Our village president, who seems to be a strong advocate for the business community of Lombard, must have some explanation why we don’t see the Westmore Supply Co. trucks delivering the concrete/cement to the various job sites, including the village hall, where sidewalks and driveways are being replaced.

Village President William “Bill” Mueller responded: “We certainly try to do business with local merchants when able. The project at the village hall as well as most of our Capital Improvement projects are let for bid and the contract is awarded to the lowest bidder. The bidder then has the responsibility for the project and sub-lets or contracts as needed and the village has no input on the selections of the subs or contracts."—JAC

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I just thought I’d call and say I just saw the stupidest, wasteful thing the government in our little village has ever done. I’m on 18th and Fairfield right now, and there’s a street sweeper putting leaves into one of our big village trucks. The leaves are overflowing in this truck. Now, he is leaving, and all the leaves that the street sweeper just picked up are blowing all over the street. How ridiculous. What a waste of money. They ought to have a better idea or at least tarp them down. It’s just a waste of money. The village trustee in this area ought to check into that or at least be aware of it.

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OK, there are many, many, many annoying commercials that have been on for the last year. The one that’s been going on the longest is getting a converter box for digital TV. It’s been going on for over a year, and it’s not going to happen until February of next year, but yet it’s been going on for over a year already. Please, stop. Stop the commercials, stop the scrolls that are at the bottom of all the major local channels, telling you you need these boxes unless you have Direct TV or Comcast.

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You’ve got to be kidding me. Every time I drive on Main Street, the new fru-fru lamps scream “out of place” to me. Yes, by Lilacia Park, Maple Street and the Orphan Annie house, they would resonate with the history of those sites, but from Maple down to Roosevelt, a simple high-efficiency street lamp would have been fine and looked more appropriate with the surroundings.

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Wow. I just drove down that new O’Hare runway, I mean Main Street, Lombard. Wow. Why do we need all these lights? What’s going on? Whatever happened to going green and tightening the budget? Hmm.

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To the person in the VW Beetle driving down Main Street the other day, I’m sorry I nearly cut you off when I went to change from the inner to outer southbound lane. It would have been my fault for causing an accident, I admit. At the same time, I have to mention that you were in my blind spot, so that’s why I didn’t see you—bright green car and all. It just shows that not only do people have to be aware of the cars around them, but please check to see if you might be driving in someone’s blind spot. I know I sure didn’t see the car, and I checked my right side mirror before I attempted to change lanes. Didn’t see a thing.

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I just watched a replay of the village board meeting to the very end, and before the recess, Kevin Fitzpatrick asked a question of how much the village spent for a piece of property. The question I’m asking is not whether or not the right was there to be asked, but being that his wife is a trustee, couldn’t she just have told him?

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Lombard calling. Do you remember Saddam Hussein using chemical weapons on the Kurds and in Iran? We know he had chemical weapons, but we could not find them. So, if we could not find something we know he had, where did it go? He had plenty of time to hide them, and if he was successful in hiding the chemical weapons, these nuclear weapons went there, too. The smart place would be Syria. So, how can Obama say there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Everyone knows he had chemical weapons.

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The picture on the cover of the Oct. 15 Lombardian? It’s all black. Is that the best picture you had?

Lombardian and Villa Park Review photographer Steve Spoden responded: “The photo was made at the time of ‘flashover’ and conveyed the drama of the moment. Another ‘burn room’ photo, in a different light, was in a strip of photos on Page 12.”—JAC

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I just wanted to thank Keith at the Lombard Park District for rescuing us. We had the log cabin rented on a Sunday and we forgot to pick up the key. We had 40-some kids and their families coming to a Halloween party and he came to our rescue. We called the emergency number and he met us at Sunset Knoll that Sunday morning, driving all the way from St. Charles. We’re greatly appreciative. Thank you so much. We are so grateful. It would have been a disaster if you weren’t able to do that. Our hat’s off to you. Thank you. We really appreciate it.

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I want to thank everyone who had anything to do with designing, working or taking down the Monster Mash at Park View last Saturday. It was great—especially the haunted hallway and dance area for the kids. Everyone looked like they had such a good time. You people are just fantastic.

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This is to the sweet lady who was at my garage sale on Jackson Street on Friday, Oct. 24. You purchased a canister set and cookie jar for your grandson and I forgot to put the lid inside of the box. Also, you bought a printer and you left the CD at the table. I would really like to give that to you. I’m sure you’ll remember. I really hope you’ll get this message. Just stop by my house and I will give those items to you.

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I have a question about our new street lights. It is about 4:15 p.m. and the lights are on. With the economy what it is, it’s nice to see that the village is wasting our money by having lights on in the middle of the day.

Dave Gorman, assistant director of public works for the Village of Lombard, said that the new lights “have to go through what they call a ‘test burn’” to ensure their functionality. He said that the lights remain on for at least seven days, based on their date of installation. He said that currently the photo cells are being overridden during the test period.—JAC

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One of the candidates will return to his Senate seat after basically being absent for the last two years. These candidates sure have short-changed Arizona and Illinois. They should have had to resign their Senate seats and forfeit all their pay, rather than paying them for the job they haven’t done. It sounds to me just like the old adage, “Business as usual.”

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Hi, this is Lombard calling. I’m a parent of a skateboarder. I really do think it would benefit the kids in Lombard to have a skate park that they can go to. They need to put it somewhere where it’s accessible to everybody and not a nuisance to the community, but we also have to invest in our youth and support their positive activities, and hopefully they stay positive. With all the criticism and the backlash about skateboard parks, it’s not a good example for our children. So, let’s stay positive and support them in the activities that they enjoy and that are healthy for them.

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After reading the Wednesday, Oct. 29, SPEAK OUT and seeing all of the comments about Barack Obama—the unintelligent, biased comments—from people who obviously don’t know what they’re talking about, I am ashamed, deeply ashamed to admit that I am a resident of Lombard since 1950, and am a neighbor of people like this.