Thoughts on Johnstown Consolidation (Westmont, Northern Cambria: condos, neighborhoods, tenants)

[mams1559]

You'll have to bear with me .. this is the first time I've ever started a thread.

In our local area, there's talk about consolidating two boroughs (South Fork & Ehrenfeld) and in 2000 Barnesboro & Spangler combined to become Northern Cambria. That said, I've been a life-long resident of Johnstown and it always amazed me that you could drive less than 5 miles and go through approximately 4 different twps/boros. It never made sense to me. We all use Johnstown as our post office mailing address. I always felt if the surrounding boros would join the city, it would be beneficial to all. The attached map shows Johnstowns wards (neighborhoods) in white. The grey areas are boros and the yellow are townships. I just wanted to gauge peoples opinions about consolidation ... just to see what people think.

[mams1559]

I guess I could expand on my thoughts as to why I feel consolidation would be beneficial to Johnstown. Within the city limits our population is ~23,000. If you include the areas in grey in the above map, that jumps to ~37,000. Being a larger city would benefit the citizens with shared and improved services and reduce duplication of services. It would cut a lot of red tape for companies trying to locate here and not knowing which council you have to talk with, which economic development team you were partnered with, which ordinances applied. It would streamline economic development and cut bureacratic red tape. People are very opinionated about maintaining the status quo even when they see it not working. Shared tax money would be better than each small boro struggling to make ends meet.

A large and difficult hurdle would be schools. There are three school districts involved (Westmont Hilltop; Ferndale Area; Conemaugh Valley) with those boroughs not including Gr. Johnstown School District. Those three also draw students from the surrounding townships (in yellow on above map).

Should Johnstown try to acquire all areas on the map? Just some that are similarly situated economically?

Anyone else have opinions about consolidation in general .. could be about your local area .. the good, bad and ugly? Anyone have experience with consolidation in their area that was a success/failure?

[openless]

i just visted there a few weeks ago. i drove over mt pleasant and it was still snowing! i visited the incline, point stadium, the stone bridge, south fork and a few otehr places. it looked like it could be improved in some places, lots of parking spaces, but few buildings downtown. we ate at the restaurant at the top of the incline and then went to the flood museum. it was pretty nice. i remember having people from our church talk about it and the flood and the steel industry closing down, and really, i think it would probably benenfit everyone if the town combined with a few smaller neighborhoods.

[mams1559]

Yes, unfortunately, downtown Johnstown has suffered since the 1977 flood (30th aniversary this July 20) and the mills closing. I agree there are a lot of parking lots for the number of buildings/businesses that are downtown, too. Businesses were afraid of being flooded again and moved en masse to the hills (Richland Twp. mostly). They are trying to lure more business downtown with some success.

There are several tech firms that have located downtown. We have a technology park under development, soon to break ground, that will have biotech industry and Northrup Grummond as tenants during phase I. It's planned to have 3 phases covering quite a few acres. The building site is at the former Sani-Dairy plant. So they removed a dilapidated eye-sore for new construction. Also, just recently, Wal-Mart has indicated interest in putting a second Johnstown Wal-Mart downtown - the other is in Richland. The hope is where Wal-Mart is, spin-off business will develop. Also, there are three buildings downtown that are turning the upper, unused floors into high-end condos.

But as the city as a whole is defined right now, approximately 50% of the properties are not taxable (churches/hospitals/non-profits/charities). To improve the quality of life for all area residents, Johnstown needs to be healthier financiallythan it currently is. This means expanding the tax base. Business creation can do this, but is slower. Having people move downtown in new residences is also slow. And they're co-dependant - which comes first: businesses/commerce to lure people or enough people to lure business/commerce? Expanding the tax base by consolidating with other boros would aid the economic recovery and streamline services efficiency and effectively.