Latest news with #Johnstown
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
‘It's ridiculous – we've nothing here': Co Kildare village to lose its last shop
'Older people and people with disabilities are so shocked, there was no forewarning really,' Johnstown resident David Stynes said as news filtered through the village that the only shop in the locality, Jordan's Centra, is due to close this week. 'It's ridiculous, we've nothing in the town,' the 65-year-old said. Located just off the N7, between Naas and Kill in Co Kildare , Johnstown, like 11 other Johnstowns in the east of the country, owes its name to the order of St John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitaller, said local historian Brian McCabe. 'The original church is up the way. Since the 1300s, there has been a village here,' he said. From Naas originally, Mr Stynes has lived in Johnstown for the last three years and is a wheelchair user. He was candid about how the shop closure will affect him. READ MORE 'As you can see I'm not very mobile. I'm lucky I have an electric wheelchair, but if you're sitting at home and you realise eight, nine, 10 o'clock you have run out of bread, where are you supposed to go now?' He has already experienced some of the hardship that the shop closure will bring. 'I have to rely on the buses to get to Kill or Naas. But last week I was going up the ramp and the wheelchair toppled over and I ended up in hospital, so I can't really trust getting on the buses now,' he said. Mr Stynes, like many others, is critical of the lack of communal infrastructure in the village. 'What's the town going to be left with, a Chinese restaurant?' he said. 'For older and disabled people, it's going to be a nightmare.' Amenities in the area have not kept pace with significant population growth of recent times, say villagers. Photograph: Stephen Farrell The owner of the shop, Alan Jordan, who lives locally and whose children have worked in the store, said closing had been a difficult decision that was not taken lightly. 'The business has been growing and expanding, but unfortunately the premises is no longer fit for purpose,' he said. 'It has been outgrown by the size of the community, it can't provide the range of products that the community deserves. On three occasions over the last 12 years we have tried unsuccessfully to secure alternative sites in the village.' [ Irish post office network requires annual funding of €15m to avoid 'rapid closures' Opens in new window ] One of these sites, located across the road from the shop, remains vacant. 'We would have built a 4,000 sq ft store there with 44 car-parking spaces ... But that didn't come to pass; a group of local people weren't in favour.' The Jordan Centra group is the largest Centra chain in Ireland, with stores in eight other locations in Kildare and Dublin. The Jack and Jill Children's Foundation , whose administrative offices are located above the Centra store in Johnstown, has agreed to purchase the shop, pending the owner getting planning approval for its change of use, said Deirdre Walsh, chief executive of the charity. However, some locally have queried the need for increased storage space at the shop. Katelyn Dunne (19), who lives in Johnstown and works in the local Chinese restaurant, said: 'They were saying that you can't store everything in the shop, but you don't need everything in it, just the essentials: food and bread.' For many, the impending closure of the shop is further evidence of the hollowing out of a village and its environs, which has more than 1,300 inhabitants who already have no school or post office of their own. The local community centre has been closed since 2000 as the local council did not take it over, said Johnstown resident and Fine Gael councillor, Fintan Brett. There are hopes for the reopening of the Johnstown Inn pub this year. Photograph: Stephen Farrell However, one bright spot on the horizon is that the Johnstown Inn at the top of the village, which closed four or five years ago, has new owners and may open again at the end of the year, say locals. Another possible positive development for the village may involve the vacant site across from the Centra store, Mr McCabe said. 'We have plans for the site of the old Johnstown Garden Centre, we're in consultation with the council about developing that as a community area,' he said. In response to queries, Kildare County Council said it was 'actively pursuing' the provision of a community development facility for Johnstown, but due to commercial sensitivities was unable to disclose further details. While Johnstown may be something of a quiet village, the lack of services is frustrating for its residents especially as the area has seen significant population growth in recent times. The 2022 Census said the Johnstown area had a population of 1,320, with the largest age cohort being in the 15 to 19-years-old category. Ms Dunne is fully aware of the effect the shop closure will have on her peers. 'So many people around here have jobs there and lots of lads around here do work experience there and they won't be able to do that either,' she said. Johnstown has been bypassed several times – by the Naas dual carriageway in the 1960s and more recently by the N7. Locals are now wondering whether the village will remain permanently bypassed in terms of amenities. 'For the population, it's kind of ridiculous,' resident Alan Browne (43) said.
