Year of shake-ups: Elections, economic news and Thunder in the Valley rank among 2023's top stories

Dec. 30—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — The Johnstown region's largest festival might have ridden off into the sunset in 2023.

U.S. Route 219 moved one step closer toward completion in Somerset County, and elections in Cambria and Somerset counties shook up both counties' boards of commissioners.

Those stories, in no particular order, ranked among the top news items of the year, as selected by The Tribune-Democrat's news team.

Thunder rolls away

Visit Johnstown, the region's visitors bureau, announced this fall that it will no longer put on the Thunder in the Valley motorcycle rally.

"When Thunder first began in 1998, we needed to find creative ways to draw people in," Visit Johnstown Executive Director Lisa Rager said at the time. "Thunder accomplished that, bringing tens of thousands here each year to experience our city, surrounding towns, historic attractions, the hospitality of our people, and the area's natural beauty."

The organization has been a part of the region since 1998, and at its height was credited for attracting more than 200,000 people to the region each July.

But rallies have been struggling across the country in recent years, and Thunder was no exception, hampered by rising costs and a string of rain-soaked weekends in recent years.

Visit Johnstown is shifting its focus to year-round marketing of the region's culture, trails and other outdoor offerings. But it also said it would work with any organizations interested in continuing the rally, or developing motorcycle-related events in the area.

Election shake-ups

Cambria County will see one new commissioner in 2024, while Somerset County residents voted to replace the county's incumbent Republican commissioners.

The 2023 election season was intense and often combative from the outset in Somerset County, both in meetings and on social media, with opponents of Republican Commissioners Gerald Walker and Colleen Dawson arguing that the board wasn't doing enough to retain and recruit workers, and that it needed to be more transparent.

First-term Somerset County Prothonotary Brian Fochtman and Rockwood Area School District board President Irv Kimmel Jr., with support from county GOP Chairman Guy Berkebile Jr., defeated Walker and Dawson in the spring Republican primary, then cruised to victory in November's general election.

They will join Democrat Pamela Tokar-Ickes, Somerset County's lone returning commissioner, on the board next month.

In Cambria County, the election's outcome means that the Republican Party will grab the majority on the board of commissioners.

Democratic President Commissioner Thomas Chernisky was the top vote-getter — but his Democratic campaign teammate, Commissioner William "B.J." Smith, was outpaced by both Republicans in the race, incumbent Commissioner Scott Hunt and challenger Keith Rager, for the other two seats.

Both counties' court systems will also see change in 2024. That includes the retirements of two president judges.

In Cambria County, longtime prosecutors Forrest Fordham and Michael Carbonara won judicial races to replace retiring President Judge Norman A. Krumenacker III and Senior Judge Patrick Kiniry on the bench.

Somerset County President Judge D. Gregory Geary stepped down from the bench Oct. 31, saying he decided it was time to move on and that he didn't want to put his family through another "increasingly negative" election cycle.

Geary could be replaced by an appointment made by Gov. Josh Shapiro with the consent of two-thirds of the state Senate, the Pennsylvania Constitution shows. The seat itself is set to be up for election in 2025.

Act 47 exit

After more than 30 years, the city of Johnstown exited Pennsylvania's Act 47 program for financially distressed municipalities in April.

"It's just a tremendous amount of work that local government leaders here in the community — in partnership with our state officials and (the Department of Community and Economic Development) — have put in to get to this point," Lt. Gov. Austin Davis said as the official documents were signed. "It's a turning point in the city of Johnstown that their better days are still ahead. Today marks a new chapter in Johnstown's history."

Johnstown joined Act 47 in August 1992, when the city was reeling from the collapse of Bethlehem Steel Corp. and the still-ongoing loss of population.

Generations of elected officials and administrators came and went over the next three decades, all trying to steady the city's economy and government enough to make leaving the program possible. Eventually, the state changed the law to establish mandatory exit dates for participants.

Even though leaving was legally required, Deborah Grass, the city's Act 47 coordinator, said she thought Johnstown has put good plans in place to prepare for its future.

Johnstown was the 21st municipality to leave Act 47, including neighboring Franklin Borough earlier in the year.

Thomas sentenced

Somerset County's top prosecutor also made headlines in 2023.

Suspended District Attorney Jeffrey Thomas was sentenced in August to up to seven years in prison after being convicted in March of charges including strangulation, criminal trespass and indecent assault stemming from a 2021 encounter with a Windber woman. The jury acquitted him of sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault and a simple assault count.

Thomas, who has appealed the conviction, hasn't run the office since shortly after charges were filed against him in 2021 and is suspended from practicing law, but remains the county's elected district attorney until the end of the year.

District Attorney-elect Molly Metzgar, who has served as acting district attorney in his absence, will take on the new title next month after winning an unopposed race in November.

Open homicide cases

Johnstown bar owner Lance Ross was among nine people killed in homicides across Cambria County in 2023.

Another homicide claimed a Hooversville-area man in Somerset County in June.

