Editor’s note: Due to the high volume of questions and comments about street/road-related projects, Village of Lombard officials have offered the following information: “The Village of Lombard provides updated construction information on its Web site at www.villageoflombard.org/construction. Residents may also visit www.villageoflombard.org/notifyme to sign up for e-mail alerts pertaining to specific projects of interest. In addition, anyone wishing to find out about Lombard's construction projects based on a location may visit an interactive map at www.villageoflombard.org/constructionmap.”—JAC

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Instead of trashing the American flag and all that it stands for, I think the ballplayers who are making millions of dollars a year playing football should go into the inner cities and mentor boys whose fathers have abandoned them and help them grow up with a role model. Why don't they make themselves useful? If they need to make a statement, they can put their money where their mouths are and make a real difference.

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Lombard calling. I would like to thank the Two Rivers Nation and all of the groups for the wonderful time at their free family fun night. I had a wonderful time with my family and looking around, it looked like everyone else had a great time as well. I certainly hope that you people have a lot of new people sign up as your programs are truly worthy of involvement. Thank you again.

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Calling Tree City USA. To the neighbor to the north of me who cut down a 100-year-old Norway spruce that was providing shade, beauty, solar remediation and air quality to our homes, let alone our property value of between $30,000 and $57,000, your property values when you have large trees on your land. The village has no rules about these people cutting these perfectly healthy trees down. Lombard, if I were you I would see to it, just like Lake Forest and some other surrounding suburbs, that it be illegal for a homeowner to cut down a large, old, healthy tree when it's adding value to the community as well. Goodbye.

After contacting the Village of Lombard, Speak Out received the following response: “Legislation involving government regulation of tree removal on private property, when the removal is desired by the private property owner, is difficult to achieve. Rare instances of this type of legislation do exist, but were created to address extreme cases. In the village’s current ordinance, the only private property tree removals [in] which the village may have a role are the removal of elms infected with Dutch elm disease and ash infested with emerald ash borer due to the threat these issue pose to the remaining trees of those species within the village.

While the village does not control the landscaping preferences of private property owners, there is a healthy and diverse population of trees throughout the village as a whole. Lombard is home to 88 species of trees for a total number of approximately 18,500 trees. Lombard maintains a “Tree City USA” status by meeting the requirements of having a forestry division, establishing a tree-care ordinance, securing an annual community forestry budget of at least $2 per resident and hosting an Arbor Day event. For more information, please contact public works at 630-620-5740.”—JAC

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Mr. Goldin, the thing about your letter to the editor (Sept. 8 issue) that I find the most frightening of all is why a man, I once thought of with intelligence would even consider backing a person of Donald Trump's caliber. This is a man who thinks Putin is wonderful. This is a man who if you took your nose out of Fox News and ever fact-checked anything about him, has lied, stolen, defamed a Gold Star mother. The man could not be president. He doesn't have the mental capacity. It's you and your Republican party and the news media that have tried to destroy Hillary Clinton but she keeps coming back and God help us if Donald Trump ever became president.

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I have a perplexing question for our local towns out here besides the city of Chicago. Many, many millions of dollars are sent into the city because of fines imposed on the public. What is that money being spent on? How much is it and shouldn't it be enough to defray the excessive taxes? I can't believe there are so many millions of dollars coming in from fines and we still have to raise taxes. Where is all that money going and what special projects is that money being spent on? It should not be wasted frivolously. We are all being overtaxed and this system must stop or there will be a total collapse. Goodbye.

Your comments were sent to officials from both Lombard and Villa Park. The response from Villa Park is as follows: “The Village of Villa Park imposes fines for various violations. The goal of imposing fines is ultimately to gain compliance with village ordinances and policies. While fines are imposed for violations, many of them actually go unpaid. Payments collected from imposed fines do not amount to millions of dollars annually. Most of the monies collected through fines are placed in the village’s General Fund to be spent on village services.”

From Lombard came the following response: “In 2015, the Village of Lombard collected a total of $850,000 in fines, which is less than 2.2 percent of Lombard’s overall General Fund revenue. In Lombard, this money is spent on general operations, which includes police service, fire service and street maintenance, among many other services. The Village of Lombard receives less than 8 percent of property taxes. This portion funds police, fire, community development, finance and public works, which includes water and sewer services.”—JAC

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Of the $16.9 million that the Illinois Republican Party raised this election cycle, over $16 million allegedly came from Rauner directly, from his campaign fund and from his wife. He seemingly owns the Republican party in this state. If he does not want a candidate in this state endorsing Trump, no candidate will even mention Trump. Heaven help the GOP when Rauner finally gets frustrated or bored with playing politics.

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On Labor Day weekend the election mailings were arriving.  The largest is from my state rep under the guise of a report card on how much good he is doing in Springfield. Well, Peter Breen, under your watch Lombard has lost over a million dollars a year in revenue. Wail all you want about Madigan, but the cuts to Lombard's fundings were Rauner’s idea. They are his baby.  And, until that funding is restored to pre-Rauner level, don't expect to ever get my vote.