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
‘It's ridiculous – we've nothing here': Co Kildare village to lose its last store
'Older people and people with disabilities are so shocked, there was no forewarning really,' Johnstown resident David Stynes said as news filtered through the village that the only shop in the locality, Jordan's Centra, is due to close this week. 'It's ridiculous, we've nothing in the town,' the 65-year-old said. Located just off the N7, between Naas and Kill in Co Kildare , Johnstown, like 11 other Johnstowns in the east of the country, owes its name to the order of St John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitaller, said local historian Brian McCabe. 'The original church is up the way. Since the 1300s, there has been a village here,' he said. From Naas originally, Mr Stynes has lived in Johnstown for the last three years and is a wheelchair user. He was candid about how the shop closure will affect him. READ MORE 'As you can see I'm not very mobile. I'm lucky I have an electric wheelchair, but if you're sitting at home and you realise eight, nine, 10 o'clock you have run out of bread, where are you supposed to go now?' He has already experienced some of the hardship that the shop closure will bring. 'I have to rely on the buses to get to Kill or Naas. But last week I was going up the ramp and the wheelchair toppled over and I ended up in hospital, so I can't really trust getting on the buses now,' he said. Mr Stynes, like many others, is critical of the lack of communal infrastructure in the village. 'What's the town going to be left with, a Chinese restaurant?' he said. 'For older and disabled people, it's going to be a nightmare.' Amenities in the area have not kept pace with significant population growth of recent times, say villagers. Photograph: Stephen Farrell The owner of the shop, Alan Jordan, who lives locally and whose children have worked in the store, said closing had been a difficult decision that was not taken lightly. 'The business has been growing and expanding, but unfortunately the premises is no longer fit for purpose,' he said. 'It has been outgrown by the size of the community, it can't provide the range of products that the community deserves. On three occasions over the last 12 years we have tried unsuccessfully to secure alternative sites in the village.' [ Irish post office network requires annual funding of €15m to avoid 'rapid closures' Opens in new window ] One of these sites, located across the road from the shop, remains vacant. 'We would have built a 4,000 sq ft store there with 44 car-parking spaces ... But that didn't come to pass; a group of local people weren't in favour.' The Jordan Centra group is the largest Centra chain in Ireland, with stores in eight other locations in Kildare and Dublin. The Jack and Jill Children's Foundation , whose administrative offices are located above the Centra store in Johnstown, has agreed to purchase the shop, pending the owner getting planning approval for its change of use, said Deirdre Walsh, chief executive of the charity. However, some locally have queried the need for increased storage space at the shop. Katelyn Dunne (19), who lives in Johnstown and works in the local Chinese restaurant, said: 'They were saying that you can't store everything in the shop, but you don't need everything in it, just the essentials: food and bread.' For many, the impending closure of the shop is further evidence of the hollowing out of a village and its environs, which has more than 1,300 inhabitants who already have no school or post office of their own. The local community centre has been closed since 2000 as the local council did not take it over, said Johnstown resident and Fine Gael councillor, Fintan Brett. There are hopes for the reopening of the Johnstown Inn pub this year. Photograph: Stephen Farrell However, one bright spot on the horizon is that the Johnstown Inn at the top of the village, which closed four or five years ago, has new owners and may open again at the end of the year, say locals. Another possible positive development for the village may involve the vacant site across from the Centra store, Mr McCabe said. 'We have plans for the site of the old Johnstown Garden Centre, we're in consultation with the council about developing that as a community area,' he said. In response to queries, Kildare County Council said it was 'actively pursuing' the provision of a community development facility for Johnstown, but due to commercial sensitivities was unable to disclose further details. While Johnstown may be something of a quiet village, the lack of services is frustrating for its residents especially as the area has seen significant population growth in recent times. The 2022 Census said the Johnstown area had a population of 1,320, with the largest age cohort being in the 15 to 19-years-old category. Ms Dunne is fully aware of the effect the shop closure will have on her peers. 'So many people around here have jobs there and lots of lads around here do work experience there and they won't be able to do that either,' she said. Johnstown has been bypassed several times – by the Naas dual carriageway in the 1960s and more recently by the N7. Locals are now wondering whether the village will remain permanently bypassed in terms of amenities. 'For the population, it's kind of ridiculous,' resident Alan Browne (43) said.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Veteran selected for new home to be 'blitz' built in Johnstown; recipient to be introduced later
