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February 8, 2018


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Glenbard East co-ed cheer keeps competing and keeps winning! First Place at conference and First Place at sectionals! What an accomplishment for this team and for this program. Special thanks to their amazing coaches — wouldn’t be where they are today without you! Good job at State.

 

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Lombard calling. Wonder if anyone has any information regarding the proposed Mexican restaurant in downtown Lombard going in the old bank. It's been under construction for well over a year now. Anyone know what the delay is? What's taking so long, and finally, how could permits last that long? Seems like a project like that shouldn't take too long. It would be great to have another nice place like Babcock's Grove in downtown Lombard.

 

According to a response from Lombard village officials: "There has not been a proposed Mexican restaurant at 1 S. Park Ave., and there is no restaurant under development at that location. Past permits issued at that location pertained to demolition and remodeling of the building’s second floor. Please feel free to contact the village’s Community Development Department at 630-620-5749 with any questions."—JAC

 

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Holy cow. I just saw a miracle. I saw Villa Park workers actually filling pot holes. Wow. Did somebody else take over the Village of Villa Park? Did they light a fire under them or what? Holy cow. Thanks be to God.

 

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Ain't it great, Golden Globes, all the haters getting on President Trump? He shouldn't be tweeting so much, I agree. There are some countries that are actually lousy countries that have more disease, crime, criminals coming here. Look how it worked in France, where they're getting immigrants who come in there, let everybody in, take over the country, kill people, do terrorist acts. Liberalism and socialism work great, don't they? Oh, and by the way, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama had speeches, dialogues, about letting people in who shouldn't be in this country, who are illegal, and they sound eerily similar to President Trump. I saw it on Facebook.

 

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Hey, Villa Park, this is for you. You're so concerned about your camera-enforced turning right on red but people come to a slow stop, they don't make a full stop, and they turn right and they get a $100 ticket. How about putting cameras at all the stop signs? In Villa Park especially. Nobody apparently stops at the stop signs in Villa Park. Isn't that considered the same thing as a light? It says stop, doesn't that mean stop? A red light is a red light but the stop sign actually says stop. Why don't you do something about that? Why don't we turn Villa Park over to Lombard because Lombard runs a heck of a lot better than Villa Park. Thank you.

 

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Hello. You regularly print Peter Breen's and Peter Roskam's press releases as if they are news stories. These are not news stories. They are press releases. There is nothing wrong with reporting on the accomplishments you believe these men have in their work, however if you're going to report on them, look at both sides, look at the issues and actually make some commentary, not just print their releases and let them write their own press for you. Thank you.

 

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Hi, I'm calling about the stoplights at Finley and Roosevelt. On Finley Road, trying to make a left turn, they've made it turn on left arrow only, they only have one of the left turn lanes open, so it takes forever to get through there because you don't get that very frequent left-turn arrow. They shouldn't do that. They shouldn't make it left turn on arrow only until they get both turn lanes open and the new stop lights working, because right now, it's kind of a screwed up situation where people have to wait forever or they disobey the sign, one of the two.

 

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Hi. I'm at the south end of town. I use Finley Road every day of the week. I go north and south. People who are turning to go left on Roosevelt, there's supposed to be two turning lanes. All winter the one lane has been blocked off with barricades. It's paved, it's striped, the lights are working. What is it, the contractor never came back to pick up his barrels? Maybe somebody's got to do something about it. Our traffic's backed up like crazy every day. Thank you, bye.

 

Editors' note: See Page 2 of this week's Lombardian for an update on the Roosevelt/Finley project.—JAC

 

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Hello. Thank you to Lombard police officer Harris for your dedication and service to our community. May God bless you and your family. Thank you.

 

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You know, it's a shame that our park district is taking the positions that they are. Parks are supposed to evolve and change and grow with the times. Look at what Frederick Law Olmsted and Jens Jensen have to say; it's time for some changes in Lilacia Park. It seems like the park district is Madigan-izing this whole issue. Goodbye and good night.

 

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I guess it remains to be seen how Illinois residents will fare from the federal tax rate reduction. With the increase in our state income tax — thank you Gov. Rauner, Mike Madigan and all of you politicians who are intent on draining our wallets to help cover a mismanaged budget — I can't help but wonder if it's going to break even, compared to other states with lower taxes. I am ready to vote out any of our state legislators who voted for the state income tax increase, and anyone who won't stand up for residents and take quicker action to fix property taxes, pensions and other debt that all keep us from holding on to more of our hard-earned money. And by the way, I was ready to give Jeanne Ives a second look until I saw that campaign ad. I think it was a terrible, snarky way to get across her accusations about Rauner, against whom she is running. I will consider defecting to the "other side" for a new governor.

