Hammond drops annual dinner cruise

The McHaters will now have to find something else to complain about..
Hammond drops annual dinner cruise

Quote :

HAMMOND | The popular dinner cruise that precedes the annual Festival of the Lakes has been canceled this year.
The Lake Michigan cruise, typically held the Tuesday before the summer festival at Wolf Lake Park, is a casualty of citywide budget cuts, the mayor said.
"If there's one thing in the festival that hurts our budget, it's our dinner cruise," Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. said. "It's the biggest money loser, without question. I don't feel right having something I know loses money in this environment."
Canceling the cruise will save an estimated $40,000, he said.

oThought of Freetime when I read this - hasn't it been about a year since she died?

KarenT wrote:

oThought of Freetime when I read this - hasn't it been about a year since she died?

Valentines Day will be a year.

I am disappointed to hear the cruise has been cancelled. I have always enjoyed them and have been on every one. It has always been a good time.

Robin Banks wrote:

I am disappointed to hear the cruise has been cancelled. I have always enjoyed them and have been on every one. It has always been a good time.

I'd bet that he will replace it with something else that's a little less costly.

It was a good event for all the sponsers. I wouldn't be surprised to see a decline in sponsorships this year.

I've thought about her a lot in the last year - mostly when I read something about Hammond. What a horrible way to go. Guess I just don't understand her choice.

What choice do you mean?

Robin Banks wrote:

What choice do you mean?

1) Deciding not to call the Fire department even though she knew there was a fire
2) Refusing to leave her apartment even after her downstairs neighbors,who were the ones who did call the Fire dept,desperately urged her to get out.
3) Slamming her door and locking it.

Why are you answering for Karen? I believe she is capable of speaking for herself.

Robin Banks wrote:

Why are you answering for Karen? I believe she is capable of speaking for herself.

She's very capable of speaking for herself and I look forward to her response.

I happen to have my own opinion which is based on actual events that took place that fateful evening.Had she listened to her neighbors and exited the premises when they told her to instead of locking her door she would not have lost her life.

There are a small number of lunatics that would like to make people believe her death was some sort of grand conspiracy or the fault of the Hammond Fire Department,when in fact it was due solely to her own poor judgment and decisions. In fact one idiot even went so far on a message board as to immediately suggest that I be questioned by the Police to see if I had any involvement.
As a result of that I will continue to speak out whenever I see questions raised no matter who they are addressed to.

Artie60438 wrote:

Robin Banks wrote:

Why are you answering for Karen? I believe she is capable of speaking for herself.

I happen to have my own opinion ....

which you seem to have the unfortunate compulsion to interject into every discussion on this board. Couldn't you have let Karen at least post before you had to chime in? Of course not.

No wonder there is hardly anyone left who posts on this board.

Robin Banks wrote:

Artie60438 wrote:

Robin Banks wrote:

Why are you answering for Karen? I believe she is capable of speaking for herself.

I happen to have my own opinion ....

which you seem to have the unfortunate compulsion to interject into every discussion on this board. Couldn't you have let Karen at least post before you had to chime in? Of course not.

I didn't realize I needed your permission to let me know when and at what time it's appropriate to comment.

Quote :

No wonder there is hardly anyone left who posts on this board.

Huh? This is a discussion board.
Instead of always complaining,How about you step up and contribute more??

happy jack wrote:

Robin Banks wrote:

Why are you answering for Karen? I believe she is capable of speaking for herself.

I can only guess that he was afraid that Karen wouldn't post the Artie-approved version of events.

Karen can post anything she wants. I've always respected her opinion whether she agrees with me or not. We get along very well and I wish there were more posters here like her.

Btw,my "version of events" is based on the incident reports of the Hammond Fire Dept,the State Fire Marshall's office,and news articles from the NWI times. Instead of engaging in baseless,idiotic,speculation,which you've done from the moment the news broke,maybe you should take the time to actually read the incident reports instead of continuing to put your foot in your mouth. You will see that the reports,along with eyewitness testimony from her downstairs neighbors,corroborate my "version of events" exactly as I have stated them.

I suggest you start here...