Your comments were forwarded to Rep. Breen for verification and clarification, to which he responded: “This comment is false and misleading. The truth is, there have been zero cuts to the Village of Lombard’s funding at the state level (which I reconfirmed with our village officials this past weekend). If anything, Rauner is helping: Just recently, I was successful in securing approval from the Rauner administration for traffic changes to Roosevelt Road, which were needed to bring in the new Mariano’s grocery store at Roosevelt and Finley, and replace the shuttered K-Mart on that site.

This project will be a substantial benefit to Lombard's economy. All that aside, if there are lower sales and income tax revenues coming to the village, that's due to the economic problems we’re suffering in Illinois. Those economic problems are the direct result of poor government policies, caused by decades of Mike Madigan and his special interest cronies corrupting and mismanaging our state. Madigan is an embarrassment to all of us who are proud to call Illinois home, and even my friends who are Democrats are refusing to vote Democrat at the Illinois state level this year, because they’re tired of Madigan and his enablers. Rauner didn’t create the problem—and while you may not always agree with his proposed solutions, you have to agree that he’s trying."—JAC

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For wildlife concerns, there are brochures to help you at Schroeder's Ace Hardware on Westmore Avenue. A shout-out to employee Sue Zorn. Or, you can call Willowbrook Wildlife Center in Glen Ellyn at 630-942-6200, ext. 0. They take calls seven days a week, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Thank you.

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Trying to understand the players involved in pushing a for a new library and tax increase in Lombard. From what I can see of the seven board members of Yes Helen, only six of them live in Lombard; one lives in Glen Ellyn.  Of those six only one has lived in Lombard more than five years. So five of the seven are really brand new to Lombard. As a longtime resident of Lombard, how come there are no real longtime Lombardians on the committee?  Is it because they know better about the history of our property taxes going up and that there is no need for a new library? It seems that a lot of the people and businesses involved in pushing for yes votes won't be affected by a Lombard property tax increase.  Let us be transparent in the efforts to push for a yes vote on increasing taxes for a library, it's easy to say "vote yes" when you don't live in Lombard.

Your comments were forwarded to the Vote Yes, Helen! Committee. Angela Mullins, communications co-chair, submitted the following response: “The members of the Vote Yes, Helen! Committee have been transparent about where we live and also how long we've lived there. Those facts are available to all on the ”About” page of the voteyeshelenplum.com Web site.

Speaking for myself and my family, the taxes on our home are over $9,000 annually, so my family completely understands the property tax implications.

We are wholeheartedly voting yes on the upcoming referendum.

We moved from Chicago in 2013 after researching and looking at homes in several places, including the city and about a dozen other suburbs. We chose Lombard to be our hometown. We bought here and want to be here to see Lombard grow. We're in it for the long haul.

We saw the downtown areas of all those other suburbs and saw that Lombard was smaller in comparison, but had enormous vision. We are close to the city, and the Metra commute times are lower between here and the Loop than from some downtown neighborhoods. The schools and people are great as well.

These are just a few reasons why many young families are seeking Lombard as their new home. Downtown Lombard is already seeing growth, change and opportunity and we need to encourage this instead of settling for the status quo.

I wanted to move to a community where I could get involved with its past, present and future, so that's what I'm doing. I'm grateful for the opportunity to do so.”—JAC

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This is Lombard calling in regard to reading the Lombardian from Thursday, Sept. 15, and to the person who was complaining about American English and Cruise Nights, and the village gave a fantastic response to your complaint. I just want to add one more thing about your statement that moving the local stage was hurting local businesses on Park. I would bet the local businesses on Park did far superior, more business than any other year that we had American English because they had more breathing room [for customers] to go in and out. You need to check your statements first instead of just sitting there complaining.

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I'm calling in regard to a person saying the American English event was overkill. I want to say that I was there and thought it was a fantastic event. I was so happy to see all the people in downtown, Lombard. I was so excited to see the new businesses like Marquette Kitchen, Babcock's Grove and the rooftop deck at Shannon's. I encourage everybody to visit downtown Lombard. It's a great place to be. Thank you.

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The road closed sign at the corner of Taylor and Fairfield Avenue means just that. The road is closed at Wilson. People, read the sign. Stop driving down the street. The road is closed.

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Hillary Clinton reportedly told the FBI the 2012 concussion and blood clot in her brain impaired her memory. She's now telling the American people that her health is not an issue. According to Hillary, her health problems are useful when she needs an excuse, and out of bounds when people wonder if she's fit to be the president. She's apparently trying to have it both ways.

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I live over by the high school and I find it very interesting that the police seem very quick to ticket residents who park on the street between 7-9 a.m., yet it's another Friday night and cars are parked all over the place illegally and not one person's getting a ticket. It's kind of nice to see the police come out here and ticket some of these other cars instead of just the residents who live here. Thank you.

Your comments were forwarded to village officials, who responded: “Officers do try to check every street in their assigned beat, but sometimes do not get to them all due to calls for service and other responsibilities. There were a number of parking citations issued Friday night near the high school for illegally parked vehicles. However, if you feel an area is getting missed or that there are a large number of illegally parked vehicle as you described please call 9-1-1 and an officer will be dispatched to check the area.”—JAC