It’s nice to be a citizen of the United States of America but sometimes there are bumps to go over on the way through life.
Right now the citizens of Johnstown are going through a couple of such bumps.
One is our school system’s problems concerning the financing to get a decent education for our children. Apparently in the past the wrong road was taken and ended with the necessity of getting a 60 percent approval of the budget two years in a row. This is a big bump to get over and when it didn’t materialize, things had to be done and as a result our kid’s education rights were watered down two years in a row. This year our sports programs were dropped except for the transportation involved in running the sports program. Other important non-sports programs were also dropped or curtailed.
A sports booster group is trying to raise $311,000 to resurrect sports on an “all or nothing” basis. It looks like this figure can’t be reached by the time practice for fall sports has to start. Now a watered down “tiered plan” is being considered. To me this means that our student athletes will not have the means to properly develop what other schools have and it seems to work. Last year volley ball was the victim of the “tiered plan” at our school I believe.
It is a real dilemma for sure with a mig fundraiser day scheduled on Aug. 24, and fall practice needing to start before that date.
What I strongly suggest is for Johnstonian fans and friends to get out a check right away to the Johnstown Purple and Gold, 1 Sir Bill Circle, Johnstown, N.Y. 12095. I am sending my check today.
If the sports program is dropped for the year, you will have $125,000 that was approved for sports transportation available for something else. A friend has suggested if our sports opponents want to help, they could agree for Johnstown to play all games at home for this year only and take that $125,000 and put it toward the $311,000 required. We could pay this back by playing all away games in the near future.
The second big bump in Johnstown is the lack of a scheduled bus service. A few years ago Johnstown refused to pay the Gloversville Transit Systems increased annual charge for such service. Now buses go through Johnstown to Amsterdam, Broadalbin, Fulton-Montgomery Community College and various town of Johnstown business locations but there are no scheduled stops at many important points in Johnstown. The two relatively new mayors of both cities have said they would study the situation but nothing has happened. There has been talk of the Capital District Transportation System coming out this way but that hasn’t happened either.
The Fulton County Office for the Aging does run buses for qualified people but they are very busy and close down too early each day and don’t run at all on Saturday or Sunday. Also the Gloversville Transit System runs one para-transit bus that handles Johnstown as well for qualified people. Also there are two taxi companies in Gloversville that comes to Johnstown. However there is nothing like a scheduled bus service. Can someone help?
TOM FARNAN
Johnstown
