The mayor of Johnstown thinks the city saw many positives in 2016, despite violence and overdoses that may have overshadowed those good things.
Discover Johnstown events, such as Taste and Tour, Operation Clean Sweep and the Christmas Light Up helped revitalize downtown, according to Mayor Frank Janakovic.
Those events brought out thousands of people and helped change the perspective of the city and because of that the mayor looks forward to further promoting the city to help economic growth.
“I don’t think Johnstown or the Altoona’s have done a good job or a well enough job to promote what we have in our areas,” Janakovic said. “Our resources, the people, the skills. Those sorts of things. So, for 2017 know that’s one of the things on my agenda, to do a better promotion of what we have in Johnstown.”
The mayor also said the city will need more help from the the state in the new year, due to legacy costs such as pensions, which have cities like Johnstown starting the year with 40 percent of their budget already taken.
