Northwest Indiana Discussion

Only about 1/4 of the number of people that attended last year, and the weather was perfect. My husband got a 1st place for Walleye and a 2nd place in Bass. I had the biggest fish of the tournament, a 26 inch 6 pound carp, but there were not any trophies for carp. But, I sure got the party started, as I had my line in the water for less than 5 minutes when I caught the carp !!! The carp was also the first fish caught during the tournament.
No trophy for me this year, but it was a GREAT day of fishing !!!

It's great to hear that you had a fun day fishing tiger. Sorry, if I take your topic off course, but I thought I'd toss my own line in and see if anyone takes the bait. Wednesday, July 23rd. That's the date by when I expect Tom McDermott to post on Facebook, the gross dollar take of Festival of the Take. The city and McDermott regularly use Facebook to trot out stats. So as a public service, they should post the "Take". State law prescribes how receipts are issued and gives a deadline of how public funds are to be deposited with banks. By Wednesday, all funds should be reconciled and deposited. Before those figures get lost or buried on someones desk, they should take an extra moment to be transparent and post it on Facebook. While they're at it, why not make copies of balance ledgers and deposit tickets to distribute to the City Council? Will McDermott take the proactive step of distributing these financials, or as usual, will he just Take the "financials"?

This will be interesting to see what transpires. Everyone I have talked to say the $25 parking fee is outrageous, and they are not going. There are no big name acts this year to draw a crowd. I expect the revenue to be a lot less this year.

You know the parking fee is out of line when you can park in downtown chicago for less. Is Hammond remitting sales tax money to the state for the parking charge? Also, the city bragged in the past about marketing studies and interviews of attendees that would be used to make decisions about future fests. I suppose the 25 dollars price point was confirmed by such studies? The only people that would agree are those that drank for free at the VIP from the public trough. You know who you are. Still waiting on the posting of the Take....