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Reagan, Bush expanded
government in their terms
The item “Obama a radical socialist with very liberal agenda” (letters, April 16) strongly suggests that this label should be applied to the current administration for attempting to expand the federal government.
Perhaps if this administration tries hard enough, it will attain the level of expansion achieved by Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Reagan’s policies tripled the national debt and expanded the federal government by about 70 percent; additionally, Bush oversaw the largest federal budget expansion since FDR.
It is interesting that neither of these men was labeled a radical, socialist or (God forbid) liberal. One must conclude that it is acceptable to increase government spending as long as it is for military build-up, off-the-books wars or unfunded tax cuts.
President Bush came to office with a hefty budget surplus left by his predecessor, and returned the favor by leaving his successor a monster deficit and an economy in ruins. President Obama had a mess to clean up when he came to office.
Reaganomics came home to roost in September 2008 when the results of deregulation brought our economy to the brink of disaster. In a little more than a year, the Obama programs have stopped the bleeding and are actually showing signs of turning the corner toward economic recovery.
Using labels and name-calling does little to generate meaningful dialogue. Good people can disagree and still maintain a respectful discourse. The climate of hatred and vitriol is only exacerbated by the use of “hot button” words and rhetoric.
Gail McElligott, Elmhurst
Where are Quinn’s priorities
in naming ‘canoe czar’?
At a time when teachers and state troopers are being laid off and when social service agencies question if they can continue to provide much-needed services, Gov. Quinn recently hired a longtime adviser to be the state’s first ever “canoe czar” at $85,000.
Where are the governor’s priorities? The state can’t pay its bills on time, yet the governor can find $85,000 in the budget to create a new position for a friend to promote canoeing and kayaking on Illinois waterways?
Less than two hours after the new hiring was reported in the media, the governor’s office rescinded the position. Obviously, the state doesn’t really need a canoe czar when it’s on the brink of collapsing.
The state’s budget is in critical condition. Illinois is facing a $13 billion budget deficit before we even begin to look at the financial picture for next fiscal year. We have $4 billion worth of unpaid bills that is expected to increase to $6 billion by June.
Reagan, Bush expanded
government in their terms
The item “Obama a radical socialist with very liberal agenda” (letters, April 16) strongly suggests that this label should be applied to the current administration for attempting to expand the federal government.
Perhaps if this administration tries hard enough, it will attain the level of expansion achieved by Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Reagan’s policies tripled the national debt and expanded the federal government by about 70 percent; additionally, Bush oversaw the largest federal budget expansion since FDR.
It is interesting that neither of these men was labeled a radical, socialist or (God forbid) liberal. One must conclude that it is acceptable to increase government spending as long as it is for military build-up, off-the-books wars or unfunded tax cuts.
President Bush came to office with a hefty budget surplus left by his predecessor, and returned the favor by leaving his successor a monster deficit and an economy in ruins. President Obama had a mess to clean up when he came to office.
Reaganomics came home to roost in September 2008 when the results of deregulation brought our economy to the brink of disaster. In a little more than a year, the Obama programs have stopped the bleeding and are actually showing signs of turning the corner toward economic recovery.
Using labels and name-calling does little to generate meaningful dialogue. Good people can disagree and still maintain a respectful discourse. The climate of hatred and vitriol is only exacerbated by the use of “hot button” words and rhetoric.
Gail McElligott, Elmhurst
Where are Quinn’s priorities
in naming ‘canoe czar’?
At a time when teachers and state troopers are being laid off and when social service agencies question if they can continue to provide much-needed services, Gov. Quinn recently hired a longtime adviser to be the state’s first ever “canoe czar” at $85,000.
Where are the governor’s priorities? The state can’t pay its bills on time, yet the governor can find $85,000 in the budget to create a new position for a friend to promote canoeing and kayaking on Illinois waterways?
Less than two hours after the new hiring was reported in the media, the governor’s office rescinded the position. Obviously, the state doesn’t really need a canoe czar when it’s on the brink of collapsing.