Quote :

Records released by the Hammond Fire Department, including 911 recordings and written statements from witnesses, paint a vivid picture of the moments leading up to the arrival of firefighters.
A smoke detector in the upstairs unit where Hahney lived went off just before 10 p.m. on Feb. 13, according to a written statement provided to the Fire Department by two downstairs neighbors, Paul Manning and his wife, Amy.
Amy Manning is an employee of The Times' production department.
The two heard a chair slide away from a computer desk -- their living room is under Hahney's bedroom -- and heard Hahney yell and turn on water before running between the kitchen and her bedroom, according to a statement they wrote for investigators.
Paul Manning ran upstairs, found the front door open and yelled at Hahney, who came to the porch gasping for air, according to the records.
Hahney begged Paul Manning to help extinguish the fire. He said the smoke was "way too thick" and "took [his] breath away," according to statements he made to investigators.
Paul Manning grabbed Hahney's arm and told his wife to call 911, according to the records.
Hahney yelled "no," jerked away and closed the door, he said. Paul Manning kept banging on the door and yelled for her to come out.
Amy Manning called 911 and said smoke was clogging the entire upstairs. Manning told the dispatcher that Hahney asked her not to call 911.
Read more: http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/hammond/article_4ee82a88-a0e4-5d85-9997-e477e1f9f0f1.html#ixzz1lLGiPY9e

happy jack wrote:

Artie60438 wrote:

Instead of engaging in baseless,idiotic,speculation,which you've done from the moment the news broke,maybe you should take the time to actually read the incident reports instead of continuing to put your foot in your mouth.

Could you point me to this alleged"baseless speculation" in which I engaged, and could you point me to where I "put (my) foot in (my) mouth"?

Referring to my comment as "Artie approved version of events" as if I was making up my own version of events. That article I posted from the Times shows that my comments were dead on. How about your idiotic suggestions on the BLT board that my comments here somehow contributed to her death? You even went so far as to encourage people to e-mail the Hammond police to try to somehow implicate me in her death.

Quote :

By the way, based on the article, officials are already acquainted with freetime's problems on the message boards, but it probably wouldn't hurt for everyone who cares to e-mail the Hammond police and include the link to artie's hellish postings.

Quote :

I hope that this is looked into very carefully, and I hope that artie's thread on the n o f r e e. f o r u m o t i o n board is one of the first things they comb through.

Title:Marsha-Freetime possibly hurt in fire!The whole thread can be read @ http://www.northwestindiana.com/discussionforum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=10002&hilit=hahney&sid=ba883cee7be8d72fe8a42dd0f12bc1fc&start=15

Fill in your name genius

Artie60438 wrote:

happy jack wrote:

Artie60438 wrote:

Instead of engaging in baseless,idiotic,speculation,which you've done from the moment the news broke,maybe you should take the time to actually read the incident reports instead of continuing to put your foot in your mouth.

Could you point me to this alleged"baseless speculation" in which I engaged, and could you point me to where I "put (my) foot in (my) mouth"?

Referring to my comment as "Artie approved version of events" as if I was making up my own version of events. That article I posted from the Times shows that my comments were dead on. How about your idiotic suggestions on the BLT board that my comments here somehow contributed to her death? You even went so far as to encourage people to e-mail the Hammond police to try to somehow implicate me in her death.

Quote :

By the way, based on the article, officials are already acquainted with freetime's problems on the message boards, but it probably wouldn't hurt for everyone who cares to e-mail the Hammond police and include the link to artie's hellish postings.

Quote :

I hope that this is looked into very carefully, and I hope that artie's thread on the n o f r e e. f o r u m o t i o n board is one of the first things they comb through.

Title:Marsha-Freetime possibly hurt in fire!The whole thread can be read @ http://www.northwestindiana.com/discussionforum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=10002&hilit=hahney&sid=ba883cee7be8d72fe8a42dd0f12bc1fc&start=15

Fill in your name genius

When a person dies under violent circumstances, it is the duty of the police to look into anything that may have led to that death, and a public vendetta against the victim, i.e., the Eye on freetime thread, is certainly something that qualifies. I was clearly not implicating you in her death, but merely suggesting that if her death had some external cause, a vicious and hateful public vendetta would not be a bad thing to investigate.
You, on the other hand, chose to blame an inanimate object for her death, which I found to be pretty damn desperate and funny:

artie wrote:

True. The irony is that her demise may have been as a result of being distracted by the other message board. Had she not been posting there she may have realized earlier there was fire and made it out safely.