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – A veteran has been selected to be the recipient of a brand-new free house through a collaborative project of the Polacek Veteran Home Initiative, Vision Together 2025 and Hosanna Industries. A panel of representatives from local veterans organizations made the pick after privately interviewing five finalists on Saturday. The application process was open to honorably discharged veterans from Cambria and Somerset counties with dependents, who met other criteria regarding military service, community involvement and personal finances. The home, which will be constructed on Somerset Street in Johnstown, will be gifted by the Polacek Veteran Home Initiative, led by JWF Industries CEO and Chairman Bill Polacek. 'Bill has a very respectful understanding of veterans and service members because a good portion of his business is involved in that,' said retired Army Col. Jeff Pounding, who helped organize the application and selection process. 'And he has a very good sense of honor.' Pounding said the groups will now figure out when to introduce the recipient to the community. The entire process is expected to move quickly. Vision is currently undergoing the legal steps to acquire the property and prepare it for construction. Allegheny County-based Hosanna Industries is expected to do a blitz build from July 14-17. A foundation will be established before that time. Then, over four days, volunteers plan to construct an entirely new home that will be ready to move into, with flowers on the table and towels in the bathroom, on the 17th. It will be a 1,000-square-foot, three-bedroom ranch house. 'We've done this several hundred times, but it's always a leap of faith,' Johnstown area native Rev. Donn Ed, founder of Hosanna Industries, said. 'We always hope and pray that it's all going to work well, and it always has. "I don't want to minimize the effort. It's a monumental effort on the part of hundreds of people to make all those pieces fit together properly in the right sequence at the right time. This blitz building procedure that Hosanna has kind of invented, it's extremely time-critical. 'From Day 1 until the very end, every moment is accounted for. There can't be any slop in the gears because there's not enough allowance of time to permit it. Everything's got to be right on.' About 150 volunteers are needed. Even people without construction skills can help in other ways, such as cooking or donating landscaping materials. Anybody interested in participating can contact Hosanna Industries at 724-770-0262. 'People who know nothing about home construction are welcome to volunteer, because their energies will be properly channeled into productive results by the Hosanna team,' Ed said. 'Skilled volunteers are also needed: block layers, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, drywall mechanics, all of these are very much needed and invited to join in this unique community building venture.' This is the first home in Vision's plan to construct 21 new houses throughout Johnstown, using revolving funds provided by community organizations through the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development's Neighborhood Partnership Program tax credit initiative. The other houses will be sold to people, unlike the first home, which is free to the selected veteran. 'The ones going forward are for anybody,' Vision Together 2025 Executive Director Robert Forcey said. 'In fact, that's kind of a misconstrued assumption that a lot of people have been making that these are only for low-income families. We made them affordable enough for somebody that they should be able to afford it on low- to middle-income. But for these houses we've had applicants all the way from a first-year graduate from UPJ (the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown) all the way to a couple that's been renting for 30 years and they want to move into their first house for the first time.' Forcey said one of the goals of the first free house is to 'show everybody that it's a viable project and it's going to move forward.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
'It's such a blessing': Johnstown Navy veteran selected to receive free new home through community initiative
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – A veteran has been selected to receive a brand-new free house through a collaborative project of the Polacek Veteran Home Initiative, Vision Together 2025 and Hosanna Industries. Darren Hill, who served in the Navy from 1987 to 1994, was picked after a panel of representatives from local veterans' organizations privately interviewed five finalists Saturday. He currently lives in the Elks Flood City Lodge 371 building in Johnstown. 'It's such a blessing for me and my daughter to be able to move into a place that comfortable in the stage of her life right now,' Hill said, "because she's getting ready to start high school and she can just focus on school instead of where I stay at now, because I stay on top of a lodge where they play the music downstairs and all that, so it's kind of noisy." The application process was open to honorably discharged veterans from Cambria and Somerset counties with dependents, who met other criteria regarding military service, community involvement and personal finances. Hill volunteers with the Elks Lodge and St. James Missionary Baptist Church. 'All those countless hours of helping people and doing good work is paying off for me,' Hill said. 'I'm happy. I'm so happy.' The home, which will be constructed on Somerset Street in Johnstown, will be gifted by the Polacek Veteran Home Initiative, led by JWF Industries CEO and Chairman Bill Polacek. 