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JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – With new equipment in hand thanks to a Community Foundation for the Alleghenies grant, the Greater Johnstown High School Welding Club is beginning the process of constructing bike racks to place around the city.

“It’s great for the kids because it gives them ownership in the community,” welding instructor and club adviser Richard Johns said.

He was contacted by Michael Cook, who oversees the Cambria Regional Chamber’s recreation economy committee, about the project, and the two began sorting out the details.

Greater Johnstown welding teacher Richard Johns talks about the pipe rolling equipment that'll be used to build bike racks to be placed around the city of Johnstown.

Cook said the committee has discussed the need for more bike racks in downtown Johnstown previously and said that installing the rolled pipe racks will attract more people to cycle through the city.

“It made sense to connect with the schools and have the kids buy into their community,” he said.

Welding Club president Ryleigh Reynolds and vice president Abigail Miller consider this a great project for themselves and their classmates.

“It’s something good for the community,” Miller said. “I think it’s going to be really nice.”

The plan is to build around a dozen bike racks, with the first being placed in the Central Park area.

The racks will be constructed using a pipe roller and steel tubing that was purchased using the $5,000 CFA grant Cook secured.

Two type of racks are scheduled to be built – a four- to six-slot apparatus and a larger item for more populous locations.

Each will have a laser-cut image of a Johnstown location, such as the Inclined Plane or Morley’s Dog, attached to it as well.

Cook said the group worked with Cambria County Planning Commission senior planner Katie Kinka and community development planner Shanna Murphy to identify the best locations to place the stands.

Kinka said they always wanted to do the pilot project in downtown Johnstown based on the trail development and rebranding of the city as a “mountain town” while playing into the area’s recreational strengths.

When installing new infrastructure, the senior planner said the group looks at land-use prospectives as well as where people are at, where they’re traveling to and whether there is enough right-of-way.

That’s how the other proposed locations were determined – such as outside the entrance to Cambria County Library, the YWCA Greater Johnstown, the Feeder Canal Building and several other areas.

“This has been a long time coming,” Kinka said, adding that the idea to install these racks started before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cook has ridden his bike through the city on several occasions. He’s also personally built numerous downhill mountain biking trails on the Inclined Plane hillside and used them.

Last summer he participated in Hope Cyclery’s weekly “Chilleur Rides” – and enjoyed every mile.

“The community seemed to really enjoy seeing people biking through the city,” Cook said.

In addition to the bike racks, the Greater Johnstown welding program has built firepits and benches to be placed at the future location of a park in Moxham next to the Jim Mayer Riverswalk Trail at the end of Cleveland Street.

There will be a sign, pavilion, boat launch and other amenities placed there as well.

Reynolds said working on these items has been a “good team-building effort.”

Joshua Byers is a reporter for The Tribune-Democrat. He can be reached at 814-532-5054. Follow him on Twitter @Journo_Josh.

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