The state’s budget is in critical condition. Illinois is facing a $13 billion budget deficit before we even begin to look at the financial picture for next fiscal year. We have $4 billion worth of unpaid bills that is expected to increase to $6 billion by June.
While I continue to question Gov. Quinn’s and the Democrats’ priorities, the House Republicans and I have offered one reform idea after another to cut waste and fraud and ultimately change the way Illinois spends taxpayer money. Unfortunately, our reform legislation continues to be shot down by the Democrats.
We need to get our priorities straight, stop wasting taxpayers’ money and fundamentally change the way Illinois government works. Illinois residents deserve a government that works for them, not one that takes advantage of their hard-earned money.
State Rep. Dennis Reboletti, R-46th District, Elmhurst
Elmhurst post office lacks
proper door for wheelchairs
Dear anyone who will listen:
Elmhurst has been a great town to live in. We have raised our five children here. Economic times are much more difficult lately than in the past, but that isn’t what concerns me.
As Forest Gump stated in the famous movie, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never really know what you’re gonna get.” My wife, also an Elmhurst resident of the last 23 years, has had some new challenges. She has had to use a power wheelchair to get around. For those of us who have faced this type of challenge, the motto “It’s not what happens to you; it’s what you do about it” applies to everyday life.
We live very near to the downtown business district. As a formerly independent person, my wife like any other person with a disability wants to live as normal as possible and contribute to life’s simple tasks as much as possible. One of those tasks at a distance of not even two blocks is to go to the post office or take the grandson to the library or Wilder Park. This is what we have found.
Power wheelchair wheels tend to get stuck in the rail crossing at Maple and First Avenue.
So what do you do about it? We found that the York Road crossing is much better. So, if you’re handicapped, make sure you only use the York Road crossing. I would only suggest that the next time the appropriate authority rebuilds the other crossings in town they make sure it is wheelchair, stroller and foot friendly.
Once across the tracks, she headed over to the post office. It possesses a nice ramp to the door.
So far so good. Remember, Elmhurst is full of good people.
The front door to the Elmhurst post office has no handicapped door assistance to get in or out. After negotiating the ramp and several minutes of sitting there, one of our fellow citizens was kind enough to open the door and let her in. She mailed some things and bought some stamps.
Once again, the front door at the Elmhurst post office has no device installed for those with disabilities. She fought the door briefly when again another resident was able to assist like most of us would.
I visited the Elmhurst post office the next day and called the postmaster out, explaining the issue. He assured me he would contact the right department to correct the problem.
Five months have passed, and the door is the same non-ADA compliant door. The weather is getting better, and I would like to think she will be doing this more often.
Please consider this as our second request. Elmhurst post office, fix your door!
Wade Graunke, Elmhurst
Heritage Foundation exists
to help Historical Museum
In an editorial titled “Cutting museum’s budget a harsh but necessary decision” (April 23), you addressed the recent cuts by Elmhurst City Council to the Elmhurst Historical Museum’s budget and suggest that residents form a group to provide fundraising support. The reality is that this important process has already taken place.
The Elmhurst Heritage Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization, was established in 2007 by the merger of the Elmhurst Historical Museum Foundation (founded in 1992) and the city’s Historical Commission. The foundation’s mission is to stimulate broad-based support for local history, the Elmhurst Historical Museum and the Churchville Schoolhouse through advocacy, education and fundraising.
In the past three years, the Elmhurst Heritage Foundation has planned and implemented several fundraising events and donor campaigns to make significant contributions to achieve these goals. Some examples of this support include:
• Donation of $18,500 to complete renovation of the historic Churchville Schoolhouse, which will open later this year;
• Donation of history books to Elmhurst elementary schools;
• Provision of buses for second-grade student field trips to the museum;
• An expanded volunteer program to offset staff reductions; and
• A grant of $79,000 approved for 2010-11 to enhance museum exhibits and programs and to support the reopening of the Churchville Schoolhouse.
