The city of Johnstown faces a lot of serious issues, but they won’t be solved overnight. That is one thing that the candidates for the May Primary agreed on.
Thursday night, Greater Johnstown High School hosted a political forum. The event was sponsored by the Tribune Democrat, WCRO Radio, and WTAJ-TV.
The candidates for mayor and city council gave their thoughts on how to decrease drugs and violence and to make the city more viable for younger people.
Pastor Sylvia King wants to build up and unify neighborhoods and get guns off of the streets.
“There’s not a Narcan for guns. Once a bullet leaves the chamber that’s it,” said King.
King also suggested that each council member should represent a neighborhood. Candidate Joseph Warhul feels current city leadership pays too much attention on the Central Business District. He lives in the Moxham section of Johnstown and says neighborhoods like his are ignored. He promised to work to erase blight.
“With the city looking the way it does right now I can’t believe any company will come here and want to put a work force in some of these slum homes and vacant buildings we have,” said Warhul.
Many of the candidates agreed that family-sustaining jobs would go a long way to eliminating a lot of these problems. Joseph Taranto is a chiropractor who lives and works in Johnstown. He feels the city is not business friendly.
“What we can do is worry about property taxes,” said Taranto. “The county tax is I think 132 mils and the city is 52 mils. These property taxes are a deterrent to development.”
Act 47 is also being blamed as a crutch that has stalled development. Johnstown has been labeled a distressed city since 1992. Many of the candidates feel the city has become to dependent on government assistance, but incumbent Mayor Frank Janakovic says the city has bills to pay and said you cannot exit Act 47 without a real plan and strategy.
“It’s easy to get out of Act 47 and say your out of it, but the challenge it to stay out of it,” warned Janakovic.
Thursday’s forum was run by students from Johnstown High School. They set up the stage, ushered in guests, and even served as the moderators.
They had some tough questions of their own including what is being done to erase discrimination in the city. The students also said they wanted to hear more optimism and what can be done to keep them from leaving their hometown.
RAW VIDEO: Candidates give their opening statements