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Wednesday, 13 September 2006
By TOM RAGAN
ragan@standardspeaker.com
A resident on East Mine Street complained that remnants from the Funfest fireworks display Sunday night left streaks on his car after it was washed. The Rev. Ghulam M. Nasrani, who lives in the 400 block of East Mine Street, said his car was covered with the ash remnants of the fireworks set off Sunday night ending the two-day Funfest event.
Nasrani lives just a block from East Broad Street and very close to where the fireworks were launched.
The display was set-up just behind a gas station on East Broad Street.
Joan Davis, a neighbor of Nasrani who lives just a few doors away, said the fireworks were beautiful but the debris blew over to their neighborhood, covering her car and others in the block.
“We watched it and enjoyed the fireworks, but it covered our car with ash,� Davis said.
“When we wiped it off, we noticed some scratches on our car.�
Nasrani and Davis said the fireworks display was too close and that paper debris were shooting toward Mine Street and landing everywhere.
Nasrani said he had clumps of paper as far his back yard, which is almost two blocks away from the other side of East Broad Street.
“My new car was covered with ash from the fireworks and when I had it washed at a local car wash, it left streaks on my car,� Nasrani said.
“The dealership I purchased it off said they would have to ‘wet buff’ it for $100 to remove the streaks,� he said.
Nasrani said he believes he should be reimbursed for the $100 bill he will have to pay to remove the streaks from his new car.
Another neighbor of Nasrani’s, Sally Shermer, said she enjoyed the fireworks, but the people in charge of setting them off were a bit too close to the homes on East Broad and East Mine streets.
“I was just afraid the windows in my house were going to break because the whole house was shaking,� Shermer said.
“It was a concern.�
Shermer agreed with the other residents on East Mine Street who called to complain about the debris blowing onto their homes.
When asked about the fireworks display, she said they were great and she enjoyed watching them but thought the people setting them off were too close.
Judiann McGrogan, Funfest director, said the same crew that has been handling the fireworks for the past 10 years was in charge of it again this year.
“They’ve been setting the fireworks off at the same place for the last 10 years with the exception of last year,� McGrogan said.
She explained that last year, about five minutes in to the display, the wind kicked up and they decided to discontinue launching them off because the wind was blowing some of the debris around.
The place for the Funfest fireworks display for the past decade has been the railroad yard at the east end of the city.
“Not a single person has called us about the matter and if anyone of the people had called us we would have taken care of it as we have in the past,� McGrogan said.
She said that there have been more compliments than ever before because it was more of a sustained and continuous display.
McGrogan went on to say that the compliments about the fireworks display ranged from “wonderful� to “stupendous.�
“It was a bigger show than usual and an action-packed, continuous event.�
The Funfest director said that overall the two-day event was a “huge success� and that the Funfest Committee received a lot of compliments on the parade and the changes kept it moving.
“It was much more streamlined and we had no trouble or problems during the two-day event,� McGrogan said.
The same company that set the fireworks off last year and the same crew that has been doing it for the past 10 years agreed to add extra fireworks this year to make up for last year’s abbreviated display.
Funfest is completely covered by insurance, according to McGrogan. If anyone has a complaint about debris or damage caused by the fireworks, they can contact McGrogan at the Funfest office at the Hazleton Chamber of Commerce.
“We can’t do anything about it if we don’t know anything about it,� McGrogan said.
Wednesday, 13 September 2006
By TOM RAGAN
ragan@standardspeaker.com
A resident on East Mine Street complained that remnants from the Funfest fireworks display Sunday night left streaks on his car after it was washed. The Rev. Ghulam M. Nasrani, who lives in the 400 block of East Mine Street, said his car was covered with the ash remnants of the fireworks set off Sunday night ending the two-day Funfest event.
Nasrani lives just a block from East Broad Street and very close to where the fireworks were launched.
The display was set-up just behind a gas station on East Broad Street.
Joan Davis, a neighbor of Nasrani who lives just a few doors away, said the fireworks were beautiful but the debris blew over to their neighborhood, covering her car and others in the block.
“We watched it and enjoyed the fireworks, but it covered our car with ash,� Davis said.
“When we wiped it off, we noticed some scratches on our car.�
Nasrani and Davis said the fireworks display was too close and that paper debris were shooting toward Mine Street and landing everywhere.
Nasrani said he had clumps of paper as far his back yard, which is almost two blocks away from the other side of East Broad Street.
“My new car was covered with ash from the fireworks and when I had it washed at a local car wash, it left streaks on my car,� Nasrani said.
“The dealership I purchased it off said they would have to ‘wet buff’ it for $100 to remove the streaks,� he said.
Nasrani said he believes he should be reimbursed for the $100 bill he will have to pay to remove the streaks from his new car.
Another neighbor of Nasrani’s, Sally Shermer, said she enjoyed the fireworks, but the people in charge of setting them off were a bit too close to the homes on East Broad and East Mine streets.
“I was just afraid the windows in my house were going to break because the whole house was shaking,� Shermer said.
“It was a concern.�
Shermer agreed with the other residents on East Mine Street who called to complain about the debris blowing onto their homes.
When asked about the fireworks display, she said they were great and she enjoyed watching them but thought the people setting them off were too close.
Judiann McGrogan, Funfest director, said the same crew that has been handling the fireworks for the past 10 years was in charge of it again this year.
“They’ve been setting the fireworks off at the same place for the last 10 years with the exception of last year,� McGrogan said.
She explained that last year, about five minutes in to the display, the wind kicked up and they decided to discontinue launching them off because the wind was blowing some of the debris around.
The place for the Funfest fireworks display for the past decade has been the railroad yard at the east end of the city.
“Not a single person has called us about the matter and if anyone of the people had called us we would have taken care of it as we have in the past,� McGrogan said.
She said that there have been more compliments than ever before because it was more of a sustained and continuous display.
McGrogan went on to say that the compliments about the fireworks display ranged from “wonderful� to “stupendous.�
“It was a bigger show than usual and an action-packed, continuous event.�
The Funfest director said that overall the two-day event was a “huge success� and that the Funfest Committee received a lot of compliments on the parade and the changes kept it moving.
“It was much more streamlined and we had no trouble or problems during the two-day event,� McGrogan said.
The same company that set the fireworks off last year and the same crew that has been doing it for the past 10 years agreed to add extra fireworks this year to make up for last year’s abbreviated display.
Funfest is completely covered by insurance, according to McGrogan. If anyone has a complaint about debris or damage caused by the fireworks, they can contact McGrogan at the Funfest office at the Hazleton Chamber of Commerce.
“We can’t do anything about it if we don’t know anything about it,� McGrogan said.