 

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Some people can't seem to get over the election. You're just talking about one word that you're obsessed with and you're wasting a lot of time when you've got other things to worry about. It's been a year. Get over the election. Get over yourself. And that word is Russia. If you actually believe Russia had its hand in it, that's fine; that's your hang-up. Maybe what you ought to do is make a reservation and buy a one-way ticket and go visit Russia because I can tell you right now, you would fit right in.

 

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In response to the person who gets his or her Lombardian delivered without a sleeve, I live on West Grove and a nice little gentleman who delivers my paper always puts it in the sleeve and gets it on my porch and I want to thank him. Bye.

 

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Hi, this is the "self-righteous snowflake" which someone called me last week. First, why do you have to call people names like the president does? Name-calling serves no purpose. Second, the language we and our kids hear on TV from our "president" has a direct bearing on what kids believe is OK and "normal" language. Words they hear in school are bad, but kids know they are not to use them in public. You need to know the difference between "school house" talk and words from the leader of the free world.

 

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My congressman, Peter Roskam, was made chair of the sub-committee that wrote the new tax law. When he ran for office, he promised that he was going to make the tax code flatter because seven tax brackets were too many. We still have seven, just now 83 percent of the tax cuts go to the wealthiest Americans in the top bracket. He promised that tax reform would make things fairer, yet the wealthiest can now write off private jets while police and firefighters can no longer write off the cost of their uniforms. Promises broken.

 

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This is Lombard. I am disappointed to see that the Lombard Falcons still have tackle football for children as young as 7 years old! There is so much information that the effects of repetitive head trauma, such as hitting heads in football, is not good. This can lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE. We should be mindful and respectful of what brain trauma can do, especially in children. Children do not have to tackle to learn the game of football. Flag football still teaches the fundamentals and strategies of the game without the hitting. If organizations like the Lombard Falcons do not take action and stop tackling in youth football, then I urge parents to do something to stop it. Protect the children.

 

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Yes, we would all like to see a pool in south Villa Park. But, come on, wasting our tax dollars on a pool that has already passed its usable life does not make fiscal sense. A central pool center, with an indoor pool for year round use, seems to be the best possible solution for all of Villa Park. Let's think to the future. And, don't forget, we already have a sizeable tax increase due to the library expansion. Young families and seniors cannot continue to see tax increases.

 

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This is for the person who called into SPEAK OUT (Feb. 1 issue) and said, “To say the school system gives them (meaning students) too many holidays is kind of sad.” I’m the one who made the initial call that this caller took issue with. I’m not against kids having days off of school, or a day off such as Presidents Day, as this person suggests. The caller completely missed the main point I was trying to make, or they chose to ignore it. Again, they had two weeks off for holiday break, they went back to school for four days, and then they got what amounts to a four-day weekend due to an institute day the Friday before Martin Luther King Day. So they’re in school a grand total of four days over a three-week period. Sorry if you disagree, but I think this is way too much time to be off school.

 

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This is Villa Park calling in regard to Lufkin Pool. Don't tear down the pool until a new one's built; how's that? You whole board, use your heads, find a way. You apparently didn't ask people who live in the village. You were chosen to represent the village and the people of Villa Park. If you can't put your heads together and find out what to do to keep it open like many people want, then you should resign or we should resign you at the next election. We want the pool. We use the pool. The children will have one less place to spend their summers. Raise the price. Use your heads, please. Embarrassing.

 

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Lombard calling. It is so very disappointing that in the year 2018, you have someone calling in to SPEAK OUT telling those who participated in the women's march Chicago they should be home cooking for their families. For the record, I, along with 299,999 others, participated in the March. I was born and raised in the United States, I have voted in every election and have a healthy and well-fed family. This is just so very sad. Thank you.

 

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Hey, Lombard, it's a beautiful Saturday morning. I stopped by the library. Busy, all kinds of people, hustle and bustle and all that. So I thought I'd take a walk through the park. Wow, just me, Rastus and I think maybe the ghost of Col. Plum was there.

 

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I read that the Helen Plum Library officials met with the Village of Lombard officials on Monday, Jan. 22, for a preliminary meeting so the library can start putting plans together for a new library. How can they only be having a preliminary meeting to put their plans together when they presented plans to the voters in 2016 that were supposedly ready to go and approved? We're going into our second year for a tax increase that is clearly not going to be built for several years, if at all. I want a tax refund. This is ridiculous.

 

Your inquiry was forwarded to Helen Plum Library officials, who responded: "Like any developer of a major construction project, the Helen Plum Library Trustees needed to wait until funding was approved before finalizing plans and submitting for village approval. With the successful passage of the referendum, the library construction team has been developing a building plan that complies with the park district's existing air rights. Now that that plan has been approved by the library's board of trustees, meetings with village officials about variances and what is needed for the Planning and Zoning hearing are underway. Prior to passing the referendum, new building plans were presented to the community as concepts that would need approvals from the park and village."—JAC


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