Among regional homicides in 2023, all but two cases have been resolved or have had criminal charges filed against one or more people.

Ross, 65, was found dead on Feb. 20 inside his bar, the Freight Station. A $3,000 reward is still being offered for information leading to the arrest of anyone responsible for his death, authorities have said.

Ross was one of six people murdered in Johnstown in 2023, down from 10 in 2022. Suspects are awaiting trial in the other five cases.

The other active investigation involves the homicide of 53-year-old David Comar, who was shot dead Nov. 25 inside his rural Adams Township home.

Transportation project milestones

Efforts are moving forward in Somerset County to complete a final segment of U.S. Route 219 as a four-lane limited-access highway from Ebensburg to Maryland.

Somerset County residents attended a public meeting in November to review two proposed routes that are being considered for the new section of four-lane highway from Meyersdale to the Maryland line.

In Maryland, two nearly one-mile options are in the design phase for a four-lane highway to Interstate 68.

Tens of millions in funding has been secured to steer the project through final designs and property acquisition. But the preliminary work isn't done yet.

The goal is to complete the lengthy environmental clearance phase in the fall of 2025, while preliminary engineering work is separately winding down, planners said.

Final design work and right-of-way acquisitions would occur through 2028 before the project can be put out to bid, according to PennDOT officials who are aiming to complete the project in 2031.

The region saw good news in 2023 in the skies, too.

Bolstered by SkyWest Airlines' United Express flights and improved service, John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport saw approximately 13,000 passengers depart on flights through November.

More than 25,000 people have flown to or from the airport in 2023.

The growth comes as airport officials have been partnering with other partners to build a business park and develop an airplane maintenance training program on-site.

Loretto's St. Francis University is partnering with airport officials on the latter project, which received more than $1 million in funding in November.

Prospect Homes saga

More than 200 residents of the Johnstown Housing Authority's Prospect Homes housing complex were forced to leave their homes in March after structural concerns were discovered in some of the residences.

The move, and detailed building inspections this summer, were ordered after a ceiling partially collapsed in one unit.

The relocation order was objected to by dozens of the neighborhood's residents, who organized a group to urge the Johnstown Housing Authority to allow them to return to the dwellings.

Officials have sounded optimistic that residents will be able to return to the community once more than $2.8 million in repairs are completed.

"It's one step closer to home," Prospect Homes People of 2023 Association Co-Chairman Jeffrey Matula Jr. said. "The cooperation with (the) Johnstown Housing (Authority) and (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development), it's looking up to where it needs to be. It's a sign of hope, and that's what we need after all the heartache and pain that we've been through."

Downtown developments

Officials from IMAX and the State Theatre of Johnstown announced in April that a deal was hammered out to install one of the company's high- definition screens inside the vaudeville-era venue.

While delays in the property transfer process slowed the project, the closing process is on track to have the deed turned over to the Johnstown Redevelopment Authority by late January, State Theater Executive Director Eric Reighard said on Thursday.

He said efforts have already shifted to the interior demolition work needed inside the Main Street space.

Tradesmen and other construction team members plan to meet on Tuesday to finalize the plan to remove decades of renovations that replaced original theater space with offices and other hospital-focused modifications, he said.

The goal is to have the theater completed by the fall 2025 movie season, Reighard said.

The IMAX deal was part of a year of both ups and downs for the downtown.

Work is ongoing on a Pennsylvania Highlands Community College hands-on Main Street culinary training space.

In October, the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown announced plans to add a center for advanced manufacturing, engineering and automation one block away. Set for completion in 2025, it would mark the first learning center that UPJ has operated in the city in generations.

The city's residents were also dealt a hit over the summer as Ideal Market closed its Walnut Street location, downtown's only grocery store. The site's owner, the Johnstown Redevelopment Authority, has been in discussions with supermarket operators about efforts to find a new tenant.

Rite Aid's bankruptcy also hit home, with the downtown Johnstown location among 154 closing as the Philadelphia retailer tries to overcome $3.3 billion in company debt.

School threats rattle region

Investigations of school threats — both founded and unfounded — caused school closures for several districts in 2023.

Schools nationwide saw the trend — which included hoaxes in March that forced a number of area schools into lockdowns.

Similar "swatting" incidents were reported in schools across the country that were determined to be false, authorities said.

At least two incidents led to charges against teens locally.

One involved an alleged threat by a cyber school student against Greater Johnstown in March. Another saw a teen sentenced to juvenile probation and in-house treatment after threats were posted at Westmont Hilltop schools on two separate occasions.

A years-in-the-making effort to upgrade high-speed broadband internet availability in Cambria and Somerset counties is in line to get a major boost.

Pennsylvania is expected to receive $1.16 billion in funds to improve broadband statewide, and planning is already underway on the effort, both locally and at the state level.

Survey work and public meetings were held this fall to prepare for the upgrades, which are also expected to reduce costs for retirees and low- income households.

Federal funding was announced after COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020 highlighted the need for reliable broadband service for students, remote workers and rural communities.