Roosevelt Road.

Your inquiry was submitted to Village of Lombard, who provided the following response: “The village will inspect the area for deficient road conditions. In the event that the deficiency is within the IDOT right-of-way, staff will contact IDOT to report the condition. In an effort to ensure the most efficient repair, please contact the public works department at 630-620-5740.”—JAC

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Why didn’t the Sept. 26 presidential debate focus on the exploding costs of Obamacare? Seriously, how could a 90-minute debate include no discussion of Obamacare? Or immigration? Or a number of other important issues? As others have said, the answer is pretty obvious. Voters tend to agree with Donald Trump's views on those issues. When those issues are discussed, Hillary Clinton is in trouble. So what do her friends in the press do? They change the subject.

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With the Lombardian under new ownership, it is a perfect opportunity to discontinue the Speak Out column, or at least require contributors to give their name. Having a forum for the most ignorant and shameful rantings isn’t free speech, it’s hate speech. And shame on the Speak Out editor for last week allowing a hateful comment against a person, using her name while the coward gets to hide behind his or her anonymity.

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For all of you who feel you are immune to the do-not park-in-fire-lane signs. I hope I see a police officer give you a ticket.

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I just have to thank whoever picked up my dog on Tuesday night and called the police and he was able to come back to us safe and sound. Thank you so much for your caring efforts.

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Hi, this is someone who’s speaking pro-Trump, actually. I can't see why anyone would want to vote for Hillary. She has acted so dishonorably, yet she is going for a high honorable office. It doesn't make sense. She hasn't been indicted but seemingly people are covering up for her. But also to all Christians, all law-abiding Christians out there, why would you want to vote for her? She's not even pro-life. Look at Jeremiah 1, Verse 5. Who do you want to rule our nation?

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I attended Rep. Peter Breen’s property tax seminar last Saturday. He started the seminar by stating that Illinois has the highest property taxes in the country. In November we’re going to have a referendum issue on the ballot asking us if we want to raise our property taxes even more. This time it’s for the Helen Plum Library. Property taxes are the worst of all taxes because there is no way to avoid them. If you lose your job you do not have to pay income tax. If you wish to avoid sales tax, you can cut back on your spending. But you must pay your property tax. Keep in mind that if you vote for this tax you are forcing everyone to pay a tax, not just yourself. This means seniors, the unemployed and people who are just barely making it. You may have extra money, but not everybody does. Why force struggling people who may never even use the library to pay this tax? A business cannot charge people who are not its customers, so why can the library? If the library needs more money, then it should charge more to people who use the library.