I know you're upset that you can no longer post there, but to blame the board for her death is way beyond bizarre.

Those three choices are the ones I would have named. What she was doing at the time the fire started doesn't matter - the fact is she chose to stay in a burning building, effectively committing suicide.

artie wrote:

True. The irony is that her demise may have been as a result of being distracted by the other message board. Had she not been posting there she may have realized earlier there was fire and made it out safely.

I know you're upset that you can no longer post there, but to blame the board for her death is way beyond bizarre.[/quote]

She did what she lived and breathed for...she was busy posting on the message boards, and she continued to do so while a fire was raging behind her. She wouldn't allow fire men in her unit because she didn't want them to comment about her lifestyle...clearly she wasn't making logical decisions and it cost her....her LIFE!

happy jack wrote:

When a person dies under violent circumstances, it is the duty of the police to look into anything that may have led to that death, and a public vendetta against the victim, i.e., the Eye on freetime thread, is certainly something that qualifies. I was clearly not implicating you in her death, but merely suggesting that if her death had some external cause, a vicious and hateful public vendetta would not be a bad thing to investigate.

The trouble with your pathetic excuse is that you had absolutely no idea of what caused the fire when you made your idiotic comment,did you?

Quote :

You, on the other hand, chose to blame an inanimate object for her death, which I found to be pretty damn desperate and funny:

artie wrote:

True. The irony is that her demise may have been as a result of being distracted by the other message board. Had she not been posting there she may have realized earlier there was fire and made it out safely.

Nice try at twisting my words. Now let's get back to reality. The fact is that she was posting at the exact time the fire was originating. Only an idiot would reach the conclusion that I thought the message board itself was at fault.

Quote :

I know you're upset that you can no longer post there, but to blame the board for her death is way beyond bizarre.

You never get tired of making up lies,do you? Either point out where I ever complained about being banned there or admit that your lying. Show me the alleged posts,Einstein! :bball:

Unlike the morons who either lost their posting privileges here or are simply not intelligent or articulate enough to be able to discuss issues here without resorting to posting off-topic pictures to derail threads I've never resorted to lying about stuff like imaginary viruses in a desperate attempt to discourage people from posting here.

Artie60438 wrote:

The trouble with your pathetic excuse is that you had absolutely no idea of what caused the fire when you made your idiotic comment,did you?

happy jack wrote:

No one did – not even the police or fire investigators. And these things should be investigated with eyes wide open to all possibilities and with no preconceived notions as to the cause.
Competent investigators would be derelict in their duties if they did not look into a public, hate-filled, vicious vendetta undertaken by some truly bat-shit crazy individuals against a victim who ultimately died horribly and violently.

Artie60438 wrote:

Nice try at twisting my words.

happy jack wrote:

Twisting your words?
Get real.
I was, at worst, paraphrasing your words, as you can clearly see below.

Artie60438 wrote:

…. her demise may have been as a result of being distracted by the other message board. Had she not been posting there she may have realized earlier there was fire and made it out safely.

happy jack wrote:

You, on the other hand, chose to blame an inanimate object for her death ….

[quote="happy jack"]

Artie60438 wrote:

The trouble with your pathetic excuse is that you had absolutely no idea of what caused the fire when you made your idiotic comment,did you?

happy jack wrote:

No one did – not even the police or fire investigators. And these things should be investigated with eyes wide open to all possibilities and with no preconceived notions as to the cause.
Competent investigators would be derelict in their duties if they did not look into a public, hate-filled, vicious vendetta undertaken by some truly bat-shit crazy individuals against a victim who ultimately died horribly and violently.

Obviously you have no clue as to how a fire is investigated. The first thing they look at is the origin of the fire which in her case was an overloaded electrical outlet. There was never any suspicion of foul play by the HFD or the State Fire Marshal who also investigated. The only claims of foul play came from clueless message board lunatics like JCMT and yourself.

You want to stop now or continue to keep making a fool of yourself?