On Cinco de Mayo I went to a community meeting at Mayor Sylvia King’s Christ Centered Community Church. It was by Vision Together (formerly Vision 2025) on Capture Teams. Capture teams are groups of people with projects intended to improve the quality of life in Johnstown. You can see their presentations in the video below.
The interest categories for the teams include:
- Bikes and Trails – Run by Mike Cook to “create new hiking and biking opportunities as well as maintain some of the trail systems in the area”
- Adaptive Reuse – Run by Jim Carthew to encourage “the rehabilitation and reuse of older and historic buildings in the City of Johnstown for residential, commercial, and mixed uses.”
- Community gardens – Run by Sue Konvolinka to “serve as an educational network for Community Gardens.”
- Greenspace – Run by Gary Weible to use “using green infrastructure, mapping, and native plantings wherever possible, this team hopes to create continuous greenspace stops throughout the city.”
- Train Station – Run by Craig Saylor to “preserve the Johnstown Train Station through cleanings, outdoor additions and new projects.”
- Treevitalize – with open leadership with a “combination of a strong interest in community forestry by Vision stakeholders, a demonstrated need for improving the city’s urban canopy.”
- United neighborhoods – Team leader Patrick Bearjar “The team encourages and facilitates collaboration between active community improvement groups and resource groups to make Johnstown an even better area to live.”
You can create your own capture team at this link. Vision Together does have grants of up to $1,000 to support the proposed project. Presenters of other teams included the Johnstown Animal Welfare Society, Junior Achievement, and the Center for Population Health. This website has written extensively on the social ills facing the Alleghenies. Vision Together and Capture Teams are making an effort to address these ills one at a time.
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