Public safety building plans being explored
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – Currently, $5 million is in place to be used for either renovating the Johnstown Public Safety Building or putting up an entirely new structure at a different location.
Much more money is still needed, though, to make a cleaner, safer, more appealing modern headquarters for the municipality's police and fire departments.
Johnstown City Council allocated $2.5 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act for COVID-19 pandemic relief money to the effort. Then, late last year, the city was awarded $2.5 million in state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant funding, which was acknowledged Friday with a check presentation ceremony among state Rep. Frank Burns, D-East Taylor Township, and city representatives.
An additional $3.5 million in federal money is potentially lined up. But uncertainty exists with large amounts of federal spending being reviewed by President Donald Trump's administration.
Even with that possible funding, there would be gaps between the secured dollars and the upward of $10 million needed for an extensive renovation of the structure that has stood at 401 Washington St. since 1925 or a 'rough guesstimate' of $20 million for a new building, according to Johnstown Mayor Frank Janakovic.
'The problem is the money's coming in fragmented,' Janakovic said during the presentation that took place inside the public safety building. 'We do have $5 million at this time, but we don't have the additional federal money that's $3.5 million. With what's going on in Washington, we're not sure if that would be in '26, '27, whenever that may be available.
'So it's really hard to plan when you've got some of it and you don't know where the rest of the money is coming from or the timeframe for it.'
Johnstown received the state money for the project after Gov. Josh Shapiro toured the building with Burns and city officials in September. The involved parties want to discuss the need for additional funding with Shapiro, Pennsylvania's U.S. Sens. Dave McCormick and John Fetterman, and U.S. Rep. Dr. John Joyce, R-Blair.
'I'm committed to helping them do it, whether they want a new building or renovate an old building,' Burns said. 'I realize, for the police, this is about protecting our community, rebuilding our infrastructure one building at a time. We have to do something to help in this situation.'
Which project is chosen – either an extensive remodel or the construction of a new building – will be determined by the 'parameters of the dollars,' as Janakovic explained.
'The bottom line is going to be money,' Johnstown City Manager Art Martynuska said.
Johnstown Police Department Deputy Chief Mark Britton said 'a new building would be absolutely great' as it would enable the force to 'get up to date with where we need to be on the national average.' He added: 'If the money's not there and we have to do the improvements, at least we could meet with some of what the national average is doing, getting the things that we need.'
Repair work has already been done on the current building.
'We have taken some steps already to make sure this building has been rendered safer than what it's been in the past,' Martynuska said. 'A good example of that is what we've done for remodeling and remediation in the basement. We put some new drainage systems in. We have industrial dehumidifiers. Servpro (cleaning and restoration service) has been in and done a bunch of cleanup there. So the air quality's going to be better in this building at least as a stopgap until we decide what we're going to do in the future.'
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