Latest news with #CJL
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Johnstown City Council holds work session on Central Park Project
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (WTAJ)– Before the regularly scheduled monthly meeting Wednesday night, the Johnstown City Council held a work session for the Central Park Renovation Project. The project has received criticism from community members and current and former council members. As the project inches closer to the bidding process, which council members had hoped to accomplish by August, there's a new firm taking over the project. 'Scape Design disassociated themselves with the city,' said City Manager Art Martynuska. 'We got the official word from them on March 31, and CJL Engineering was always a sub, but now they became the prime.' Now CJL has proposed what Martynuska describes as minor changes to the original design, with changes to lighting, walkways and where the Christmas tree will sit during Light Up Night. 'The original plan from Scape required the tree to be in the corner of the park, we thought that, from a public appearance perspective, it would be best in the center of the park.' But not everyone on the council agrees with the changes. 'It does not need to be in the center of the park,' Council Member Laura Huchel said. 'There's no safety concern with the tree being in the location that Scape originally planned.' Huchel said that CJL is a great local company, but that they were not directly involved in the public outreach process that helped form the plan. This, she said, could potentially set the project back even longer. 'The fact that we are moving back to the design phase of the project by saying 'oh we had a few changes we're just going to put a few more in,' we're effectively going back a year in the process,' Huchel said that he is still confident that the project will remain on track and is hopeful that it will come in under budget. 'The original plan was calling for about 6 million dollars; we hope to be around that same amount, if not lower,' Martynuska said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Council tweaks plans for Central Park; construction timeline goals conflict with annual Christmas tree installation
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – Johnstown City Council is tweaking its plans to transform Central Park with aims to break ground this fall. The plan, designed last year by New York City-based Scape Landscape Architecture with local CJL Engineering as a subcontractor, will largely remain intact except for a few changes, CJL project leader Alyssa Rouser said. Council discussed the plan at a workshop Wednesday. CJL is taking over the completion of the plan. The former iteration of the plan had no cement walkway through the park. Rouser said CJL recommends adding a path cutting through the park, corner to corner. The path would be anchored by a water feature in the center of the park, which she suggested could be the existing fountain or a new feature. The council generally agreed that a path through the park would be a good idea but unanimously dismissed the idea of retaining the current fountain. 'The fountain has maintenance issues,' council member Chuck Arnone said. 'I don't know what we can put in there, but that particular fountain is not worth putting in the money to save.' The fountain's stonework has become high-maintenance over the years and is not suitable for the area's weather, he said. CJL is working to finalize a design, a plan to advertise for construction bids in June. A construction contract would then be awarded in August and construction could begin after Labor Day and be wrapped up in the fall of 2026, Rouser said. Funding for Johnstown's plan to transform Central Park is coming from the federal government, but it has an expiration date on it. The funds must be used by the end of 2026, the council said. City officials have designated $8 million in American Rescue Plan funds provided for COVID-19 pandemic relief to the overall budget for the Central Park project. With construction potentially beginning in the fall, a hallmark Johnstown event could be in jeopardy. For 10 years, the volunteer- led nonprofit organization Discover Downtown Johnstown Partnership has funded an annual Christmas season celebration from November to January in Central Park. The key feature of that celebration is the installation of its 40-foot fiber optic Christmas tree in the center of the park. The tree and the accompanying Christmas Village have drawn thousands of people downtown each year to celebrate the Christmas season. Council members at first indicated Wednesday that the Discover Downtown Johnstown Partnership was seeking alternative plans for the tree this year, but Nick Spinelli, a member of the organization and 2025 city council candidate who by chance was present at the meeting, informed the council that there had been no such discussion. After the meeting, council members said they would find a way to accommodate the tree. 'We will be working collaboratively to find available space for the tree,' Councilwoman Laura Huchel said. Councilwoman Marie Mock agreed. 'We will make it work,' she said. Discover Downtown Johnstown Partnership President Melissa Radovanic issued a statement to the Tribune-Democrat following the meeting. 'I am stunned that the Discover Downtown Johnstown Partnership would find out in a public council workshop that the Christmas Tree in Central Park and Christmas Village need to be relocated this year,' she wrote in an email. 'We have had zero communication from city management or City Council regarding Christmas. The last update was provided to us in February 2024 from then City Manager Ethan Imhoff. Additionally, beyond construction, all initial plans, as we were told, were to allow for the Tree and Christmas Village in perpetuity which also no longer seems to be the case as far as the Christmas Village is concerned.' Radovanic said the volunteer organization has put more than $450,000 worth of enhancements and initiatives into Central Park and Downtown since 2015. 'Where is the respect? I'm totally shocked,' she said.
