On Finley Road south of Hickory the village tore down two houses because they flooded all the time. Now they’re allowing 17 houses to be built across the street. What makes the village think these won’t flood also? It does not make any sense.

See response below in bold:

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I see the Village of Lombard is allowing 17 new homes to be built in the swamp on the west side of Finley Road south of Hickory Street. Weren't there two houses on the east side of Finley south of Hickory torn down by the village because they flooded every time it rained? If you tear down houses to alleviate flooding why allow 17 more to be built next to a wetland across the street? When this was the crisis center and prior, the Midwest College of Engineering, the south and west end of the subject property always flooded after a storm. I hope full disclosure is made to the unsuspecting buyers of these homes. I also pray the other residents in that area don't flood now that the area will be saturated with more buildings.

Village of Lombard officials responded: "The Village of Lombard purchased the flood-prone property at 513 S. Finley Road in 2008 (Ordinance 6279).  This 2008 purchase allowed for the village expansion of the stormwater detention facility that is on the east side of the street at 505 S. Finley Road, which was a Public Works Capital Improvements Program (CIP) item.  As approved, the Finley Park Subdivision will meet all development regulations by providing for a new detention pond to handle any on-site stormwater from the development itself. While the village cannot absolutely guarantee any given property would never flood, this is a significant improvement, as the property currently does not have any stormwater detention on the site and all rainfall drains on to other properties without any runoff controls.

"None of the proposed homes will be constructed within a regulatory floodplain area and the elevation of the new homes is higher than that of the properties referenced in the SPEAK OUT. Please note that the designation of a regulatory floodplain is under the jurisdiction of Federal Emergency Management Agency and not the village or county. This permit was reviewed by the village and DuPage County for compliance with all stormwater and floodplain regulations. As the proposed development met the requirements of code, the village was legally required to issue a permit for the work."—JAC

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To the caller who griped about Lombard Pride mentioning all the developments on the south end of town, if you read it again, there are a few restaurants planned for downtown, and the pharmacy is moving closer. As for "the powers that be," doesn't anyone read the answers in SPEAK OUT? The village is not responsible for bringing in/and which businesses—look at all the hair salons, dentists, etc.—can come to town. While it's nice that the village may "court" a prospective business or company by touting all the great things about Lombard, it's up to their "powers that be" to make the choice to move here. Maybe as residents we can help by showing Lombard pride and support our downtown businesses. Make downtown and/or the north side a desirable place to want to put down roots.

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Hi, this is Lombard calling. Citizens should know that our representatives, Sen. Nybo of the 24th District and Rep. Breen of the 48th District both recently voted against gun rights of law-abiding gun owners. Please check out House Bill 2354, Senate Bill 3256 and Senate Bill 337 for yourself. Previously these two legislators have stated publicly that they support the Second Amendment, which is apparently not true. But, whether or not you support the Second Amendment, citizens ought to be concerned when constitutional rights and due process can be altered or redefined by legislators so they can look like they're doing something. If they can dilute the Second Amendment they can do the same with any amendment. Sadly, these aforementioned bills will do little or nothing to stop killings, since most criminals use illegal guns and are not members of the NRA. Thank you.

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Hi, this is Villa Park calling. I just got done reading SPEAK OUT and I can agree with everybody saying blame the librarian because she wanted a new library over fixing the streets. But, I'm going to add a twist to that: If you have a Save Lufkin Pool sign in front of your house and your house floods, don't cry to anybody because that's raising taxes for something we don't need. We don't need a pool. Villa Park can't afford a pool. Villa Park can't run a pool. What we need is to stop the flooding. Nothing else should get done until the flooding is stopped. By the way, if you're new to Villa Park, get yourself a generator, a gas can and a canoe.

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We are a lot more sensitive and loving than the conservatives. You can complain all you want about Donald Trump and Kathy Griffin and Samantha Bee and Ivanka, those are not things that are horrible, but if you want to talk about things that your family-loving conservative party is, why don't you talk about pulling children out of their parents' arms who come here legally asking for asylum? They rip the children out, now they're putting them in cages. They won't let anybody see them. They've lost 1,400 children. They don't even know where they're at, and they don't seem to think there's anything wrong with that and you think that's fine. Maybe you ought to read and find out what your ultra-conservative family lovers are doing to the women of the United States of America, to the veterans of the United States of America.

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Illinois' biggest trading partner is, of course, Canada; which the president has just started a trade war with by imposing tariffs by executive action, which he could not do until first declaring our closest ally to be a security threat. Has Fox News covered any of this?

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I agree with the SPEAK OUT complaint about drivers who leave a vast space between their own car and the car ahead of them at stoplights. You don't have to tailgate the car ahead of you, but you also don't have to leave two full car lengths ahead of your car and the one ahead of you. I see this all the time at lights of major intersections like Route 83/St. Charles and Roosevelt/Westmore-Meyers. Do you people not realize you are in a line of maybe 20 cars or more when you're at a red light? When you leave these huge spaces, you are extending this line of cars. There's a good chance there are people behind you who want to turn left or right. You are blocking them. You are not avoiding other cars' emissions and you are not giving yourself "an out" as two commenters ridiculously suggested. Do you know what you are doing? You're being inconsiderate! I'll bet you would be upset if someone prevented you from making a turn, or making it through a green light.