In other words, the citizen-based support group you suggest is already in place and actively working to support the museum.
To find out more about the Elmhurst Historical Museum and the Elmhurst Heritage Foundation, visit www.elmhursthistory.org. We encourage everyone to visit Elmhurst Historical Museum for the many exciting exhibits and programs, become a museum volunteer to extend resources and make a tax-deductible contribution to Elmhurst Heritage Foundation (donations can be sent to 120 E. Park, Elmhurst, IL 60126; or online at www.elmhursthistory.org).
President Tom Klein and Secretary Ellen Braun, Elmhurst Heritage Foundation
City should fund museum
as originally planned
Elmhurst is an incredible town, full of old trees, parks, great buildings, schools and, most of all, great people and history.
Most of what anyone could want is at their feet within the Elmhurst area. Many people who leave Elmhurst come back because it is hard to find a better place to raise a family.
Elmhurst is grounded in history everywhere you look (Wilder Park, Glos Mansion, beautiful old homes, one-room schoolhouse).
Jeremiah Lathrop and Seth Wadhams had great foresight in planting many elm trees in 1869 — Cottage Hill was then renamed Elmhurst. We have a choice in terms of living in a new sterile community, without culture/trees, or we can continue to support our heritage and future by making sure we never lose sight of it and by continuing to invest a little back into things like the Elmhurst Historical Museum.
As the city goes forward to make cuts, let’s remember a few things in perspective:
• It takes a lot of effort to maintain history, collect new history and present it. All can be destroyed quickly and lost forever.
• The city’s budget problems have resulted from major spending on new projects in the face of reduced revenue. Monthly interest payments for projects exceed $20 million in new bonds (Hahn Street, fire station, parking deck) are more than $130,000 per month.
The city budget is 5 percent of our tax bill and the museum is less than 0.05 percent. We cannot possibly make a dent in the city’s revenue problems by providing pennies from the museum budget.
The proposed tax increase by the city of about $400 per household equals millions of dollars from the 15,000 households in Elmhurst. The budget cut for the museum equates to less than $7 of the proposed tax increase! City, please keep my portion of the tax increase with the museum as originally designated!
Vince Spaeth, Elmhurst
Sidewalks need repairs
in some parts of town
First of all, let me illustrate how great Elmhurst is for our family. In January, my husband was transferred from Washington State to a new job in Chicagoland.
Neither of us had been to Illinois before. And when our real estate agent gave us the short list of communities that fit our criteria, Elmhurst emerged as the winner.
You may be curious what a typical 35-year-old couple with two small children yearned for the most coming from out of state: a walking lifestyle. So, we were thrilled when we moved into our home near Park Avenue with only a 10-minute walk to Cafe Amano’ and all the other pleasures of town.
With a new double stroller, athletic shoes and two excited kids, we have been burning up the sidewalks going to the library, parks and dinner. In the short time we have been here, we keep pinching ourselves because living here is everything we could have hoped.
But I did not realize one needed an “off-road” stroller to make it safely to get ice cream. As mentioned above, we take Park Avenue to get to town. The sidewalks are so poor in multiple places that my older daughter, who sits in the “big-girl” part of the stroller, has been thrown onto the sidewalk twice.
While this is a dramatic example, even as a walker I have tripped and stubbed my toes on the uneven, crumbling and cracked sidewalks. I cringe to think what a person using their wheelchairs or electric scooters will encounter.
Speaking as a newcomer, what sets Elmhurst apart is its unique walkability, or roll-ability, for those who come on some type of wheels other than a car.
I am aware that aldermen did not approve funds for sidewalk improvement. At the very least, there should be sidewalk repair scheduled this summer for main arteries like Park Avenue.
We do not need anything fancy. We just need them to be safe.
Thank you for listening to a new resident’s point of view.
Lucy Czesak, Elmhurst
Paper needn’t have printed
details of trustee’s death
I am mystified that your publication would bring itself so low.
