Saint's Golf now open in Tinley Park

By Bob Bong

Southland Savvy

Some golfers love the game so much, they wind up working at golf courses or golf stores.

That’s not the case for George Siekierzynski (pictured). He’s running Saint’s Golf at 16706 S. Oak Park Ave. in Tinley Park as a favor to his partner and because as the Glenwood resident says, “It’s something to do.” He can’t remember the last time he hit the links.

His partner is Mark St. Ledger, of New Lenox, who is passionate about the game. He’s had one version or another of Saint’s Golf for the better part of three decades, most recently in Chicago’s Mount Greenwood community.

The store has been open for a few weeks and response has been good, says Siekierzynski.

Services include regripping clubs, repairing clubs and making clubs at substantially discounted prices.

“Mark makes most of the clubs,” says Siekierzynski. “I just made my first one the other day.”

Saint’s will fit a golfer to the proper club length and then custom-make the clubs right there in the store.

For more information, call 708-342-1111. A website is in the works, says Siekierzynski.

In-Site opens in Frankfort
In-Site Computer Solutions has just opened a second location at 7238 Benton Drive in Frankfort Square. The company develops websites for businesses. The phone number is 815-573-0190. The website is http://www.in-sitecs.com/

Salvation Army opens community center in Blue Island
The Salvation Army opened a community center a few weeks ago at 2900 W. 127th St. in Blue Island. The center services Blue Island, Merrionette Park and Chicago’s Mount Greenwood community. The phone number is 708-332-0100. Its website is http://www.usc.salvationarmy.org/

Mother’s Day deals
Palermo’s, 11255 W. 143rd St. in Orland Park is opening at 11 a.m. Sunday for Mother’s Day and the restaurant is offering a $15 three-course meal special. That includes appetizer, main course and dessert. For more information, call 708-364-6700 or visit the website http://www.palermochicago.com/ to see the choices and make reservations.

Visit the Denny’s Facebook page and create a Mother’s Day card for Mom and each of you will receive a free Pancake Puppies Sundae.

If you know of any other Mother’s Day specials, drop me a line at bobbong@hotmail.com

Bank of America payment charges irk Illinois homeowner

By Bob Bong
Southland Savvy

I bought my home 23 years ago with help from the Illinois Housing Development Authority, which financed my mortgage through a first-time home owners program.

The mortgage was issued through a bank in Bolingbrook that no longer exists. No surprise there, given the way big banks have gobbled up little banks in recent years.

The mortgage was first taken over by Hemlock Bank, another institution that no longer exists.

Then the mortgage passed on to Marquette Bank, which was the gobbler of Hemlock Bank.

Paying the mortgage was nice and easy. If you didn’t want to drop it in the mail, you could drop the payment off at the bank. Hemlock was in Oak Forest and Marquette was in Orland Park.

In all of those years, the mortgage was serviced by a locally-owned bank.

All of that changed last month when Bank of America took over as servicer of the mortgage. The same Bank of America that needed a government bailout of $45 billion in cash and $100 billion in bad-asset guarantees to stay afloat.

After one month as an unwilling customer, I can understand how Bank of America was able to repay the bailout in September.

Bank of America is based in California. The coupons I received to pay the mortgage are to be mailed to California. Questions about why I should be paying an Illinois-backed mortgage to a bank in California aside, I wanted to know my payment options. I used to be able to drop my Marquette payment in the mail on Monday and have it accredited to my account by Wednesday. Knowing the mail from here to California is not so timely, I called the 800 number listed.

I won’t even guess where the call was routed to, but I’m guessing it wasn’t Simi Valley, Ca., Bank of America’s home loans headquarters.

Here’s what I found out. Payments should be mailed a week before the due date. That should get the payment there in time. But there is no guarantee it will arrive and be posted in time.

Failing that, I could drop off the payment at a Bank of America location near here. But it won’t post to my account for two to three business days.

In the words of my 800 number operator Zulfi, “Banks are not payment centers.” My argument that my check in their hands in one of their banks should mean something didn’t seem to win her over.

I also could pay by phone, the payment posts the same day as long as received before 3 p.m. Chicago time. The catch is that there is a $15 charge for using the automated system and $20 charge for having someone such as Zulfi handle the transaction.

What about the Internet? “Sure, you can pay at our website,” Zulfi said. I signed up. I’ll get my temporary password to establish my online account in seven to 10 working days. Oh, yes, there’s a $6 charge for paying online. I didn’t have the strength left to ask how long it would take for a payment to be posted to my account.

My daughter, wise one that she has become, said I should open a Bank of America account and put enough money in every month to cover the mortgage and set up an automatic payment. I just wonder how much that costs?

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