'Bill has a very respectful understanding of veterans and service members because a good portion of his business is involved in that,' said retired Army Col. Jeff Pounding, who helped organize the application and selection process. 'And he has a very good sense of honor.' The entire process is expected to move quickly. Vision is currently going through the legal steps of acquiring the property and getting it prepared for construction. Allegheny County-based Hosanna Industries is expected to do a "blitz build" from July 14-17. A foundation will be put into place before that time. Then, over four days, volunteers plan to construct an entirely new home that will be ready to move into – with flowers on the table and towels in the bathroom – on July 17. 'I'll literally be in a new home by the end of the month of July,' Hill said. 'I can't ask for nothing better than that, I'll tell you. God is so good.' It will be a 1,000-square-foot, three-bedroom ranch house. 'We've done this several hundred times, but it's always a leap of faith,' said Johnstown-area native Rev. Donn Ed, founder of Hosanna Industries. 'We always hope and pray that it's all going to work well, and it always has. "I don't want to minimize the effort. It's a monumental effort on the part of hundreds of people to make all those pieces fit together properly in the right sequence at the right time. This blitz-building procedure that Hosanna has kind of invented, it's extremely time-critical. 'From day one until the very end, every moment is accounted for. There can't be any slop in the gears because there's not enough allowance of time to permit it. Everything's got to be right on.' About 150 volunteers are needed. Even people without construction skills can help in other ways, such as cooking or donating landscaping materials. Anybody interested in participating can contact Hosanna Industries at 724- 770-0262. 'People who know nothing about home construction are welcome to volunteer, because their energies will be properly channeled into productive results by the Hosanna team,' Ed said. 'Skilled volunteers are also needed: block layers, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, drywall mechanics. All of these are very much needed and invited to join in this unique community building venture.' This is the first home in Vision's plan to construct 21 new houses throughout Johnstown, using revolving funds provided by community organizations through the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development's Neighborhood Partnership Program tax credit initiative. The other houses will be sold to people, unlike the first home that is free to the selected veteran. 'The ones going forward are for anybody,' Vision Together 2025 Executive Director Robert Forcey said. 'In fact, that's kind of a misconstrued assumption that a lot of people have been making that these are only for low-income families. "We made them affordable enough for somebody that they should be able to afford it on low- to middle-income. But for these houses, we've had applicants all the way from a first-year graduate from UPJ (the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown) all the way to a couple that's been renting for 30 years and they want to move into their first house for the first time.' Forcey said one of the goals of the first free house is to 'show everybody that it's a viable project and it's going to move forward.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
'Remembering all these years later': 1889 Johnstown Flood anniversary commemorated with luminaria event
ST. MICHAEL, Pa. – Nine-year-old Grace Manack, her mother Rachel Manack and her grandmother Nancy Felix, along with other volunteers, spent time on a windy, cold Saturday lighting luminarias at Johnstown Flood National Memorial. There were 2,209 bags containing candles – one for each person who died 136 years earlier, in the historic Johnstown Flood of May 31, 1889 – placed across the memorial grounds. 'I just think it's important that we're still remembering all these years later because it was such a big event and we shouldn't forget about it,' Felix said. Rachel Manack said, 'It's pretty special' to participate in the luminaria event with her family. 'I grew up right two miles from here,' she said. 'I definitely remember coming to the 100th anniversary with my grandparents. Then starting to come back with my daughter and sharing the story – we drive through this (park) every single day on our way to drop her off for school – so it's nice to keep that local history and also give back.' Grace Manack, who attends Forest Hills Elementary School, was 'really happy to do something for the community.' Leading up to the anniversary day, students from the elementary school also wrote the individual names of victims in black marker on each white bag. 'It's a nice connection with the next generation of school children to learn about this flood,' said Elizabeth Shope, the park's public information officer. 'This history happened right in their backyard. What I really love is when they come out to the park on May 31 with their families because they want to see the bags lit up at night, so they make a connection with it outside of just learning about this event in school.' Zoey Kurcin, a Greater Johnstown High School student and Girl Scout Troop 60122 member, said seeing the names on the bags 'makes you realize, 'Wow, these were like real people.'' Kurcin added: 'It's not just something that was just made up that your parents tell you the story about. This was like an actual, real thing that happened in the town that you live in.'