My father-in-law was Richard “Dick” Tross. I married his son in 1994. I am the mother to two of his grandchildren, step-mother to another and aunt to a fourth. His girlfriend of 10 years is dear to my heart, and her children are our family.
Last week, you published an article with this headline: “Suicide by electrocution suspected in death of Lombard Trustee Dick Tross.” I understand that you may have received calls from busybody old ladies wanting gory details. I understand that you are a newspaper and that you report the news, but what I cannot wrap my mind around is how printing the gory details a week after his death can be anything but sensationalism.
We are a family that has dealt with suicide before. So, please do not think that we are trying to hide from some shame or stigma. What we object to is printing anything more than “suicide.”
Do the old ladies looking for gossip really need to know he tried to electrocute himself? I am quite sure my daughter didn’t need to read that. I am very sure his 12-year-old granddaughter did not need her classmates to tell her that they saw it in the newspaper.
I am shocked that anyone could print something just for the sensationalist aspect. I think that your article was shameful.
Did you not stop to think that he had four grandchildren and how this may affect them? Did electrocution really need to be made public? Did you even consider for a moment that a daughter who has lost her mother, brother and father may be broken apart again? That his longtime girlfriend walked into her office in Lombard to more stares and whispers?
We already see it in our minds every day. Did you need to give others the same image? Could you not have left it as, “Suicide suspected in trustee’s death”?
I really wish you would have taken a moment and thought of us instead of feeding the wagging tongues of a few gossips. I truly hope none of you ever has to experience reading about the last moments of someone you love in a newspaper.
Christie (Tross) Iversen
Community members made
post-prom event possible
The Glenbard East Post Prom Committee would like to thank all of the people who made post-prom a success. First of all, thank you to Dawn Zatt for heading this event and making it possible.
We would like to thank the following for their generous donations: Lombard Toyota Scion, Aerostar Global Logistics, AG Logistic Services, Feel Good Hair, Dr. Tim Weslak & Lombard Chiropractic, Lombard FOP, Lombard Junior Woman’s Club, Ruth K. Mayer & State Farm (Downers Grove), Victor Patel & the Convenient Store (Streamwood), Village of Glendale Heights, and Wal-Mart.
Also, thank you to the parents and students who helped work the flower sale, bought flowers, went to The Patio fundraisers, donated to PEP or on the Glenbard East Web site.
Last but not least, thank you to Josh Chambers, principal of Glenbard East High School, and all of the deans and secretarial staff for their help and involvement.
Thank you!
Maureen Rugg, Lombard
Legislators helped Seguin
Services keep doors open
I am writing on behalf of Seguin Services, a social service agency serving about 600 children and adults with developmental disabilities and other special needs in the Chicago area.
Due to the diligent efforts of my state representative, Lisa Hernandez (24th District), as well as Reps. Jim Durkin (82nd District) and Michael Connelly (48th District) and Sens. Dan Cronin (21st District), Christine Radogno (41st District) and Don Harmon (39th District), we can now report that on May 3 Seguin received a hardship payment of more than $1.2 million from the Illinois comptroller.
We dipped into our limited cash reserves the previous week, after maxing out our line of credit, so we could make payroll. Because of the hardship payment these legislators helped to secure, we were able to pay back cash reserves and reduce our line of credit.
These legislators give authenticity to the term “public servant.” All of us at Seguin Services — including the people we serve and their families, our staff, our board and all of our constituents — deeply appreciate their commitment and dedication to our cause.
The public should know, however, that Seguin is still not out of the woods. Even with this payment, Seguin is owed more than $2 million from the state. We are still uncertain as to when we will receive future payments.
Bottom line: Seguin is deeply indebted to each of these legislators for their efforts to assist us through these very tough times, and we need their help and all other legislators’ continued support. We wish them all great wisdom as they seek to resolve the state’s major budget crisis.
Steve Kirby, Elmhurst, vice president of board of directors
Maureen Rurka and Tony Miezio, Riverside, members of board of directors, Seguin Services Inc.
