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Some clouds. Low 42F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
Janet Bishop, shown Friday, Oct. 7, 2022, outside her home, said when her family moved into the Eighth Ward in 1968, her grandfather installed a steel fence behind their home "because he was worried one of us might fall" into a nearby channel.
Kevin Houston gestures on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, toward the area where he rushed to aid Howard Moench after Moench fell into Cherry Run on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022.
Construction continues at Sams Run on Russell Avenue in the Moxham section of Johnstown on Wednesday, October 5, 2022.
Construction continues at Sam's Run on Russell Avenue in the Moxham section of Johnstown on Wednesday, October 5, 2022.
Kevin Houston gestures on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, toward the area where he rushed to aid Howard Moench after Moench fell into Cherry Run on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022.
Construction continues at Sams Run on Russell Avenue in the Moxham section of Johnstown on Wednesday, October 5, 2022.
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – Even as rising rivers and streams inundated Johnstown during the deadly flood of 1977, the old stone flood channel that carries Cherry Run past Janet Bishop’s back yard kept her home safe and dry.
But while the man-made channel has always done its job, she said, it’s also been a neighborhood safety concern in the city’s Eighth Ward.
When her family moved into their home on McKinley Avenue in 1968, her grandfather put in a steel fence behind the home “because he was worried one of us might fall in,” Bishop said.
Janet Bishop, shown Friday, Oct. 7, 2022, outside her home, said when her family moved into the Eighth Ward in 1968, her grandfather installed a steel fence behind their home "because he was worried one of us might fall" into a nearby channel.
As decades have passed, the stream channel’s walls have deteriorated to the point that they’ve crumbled in places and caused erosion nearby, including in Bishop’s back yard.
Bishop’s home is less than a block upstream from the spot where 85-year-old Howard Moench fell into the channel on Wednesday afternoon. Moench died hours later at Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center of acute head and neck injuries he suffered in the fall, according to Cambria County Coroner Jeffrey Lees.
“I’ve been saying for years somebody has to do something about those walls,” Bishop said. “It’s a shame ... that it came to this.”
Lees said the closest thing to a barrier at the site of Moench’s fatal fall was a mesh safety fence next to the sidewalk outside his apartment, near the corner of Akers Street and Otto Court. Moench lost his footing, toppled over that fence and fell almost nine feet down a steep embankment into the flood channel, the coroner said.
City officials said they were alerted to the incident, but could not comment further. In a statement, Assistant City Manager Alex Ashcom said the city is investigating the issue and will have no further details until that investigation is complete.
When asked if the city placed the mesh fencing as a barrier, Ashcom indicated that the source of the fencing was also part of the investigation.
Johnstown’s river and stream channels have been built over generations under the direction of numerous government agencies – and their condition over the years has been a source of concern and controversy.
The city’s main flood channels along the rivers in downtown Johnstown were built in the late 1930s and early 1940s by the Army Corps of Engineers and are still managed by the agency.
Army Corps-assigned crews have been clearing sections of the rivers’ beds of trees and other vegetation this summer and fall so that the channels can direct water through the city as designed, Johnstown Public Works Director Jared Campagna said.
Several smaller flood-control projects, including one along Sam’s Run in Johnstown’s Moxham section, were developed in the wake of the 1977 flood – and the economically distressed city has been tasked with maintaining them.
At least as long ago as 1993, state environmental officials expressed concern that the city wasn’t paying enough attention to those projects, Tribune- Democrat archives show. But the state agency did not mention Cherry Run then – and Department of Environmental Protection officials, who inspect designated flood-control stream projects annually, said in 2021 that there was no record of a Cherry Run project in the Eighth Ward or of liability for it.
Bishop said that the wall behind her house was already aging by the time her family moved into the neighborhood in 1968 – nearly a decade before the 1977 flood and the safety measures that followed. She recalls the channel being dredged once due to a buildup of soil – “and that’s it ... in all these years,” she said.
Court documents indicate that the city and a Johnstown property owner were both sued in 1986 after a Mineral Point man fell into Cherry Run approximately one block up from where Moench fell on Wednesday.
The man filed a lawsuit against Johnstown, saying the city built a crossing of the channel on Rose Street, and property owner Ferndale Associates Inc., blaming the latter’s property and the fact no barriers had been installed to prevent someone from falling into the stream, a Jan. 26, 1986, article shows.
City officials pressed property owners to put a security fence above the channel while the case against both entities lingered in court for two years.
An April 28, 1988, court docket entry indicated the matter was settled and “ended forever” without further explanation. If that settlement included a payout, it was not listed.
The Cherry Run corridor appears to have been modified in some areas over time. A few city residents, including former Johnstown City Councilwoman Charlene Stanton, have pressed for repairs for years.
In 2019, a debate between the city and Bishop McCort Catholic High School led to an investigation into ownership responsibility for the channel, with each side arguing the other was responsible.
Part of the channel wall toppled over last year near Bishop McCort on Osborne Street. DEP officials said in 2021 that they looked back decades, but found no permits or records for the project – or any indication of who was responsible for that section.
But the city of Johnstown was given state approval to address the issues as a safety hazard.
Charles J. Merlo Inc. finished replacing a 60-foot section of the Eighth Ward channel wall in August, and repairs are now underway on a deteriorated stretch of the Sam’s Run channel near Russell Avenue in Moxham.
Construction continues at Sam's Run on Russell Avenue in the Moxham section of Johnstown on Wednesday, October 5, 2022.
Approximately 60 feet of wall is being replaced along Sam’s Run, Campagna said.
In an interview outside her home on Monday, Russell Avenue resident Chris DiBuono said she’d been worried about the Sam’s Run corridor for five years and was relieved to see construction crews addressing it this month.
One chunk of wall fell five years ago and “shook the house,” DiBuono said, and it’s not uncommon to see children playing near the channel.
“I’m happy to see it’s getting fixed,” she said.
To Bishop, river and stream channels across the Johnstown area – and the properties that surround them – should be getting the same attention regardless of which government entity owns them, no matter the cost.
“What happened to that man was tragic,” Bishop said. “Hopefully now this finally draws some attention to this issue. That way, maybe he won’t have died for nothing.”
David Hurst is a reporter for The Tribune-Democrat. Follow him on Twitter @TDDavidHurst and Instagram @TDDavidHurst.
A Johnstown man died on Thursday of injuries he suffered when he fell into Cherry Run in the city's Eighth Ward a day earlier, Cambria County Coroner Jeffrey Lees said.
David Hurst is a reporter for The Tribune-Democrat. Follow him on Twitter @TDDavidHurst and Instagram @TDDavidHurst.
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