I have a question for the village. I was driving down Maple in front of the Lombard Historical Society, a privately owned operation, not a village-owned entity, I believe, and there were three trucks and six village workers cleaning up a fence on the inside property line of the historical society building. I was just wondering, being they're not tax funded, I believe, who was paying for the three trucks and the six men and the fence to put up in front of the Lombard Historical Society? I may be wrong, but it would have amounted to probably more paying government workers than just to hire a bunch of people to put the fence up or have their own people put the fence up. Thank you very much for answering this.

Village officials provided the following response: “The facility located at 23 W. Maple is owned and maintained by the Village of Lombard. As the facility is a village-owned asset, any and all construction related work is subject to the prevailing wage rule for construction projects. By using village employees, who are not subject to the prevailing wage act, to construct improvements at the facility, the village actually reduces the cost of the projects. The village enters into agreements from time to time with the Lombard Historical Society for the use and operation of programming at the site.

“The village most recently amended the agreement with the Lombard Historical Society on Oct. 3, 2013, for a 10- year term. The use agreement identifies the responsibilities that the village has relative to the facility. Under the agreement, the village is responsible for the following: exterior maintenance or interior structural repair to the structures located on the premises in keeping with the historical era of the first years of the village; the repair and/or replacement of the mechanical and electrical systems for the structures located on the premises; the security alarm and monitoring services; expenses related to publicity activities for the site and certain expenses associated with employment of the museum staff.”—JAC

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Hi. I just saw the comment that someone suggested that Aldi move into the old Mr. Z's location. That would be a good idea but I also called the Ultra Foods Store corporate office and asked if they'd like to move there and downsize because they were such a good store. We found they had the best produce for the money and the best meats, so we're going to miss them a whole lot. They said even though the store is available they'd still have to spend millions to get things into shape. So, that was one thing I wanted to share with you. Someone could suggest it to Aldi. Thank you.

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Hi, this is Lombard calling. Just wanted to say I think the bloom-o-meter is the best thing ever and I'm really glad to live in a town with such cool flowers and spirit.

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This is Lombard calling. To all the dog owners who leave their dogs outside barking for a very long time, please bring them in the house. Your neighbors don't want to hear your dogs barking and I don't think your dog is having a good time either.

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This is Lombard calling in response to the District 44 respondent who was mistaken about what Lombard taxpayers are paying for. District 44 does not pay for the entire cost of graduate degrees for principals, teachers or other staff members. These people receive $100 for each graduate hour with a maximum of $600 per year. We as taxpayers would prefer to pay these reimbursements because these staff members work directly with our children. Unfortunately, also paying completely for the doctorate degrees of three District 44 administrators, we do not agree with this board of education's decision. It is unfair. The administrators should be treated just like all the staff members of District 44.

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I shop at the Jewel Food store at Roosevelt Road and Main Street two to three times a week. There are almost always cars parked illegally in front of the store. I can't remember the last time I saw a police car driving through the Jewel parking lot. Does the village enforce the No Parking signs?

Your inquiry was forwarded to the Village of Lombard. The following response was provided:  "The Lombard Police Department’s highest priority is resident safety. As such, the Village does enforce No Parking signs.  In 2016 the Lombard Police issued over 5,000 parking citations. However, the Lombard Police Department can only enforce fire lane and handicapped parking on private property. Signs such as “parcel pick-up only/no parking,” are not enforceable by police. Please feel free to call Traffic Safety Unit Officer Sgt. Joe Grage at 630-620-4667 for more information."—JAC

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Hi, this is Lombard calling. I just want to call to congratulate the AWFM Renegades varsity high school hockey team, which includes members from Addison Trail, Willowbrook, Fenton and Montini. Willowbrook and Montini are in the newspaper's area and this varsity hockey team won the state championship. Congratulations. It would be great if the Lombardian-Villa Park Review covered this sport, but no worries; they're busy covering spring baseball, both boys and girls. Congratulations to the Renegades AWFM varsity hockey team and all those boys from Willowbrook and Montini and their parents who pay for and read the Lombard paper. God bless everyone.

The Lombardian-Villa Park Review covered the Renegades' state hockey championship in the March 23 edition. It was the lead sports story.—Chris Fox

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Some of the work on Highridge Road in Villa Park has to be redone. How shocking. It can't be possible. Illinois, you see, has a prevailing-wage mandate. Those seemingly high-priced union workers apparently never make mistakes. Their quality and attention to detail is reportedly impeccable. They always get it right the first time. That's why we have a prevailing wage. Oh, wait, the prevailing-wage rate seems to be simply a form of legalized price-fixing that beefs up union workers' paychecks, stifles competition and gouges taxpayers by setting wage levels on publicly-funded projects. Earlier this year, Kentucky repealed its prevailing-wage mandate. The move will save the state's taxpayers millions of dollars on construction costs of roads, schools and other projects. If the residents and lawmakers of Illinois had a clue, they would follow Kentucky and other states that have repealed the apparent rip-off that is the prevailing-wage mandate.

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Goethe once wrote that to rule is easy; to govern difficult. While our governor has at least not been arrested while in office, what has his "my way or the highway" mindset" accomplished? He hasn't passed a budget. He hasn't even proposed a balanced budget. We have piled up $13 billion in debt from a lack of budget. He walked away from negotiations with the state's largest employee union in January of 2016. He can't pass his Turnaround Agenda. And, everyone except himself is to blame. It is time that we start talking about a Republican candidate who is willing to govern to run against him in the primary.

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It’s amusing to hear liberals complain about travel and security costs for President Trump. These same liberals didn't seem too upset when President Obama added trillions of dollars to the national debt. Now they are concerned about Trump's trips to Florida, or his wife's time in New York.

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Thank you so much, Village of Lombard. I had a tree with some solar lights on it and the forestry department came by and threw them all in big knot on the ground so they could trim the tree. Had somebody given me some advanced notice I would have taken the lights down. As it is, it's going to take me a good week to untangle all that mess. Thanks a lot.

This is a case where SPEAK OUT cannot do much more than get a general response, as it is our policy not to publish a caller's specific address.

Therefore, instead of calling SPEAK OUT about a particular address, it is suggested that residents contact the village directly to report an issue.

However, village officials did offer the following response: "Unfortunately, without knowing the address of the SPEAK OUT caller, we cannot determine if the tree maintenance referenced was conducted by a Village of Lombard crew, the village contractor or ComEd’s contractor, as all three were working in the northeast section of town extensively this winter. Village Code (§153.217) states that all holiday decorations be displayed for a period of not more than 60 days. However, since we do not know what type of lights they were, where the resident lives or what date the lights were removed, we cannot provide an accurate answer. We encourage all residents to contact Public Works directly, at any time, at 630-620-5740 with any questions, particularly questions pertaining to a specific address."—JAC