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So I hear that Rahm Emanuel wants to pay for Jeff Sessions to go to Ellis Island because he believes Sessions is turning his back on America. Here’s the mayor of the city with the highest murder rate in the country, and he’s worried about what Jeff Sessions is doing. Hey Rahm, how about if you and that big mouth, Luis Gutierrez, who has a Napoleon complex like you, try attending a naturalization ceremony in Chicago where people who have gone through the process of actually becoming legal U.S. citizens take the Oath of Allegiance instead of rolling out the welcome mat for illegals in your city?

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The president blames Democrats and the "law" for children being taken from their parents at the border. There is no such law! And, the Democrats do not want children separated from their parents. It is the president and Jeff Sessions who have decided to scare people from coming to our great country. Granted, we cannot let everyone into the country for any reason, there is no reason to take thousands—yes thousands—of children, as young as a few months to 17 years old, and detain them in centers hundreds of miles from their parents. We are not a third-world country with some dictator in charge, or are we? There is a terrible national disgrace going on in our country. We should all be ashamed of our president.

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Why do people insist on putting furniture and junk in the parkway on Saturdays when their garbage day is Thursday and Friday? Please help keep our neighborhoods neat and clean. Thank you.

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Hello, Lombard. So you want to allow another hotel. Don't we have enough of them, especially on the south side? Hey, how about building one at the site of the old DuPage Theatre lot, right at beautiful downtown Lombard, by the train station, conveniently located. Haven't we learned our lesson with the Westin? That is all for now.

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Hello, I would like to commend Paul Friedrichs, executive director of the Lombard Park District. In the most recent SPEAK OUT, he took responsibility for Madison Meadow park not being completely mowed. He did not slough it off to someone else or some other reason. He totally apologized, and that's what we need in the world more. We need people who accept responsibility for things that they are in control of. So again, thank you Paul Friedrichs, for leading the way, and being honest and responsible.

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I'm sure there are people who will comment about Paul Friedrichs' response in last week's SPEAK OUT, but while it may be somewhat sarcastic, gosh darn it, whenever I see responses from the village, park district, etc., I can't help but wonder why these people don't just find out the answers for themselves. I'm sure the employees—and SPEAK OUT staff—get tired of having to take the time to write something up for SPEAK OUT, like they have nothing better to do. Just call and ask for yourself, look up an ordinance, look at the website. Chances are the answers are there. Sure, some answers are helpful for a vast audience, but the majority of questions seem petty or even misinformed. Take a leap of faith and do your own homework.

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Wouldn't it be nice if residents would place their garbage cans anywhere but their front yard? Thank you.

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Regarding the person who called in and said that more abortions have been performed than mass shootings in schools in the last year. I don't think that's quite right and actually, abortions and mass shootings do not correlate with anything because when you go into a school and kill teenage children, it isn't quite the same as having an abortion, except maybe as you consider it, an abortion is killing a person; and that, to me, is your problem. Abortions are not illegal in the United States of America, so I'd like to know where you got your stats from.

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Good afternoon, Lombard. On a lighter note, away from the politics and village problems, this is for all you movie fans out there. Remember "The Andy Griffith Show"? Well, three of the actresses and Andy Griffith have appeared in either a horror or sci-fi movie. Helen Crump was in the original "The Blob" with Steve McQueen. Aunt Bee was in the original "The Day the Earth Stood Still," and creepiest of all was Aunt Bee's friend Clara, who appeared in "Rosemary's Baby." Happy viewing. Thanks.

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Hello, Lombard Park Board. I don't know about anybody else, but I, for one, am tired of the executive director's, snippy, smart-alecky responses to people's legitimate questions. Really? This is not the way an employee should be responding about how our tax dollars are being spent. Thank you.

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America is a very fortunate nation to have talented and devoted people who become president at critical stages of our republic's development. Washington to nurture a fledgling 13 colonies. Jefferson to expand and grow our country. Lincoln to preserve our nation. Roosevelt during trying times in World War II. Kennedy to fortify our country during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Reagan and Trump to enhance and preserve what we attained. God has truly been watching over us.

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Good morning. I see that somebody raised the issue in SPEAK OUT last week about the library and how they pay more for their property taxes to the library than they do to the village. And that's interesting because years ago they used to split up the tax bill and they'd tell you how much you were paying for the library pension. The last time it was itemized, my house was being charged $6.35 a year to the library pension. I know that's not a lot of money, $6.35, but folks, do that math. If every house in the village is being charged $6 plus to the pension fund, we should have all been librarians. It would be nice to know how many people are collecting pensions at the library and where does all this money go. This person's correct about raising this point about the library. We pay a lot of money in this village for the library and what do they do with it? I would like to know that, too. Thank you and have a good day.