Johnstown city council informs public of park renovation project
Councilman Taylor Clark set up a stand at the gazebo in the park to lay out the project plans, design and other features for the residents to learn about the upcoming park renovations that cost $8 million. Members of the public came to the stand to hear what the councilman had to say.
'We got a design for the park that's going to be not just something that's going to modernize it, but it's going to be something that will be more inclusive for everyone, especially people with disabilities,' Clark said. 'ADA compliance is a huge deal, and modernization is a huge deal, while remembering the history of the park itself.'
Plans included a patio place for people to sit down at, a new pavilion for entertainment and a new water feature. The prominent feature, the water fountain in the center of the park, will move over to Sandyvale Park.
'When we put the park back together, there will be new sidewalks, there'll be new benches,' Clark added. 'There'll be a lot of new features of the park that will be more communal for everyone to be able to use.'
However, the session did come with a counter protest across the way from the gazebo. Republican nominee for city mayor John DeBarcola and Republican nominee for city council Joe Tartano set up a table to share their perspective as to why the project should not happen.
'They've tried this before,' Tartano said. 'They told everybody when they reduce Main Street and Central Park, it's going to bring people downtown. It's not. It didn't before. It's history. Look into it. After the flood, they redid everything, and it hasn't.'
Residents flocked to the park to hear from both sides of the issue. While some picked at bits and pieces of the design, others took strong stances on one side or the other.
'If you had a home, you'd redo your kitchen,' resident Sandy Grodziski said. 'You don't wait 60 years to remodel your house.'
'The park is a great place to meet people. The plans are just incredibly stupid,' resident Catherine-Anne McCluskey said.
A main point for those who are against the park renovations is the amount of money going into it. At a price tag of $8 million, they feel the money could have gone elsewhere.
'The money could go to the public safety building,' DeBarcola said. 'The money can go into blight removal. They had so many options on how they could spend this money, and they failed to do that.'
Clark has expressed his displeasure with the invoice for the renovations, also saying that the money granted to them by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) during the COVID-19 pandemic could have been allocated elsewhere. The deadline to move the money elsewhere passed in December 2024, which means that the city has to use it before giving it back to the federal government.
'Not only would that be an embarrassment for the city if we were able to do that, it would be very difficult then to move forward, trying to get targeted federal and state funding,' Clark said.
'They're living in the past, and I'm living in the future, so I keep moving up,' Grodziski added.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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